My son loves going to Golden Hills!…read more We switched him over to GHS during the transition from 5th to 6th grade. He had a pretty rough experience at Folsom Middle School, but had wanted to give it a try because his friends were moving there as well. He found out it was very different than elementary school! We switched Calvin to GHS and he really enjoys it. I appreciate the staff and teachers who have worked so hard to give him a very good education and lots of individualized attention. We received a tremendous amount of information from the school each week and were always well informed on what was going on. Couldn't be happier to send him back for 7th and 8th grade.

It took me a couple of years to write a review with some hope, I would hear great things about the…read moremiddle school as well. Here is the biggest issue, the school is not academically strong, it is actually super weak and behind comparing the local public schools. We came from the Bay Area from a school more expensive, and much better academically. We stayed here at Golden Hills for two years with two kids and we left to the local public school to find out even the public schools here are way more advanced. After some thinking as a teacher myself, I realized the biggest issue is that the school cater for families who is willing to pay, but not to push their kids academically. That combo is a bit odd, but because this is a small school, it makes sense once you see all the drama in the back ground among parents. Both my children are scoring much higher in reading and math than any child same age in Golden hills now. We kept in touch with their friends and it was sad to see their 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade classes being behind curriculum wise than the nearest public school in town. Then, we met some families from middle school and that was quite a disappointment. Any child leaving Golden Hills and arriving to the public school will have to study much hard to catch up to the public school kids in math, reading and etc.

Exceptional, child-centered, high expectation administration and teachers. A highly collaborative…read moreschool with parents. Your child will love it at MVA - and, so will the parents.

My daughter attended Marble Valley Academy for 3 years. It was such a special place and I feel like…read moreit helped shape her into a more confident young lady! I really appreciate what Marble Valley gave to our family, so many fond memories!

HORRIBLE BATHROOMS everything about them are bad. but classrooms are clean teachers are okay but…read moreoverall great school

Have had 4 of my kids pass graduate from Ponderosa in the last decade. We have loved our…read moreexperience with the school, finding a great educational environment and a local community. All have played sports at Pondo and been involved in clubs and other groups which both strengthened their bond to their classmates and to the school. We found teachers and coaches to genuinely care about our kids and their friends. Most of the students live in less densely populated neighborhoods and correspondingly you'll see more pickups than BMWs in the parking lot each morning. We enjoyed the lower level of pretense that exists here versus the other choices down the hill and believe our kids benefitted from it.

This place is HORRID I must say. My child went here (not mine by the way, my neighbors ( and it was…read moreabsolutely putrid!!!!! FIRST AND FOREMOST the school uses a merit point system which is just as terrible as it sounds. It causes student to turn against student and even make false claims. My son was a victim of this, with 5 students saying he tried giving them test answers, and was then given detention. Yes, DETENTION. I cried upon hearing this news for precisely 25 minutes, and upon calling them they proceeded to HANG UP after NOT solving my ISSue. The teachers AND PRINCIPAL DID not Do anything to help me! Suffice to say my son will not BE COMING BACK WITH no SMILES whatsoever I would also watch out from PGMS, he says they got something planned!

People may think this is bad, but it's not. It's one of the best schools in the area. Principals…read morehandle situations different every time.

In my opinion a lot of these reviews are probably overdramatized & posted by angsty students. I…read moreleft this school in 2023-2024. I went here for about a year growing up against my volition and it honestly wasn't that bad, the school just caters to a specific niche. My individual experience could be skewed by the fact that each class & social scene is different and since this is a newer campus, the upper classes had far fewer students than the lower classes when I attended. This is the main deal: John Adams is a charter school that clearly caters & advertises itself as a more conservative "right-leaning" education. They don't publicly state that, but the notion is clearly there, it's basically a red-pill school. It doesn't have a public religious affiliation, but once you're in the school you'll hear through word of mouth about its background, that it's a Mormon organization. The founder is Mormon, and at higher levels most admin are Mormon; at the Lincoln campus (the original school), all the teachers were Mormon. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and religion is its own debate, but take of that what you will. The school's sentiment gets more value by the fact that in recent years there's been a lot of controversy around public school curriculum, and while some of those criticisms are valid, I'm not sure John Adams is the solution. A positive is the teachers. John Adams pays less than public schools, which means the teachers who work here are doing it out of passion and belief in the school's mission. Most of the teachers & admin genuinely care about the students and provide a solid education. Academically, the education is mostly the same as public school. The main difference is that more credits are required to graduate and there are extra classes, especially in junior/senior year, primarily focused on things like American history/government. One thing I didn't like (that some might) was the political skewing. In one class, our teacher directly told us the book we were using was written from a libertarian perspective and that's what we were being taught because "that's the ethos here." That bothered me because I wanted a more neutral education that showed both sides, but again, that's the school's niche. You either like it or you don't. It's a "free charter school," but you pay for uniforms and the parents are forced to either pay $200 or complete volunteer hours. So there's not really a free lunch here The social scene is what you'd expect: mostly White kids from Mormon/conservative families, plus students whose parents sent them here due to behavior issues or as a "troubled teen"-style alternative. There's also a sizeable Slavic population, mostly Russian/Ukrainian kids, likely due to the Orthodox community in the area. One of my main complaints is the lack of diversity. EDH is already a rich white Republican town, and this is a Mormon Republican school inside of it. I could count the number of black students in the entire school on one hand. Personally, I'd want my kids in public school for the American melting pot experience. That said, I did make real, likely lifelong friends here. The reviews mention drugs and bullying, but I personally didn't see much of that, and whatever exists is probably less than in public school. There's a strict no-phone policy with lockers. If you're caught, your phone is taken and your parents have to pick it up. This is probably a good thing for most people but I don't know. I feel like the right thing is teaching proper discipline with phones and then punishing those who abuse the freedom, not this hardcore approach which just encourages more hiding & breaking of the rules. In general I feel like the rules and discipline were unnecessarily strict. A common complaint with a lot of the upperclassmen was that admin treated them like little kids instead of young adults. Senior early leave required proof of employment even if you already had enough credits, which defeats the whole point of earning early dismissal in the first place. There's also some controversy around legality and ethics. The school has hired uncredentialed teachers without supervision, which I personally witnessed and is likely not legal. There was also a wave of teachers who quit due to disagreements with admin. I won't speculate too much, but teachers and management clearly don't always get along. As for pickup, I still work nearby and the car line regularly wraps around the entire business complex. I genuinely don't know how they haven't figured out a better system given how large the lot is. The best word to describe my time at John Adams is boring. Boring education, boring social scene, boring uniforms, boring decor. That can be a good thing because boring also meant no fights or chaos. but it's definitely not an exciting or diverse environment. I would send your kids here if you're Mormon, or if you want your kids in a conservative-leaning environment and you don't care about diversity.

this school and its staff are absolutely horrible. If you want your kids to be trained like…read moremilitary sergeants, this is your place. I was here for about two semesters, and in both i dealt with continuous harassment from an aid who was told to not speak to me, and she directly violated that multiple times. She has zero patience and somehow works with children with special needs and yells at them whenever they have episodes. One of the students she was an aid for even said that he hated her. All of the deans for the school are another reason why your children should not be here. They're all extremely rude, selfish, careless and flat out disrespectful to everybody. The dean of academics has a terrible temper and only talks about himself. Doesn't care about any of the students at the school. The school would have so much more potential if they just had better staff. Another major issue is how political these teachers are.I've sat in Latin class and listened to my teacher go on about abortions and how amazing Donald Trump is. I've also seen how religious these teachers are and I'm not against to anyone's religion, but the fact that they pressure people to be Christian or catholic is a bit much. The school is filled with Mormons, Christians, Catholics and Republican conservatives that will judge you if you are not any of those. All the teachers here are so incredibly strict, you get detentions for breathing the same air as your teachers, you get judged for having to use the restroom and if you go, one minute over there, precious, five minute time limit, you get lectured on how your education is more important than using the restroom. I wouldn't recommend this school at all, unless you want your kids to dread going to school, and never have anything to tell you about what they learned.

12/13/2025: Nutcracker's Principle and Co-Principle Performers were stunning, i.e.,…read moreJuilliard-worthy performances! Meanwhile, as I was enjoying the Nutcracker's Juilliard, stellar performances, the OZ disasterous meal was outrageously traumatizing my gut with Montezuma's Revenge which severely dampened my enjoyment! Aside, the photos I took are proof of Juilliard worthy performances! Bravo and Kudos!!!!!

The administration at this school continually neglect many of its student and is incapable of…read morefufulling the needs and safety of those attending. Their are constant accusations that have no grounds in regards to drug use and students are often categorized based off of loose factors of stereotypes. Although drug use is a problem, the way the school is going about it doesn't stop the problem but only makes it worse causing retalliation in the students. Students that are sexually harrassed and assaulted have been ignored and many people are afraid to go on campus due to these perverted bullies. With personal experience to this, I believe that the school doesn't want a scene to be made by either parties with law suits specifically in mind. They push it to the side and it becomes a fear among the victims that another event of trauma will happen in a place where they feel safe. Administration also fails to show proper sex education with its outdated practices in teaching the subject. The overall education is quite taxing and mentally draining but is also excellent without a doubt. Mental health and suicide should be talked about more in the school but this applies to an international level. Although with the amount of funding the school gets, there should be more suffiecient with how students are feeling. Poor experiences are common, but there are a lot of benefits. The students have an egotistical personality but that is individualized. Majority that have such ignorance is from a higher economic status. I would consider going to this school.

AP Physics teacher Lisa Moore is the worst teacher, She teaches almost nothing, and her grading is…read moreextremely unfair. So many good students perform poorly in her class, She said to the students, If you guys do bad nothing good for me, If you do good nothing good for me either. School can't do anything about it. Feel bad for our kids.

Sister played a volleyball game there, students from this high school were making inappropriate…read morenoises after being told to stop numerous times, being disrespectful to the parents, when the head person was informed he laughed about it. when a parent was walking past a group of boys to go in the lobby the boys made inappropriate comments about her and when AD was told about it he didn't do anything, they where told to stop acting the way they were, and mouthed off to the ref, AD was told and went to "talk to the boys". but instead laughed with them and they continued to make inappropriate noises. these kids are unmannered and give a bad look to there school and it just shows with the way admin handled the situation.

I went to this school for all of middle school and it was great most of the time the teachers…read morehelped with my anxiety,anger issues , and a lot more the principal was one of the best people I have met and there is a high school right across the street so my older siblings could get to me fast if needed to the only problem was the kids at the school and every single time there was a problem it was fixed the same day. I loved this school and the would to those 3 years all over again if I could

pretty bad school ngl. People are pretty rude there and the teaching is ok but everything else is…read morepretty bad

I have 2 Daughters that go to this school. Their teachers have been great and they have learned a…read morelot! All the staff I have met have been friendly and helpful. Mrs Morris, Mrs Pruitt and Mrs Thompson are great.