John Dower is the name of this school. My initial thought from appearance is that the building from…read morethe outside lacks luster and looks a bit creepy. I hate that I prejudged. Once I toured the school the property seems to be well maintained. This includes the classrooms. The staff was welcoming and friendly, which is important to me. The principal seems to be quite involved. I was honestly horrified by the low scores of the school however I have come to learn that parent involvement plays a large roll in the success of your children. Last but not least, I am pleased with the structure and curriculum.

ETA: The new leadership team is amazing. The school went through some challenging times, but it's…read moreback to feeling like a home away from home again.

Think hard, don't lie to yourself... Does your child need a bit of support academically? Do you…read morethink they might? Do you want small class sizes? Are they on meds that need to be administered at school? Are they Neurodiverse (Dyslexic, Anxiety, ADHD, Autistic, Dyscalculia, etc.)? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, this school probably isn't for you. We really loved the school when the kid was younger. But, partway through the lower school, supports and amenities suddenly got a lot more scarce! The Middle School is even worse. Were the staff at fault? Usually not. Decisions were made and the kids that needed a bit of help paid the price. There isn't a school nurse. They have remodeled some of the specialist-type classrooms to convert them into classrooms. There has been quite a bit of staff leaving in the last 5 years. There isn't a real 9:1 kid to teacher ratio in practice, they use alternative accounting practices including counting staff members like the librarian (kids see the librarian for an hour or less per week while most teachers rush back to their rooms for preparation time leaving the librarian often alone with the kids). Teacher assistants in the lower school are not necessarily full time and are often pulled from class to cover teachers and things like playground duties. The administration is actively trying to add more students per class, and more classes overall, as all administrators are prone to do. In short, while it is a beautiful school, it isn't for everyone. Try not to be dazzled and ask the hard questions. See if this is right for your family. It is an expensive question to get wrong.

Let's just say they're great at forcing you, as the parent, to do what they want by threatening…read more But god forbid you turn around and fight back because they'll simply kick your kid out of school and/or deny/delay services, forge documents, allow teachers to belittle you and your kids, lie about and stretch the truth, get justice through continued punishments towards your child... the list goes on, and on and on. We thought we were making progress, but (in hindsight) were treated like children and talked down to while the teachers, principal(s), dean of students,(school staff in general), school liaisons, and ESPECIALLY the Assistant Superintendent, Othene Wade ALL spoke to and treated my husband and I like we were children that needed to be taught how to "do as they told us" even when it was wrong and would cause damaging effects on our child and his progress. But they don't care and NO ONE in the school was willing to step up in our child's defense against her! Instead they're supporting and backing the their teacher who forged and lied on paperwork that got our child to lose his waiver!! This is by far the worst experience for our family and our for our child. Our fight continues, but this district, especially Mrs. Wade, has proven to our family that they'll say it, but they won't follow through and they really just don't give two sh!@$ about your kids!! DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE FINDING YOUR HOME SCHOOL!!! OR... JUST HOMESCHOOL AND PULL THE MONEY OUT OF THEIR GREEDY POCKETS!!!

One of my kiddos was physically hurt by a teacher at school. After he was hurt he "threatened the…read moreteacher" by saying "do that shit again ima beat your ass" (I'm being 100% transparent here) now he's being suspended. The teacher slammed a door on his entire forearm and the school is lying saying that the door only bumped his elbow. MIND YOU THERE IS VIDEO FOOTAGE. I headed down to the school and confronted everyone. I told them I'd be taking it to the superintendent and if necessary the news station. I told them that someone needs to apologize to him for hurting him. That if the teacher (Mr. Gwenzy) doesn't apologize then the dean of students / principle (Mr. Fiteny ) should because THATS YOUR EMPLOYEE WHO FUCKED UP. You don't hurt children. You sure as hell don't act a whole ass because you don't want to apologize when you're in the wrong. That being said to this day no one has apologized. I went to the ER and they looked at his arm. They said his arm was swollen and they said he had a contusion and it will be sore for 2-3 weeks. I already made a request for the video footage. I made a police report as well and I plan on pressing charges. This all could have been avoided if Mr. Gwenzy or Mr. Fiteny apologized for the way they handled the situation. Regardless if now they're saying it was an accident, they should have done the adult thing and apologize. Completely disappointed in Clover Park High School.

Unfortunately, I graduated from this pitiful place. I went there back in the days of the…read moreportables. Yes, they set up temporary buildings due to the fire the idiot started the year prior to my attendance. Then they built a brand new brick building (the one now used for the school) and it starting cracking and had holes in the concrete pretty much right after we moved in sometime during third trimester. Wonder who the genius engineers were on this project... Probabaly graduates of CPHS and UW no doubt. The way this new building was built offered little in managing the progress of students, because students could wander around and not be in classes. We had some students who were druggies and pranksters, but we never had cops patrolling the hallways as they do today for the hellions. I guess the parents today are worse than they were in my day as a student. At least, there was an attitude difference. For the most part, we actually had a conscience as opposed to most kids today. The setup is a reminder of the Harry Potter school--4 "schools" in a single building. Yes, students are segregated in the same manner and it teaches them not to be competitive or helpful, but to fail. Kids and teachers alike don't care. Teachers want to shove the problem kids out to AI and don't want to help them with academics. They would rather help polish the ones who are already A students. Those are few and far between as several of these students come from lower middle and below income levels. Just check the stats on "free meals." And what the hell is this WASL crap? We didn't have to do any of that to graduate. We had to actually learn the math, grammar, writing, chemistry, etc. to graduate. Teachers are teaching to the state test and producing idiots. It's not just at CPHS, but statewide and this is a disservice to the students. No wonder so many of them drop out. They can't use the useless crap they're teaching and apply it in the real world.