There are many factors that dictate a student's success in high school: family stability and love,…read moresocioeconomic background, potential learning disabilities, and social skills, to name just a few. I understand it's not black and white. However, outside of all those factors just rating the school, I would say PL High is garbage and I will give you concrete examples:
1) When kids ditch or skip class as many do (statistics say that skipping class has increased since COVID,) the staff are so stupid they let their students sit in the quad or library and pay NO attention to the fact that they're not in class. I had to call the school, email the counselor, sports coach, principal to inform them my child was ditching and NO ONE bothered to write me back! I then just had the idiots in the office just transfer me to the library to let them know she was sitting in the library in class time w/ friends socializing.
2) The old black lady at the front desk is the most unwelcoming, difficult, angry, "see" you next Tuesday I have ever met. I should have walked right out of that shithole the minute we went in for orientation in 9th grade. She is MISERABLE with her job. Taking a DMV worker and putting them on steroids is what this lady is like. The ladies who answer the phone are no better.
3) Cally Fallenstein, one of the "counselors," is not only epically useless, but she is super rude and passive-aggressive with her students. They are kids, they ask questions, and she responds in a demeaning, disrespectful, shitty tone.
4) Their long history of garbage Spanish teachers is laughable. A couple years ago, their "Spanish Teacher" would show up about 35% of the time, the kids would sit in the quad hanging out because their flakey teacher was either late or absent. He even said to one student, something to the effect of, " I will do it, but what are you going to do for me?" which has MASSIVE sexual undertones. He got away with this because he is "gay." The next Spanish teacher, while an absolute sweetheart, ran his class like a naive child, he let the kids run the classroom letting them TEXT during class. Thanks to their shitty choice of teachers, my child is now way behind in Spanish, no doubt.
5) There is ZERO implementation of a dress code, so girls dress like they're 24 and go clubbing downtown with outfits that make me gasp regularly (and I am no prude, conservative, believe me!)
6) You will get TONS of texts, emails, and calls from the district about the free lunch program and a bunch of other useless nonsense; however, when you call the school back to find out if and WHY your child missed a class, they cannot tell you ANYTHING. They don't know where your child is or why they are missing. Totally incompetent.
7) There was a child that got PUNCHED (sucker punched at that) SO HARD that he had t have his JAW WIRED SHUT. In my opinion there is NOT enough done to make kids feel included and safe. Kids need support, if they're new in town, it's like walking into a CULT.
8) Speaking of CULTS, the parents are primarily nuts, in my opinion; you have a ton of lame OLDER Gen X ( ppl who got their homes handed down from their parents, no doubt, and they try to RELIVE their lives through their kids at PLH, and are very mental.
9) The teachers are just paper pushers, for the most part, having kids rewrite crap from books and make it into slides.
There are a few good teachers, the art teacher, and the physics teacher, to name a few. All the others my child had were mediocre at best.
10) Anytime there is GUN violence or any violence, you get a cryptic, vague email from the school principal, and then you have to research NEXTDOOR.com to find out if your kid will be safe the next day.
11) No more BOOKS all on their crappy tiny screen on their Chromebook, although so idiotic they STILL make the kids take books they don't even use.
Do yourself a favor; if you have money, just put your kids in a smaller private school. You don't have to go to LJ Country Day--they have more economical options than that. Even High Tech High is better. One of the best suggestions yet is to move out of dumpy Point Loma and get to a better school.
We moved to Temecula Valley School District, and it is NIGHT AND DAY--- even my child says the kids are nicer, more wholesome, and the teachers are more enthusiastic, and it's fun to learn.
My only regret is we did not move to Temecula earlier.
PS- PLH give kids a TON of homework. The schools in TV, at least the one we're at, have NO HOMEWORK!!! They do EVERYTHING in class and learn there, besides occasional projects or extra studying. Idiots at PLH, just send your kid to Khan Academy and don't even bother.
