Lopez Middle High School

Just look at the test scores and what graduates actually do after they graduate. Numbers don't lie, but people who say they got a great education on Lopez do.
--Submitted by a parent

We disenrolled our 6th-grader from this school and began home-schooling him after lax academic standards and constant harassment from other students had taken a big toll. Our boy is average academically, but he was one B+ short of getting straight A's. In his 8th-grade-level math class, only 1 or 2 of the 13 kids knew the times tables. An English class spent a good hour watching a fun film on extreme sports. The harassment was even more disturbing. When our son complained of a student calling him stupid, the principal told him "that's OK - that's not bullying." When he took his problems to the counselor, she told him "it's only bullying if it happens over and over again." (If you get your spleen kicked in once, that's not bullying.) We told our son to yell loudly in class whenever he was harassed. After he'd done that a dozen times, one teacher actually dealt with a situation. And many other parents have uglier stories to tell than ours. They give up and home-school their kids, or send them to an expensive private school, which requires hours of commuting. Don''t get snowed by the website's rhetoric. "Small school" does bit mean "good school." This one is substandard.
--Submitted by a parent

Small inovative school where administrators, teachers, and students work together to provide a good atmosphere for learning.
--Submitted by a parent

This school has some very committed and caring teachers. There is plenty of parent involvement but as with most schools it is always the same group of parents that volunteer. The school could use some education in the life skills area. Students seem to be graduating without a clue as to how to do the simplest things such as keep a checking account, cooking a simple meal, writing a resume or doing their own laundry. Perhaps schools in general need to add back a little of the home economics that use to be common in schools some years ago. That said, these students come out being able to read write and compute. The community is also very supportive.
--Submitted by a parent