Dorothy McElhinney Middle School offers a strong educational environment overall, and our…read moreexperience has been mostly positive. The campus is clean, organized, and feels safe, and many of the teachers are truly dedicated to supporting students. My child has had some great classroom experiences and has grown academically thanks to several caring, engaged educators. However, not all interactions have been consistent. While most teachers have been wonderful, there have been a couple who were less supportive or less communicative, which created some challenges. It didn't define the entire experience, but it's worth noting since it affected our child's year at times. Communication from administration is generally clear and responsive, and the school offers a solid range of electives and extracurriculars. The culture is positive, and students seem encouraged to push themselves and get involved.

In our experience, support for Special Education students has been inadequate. The California…read moreDepartment of Education issued findings of noncompliance in December 2025. A federal complaint is currently pending as of April 2026.

theres too many kids my kids 1st grade class with Ms Collins had 40 kids and the pads in the 2nd…read moregrade class where they sit on the floor that shouldn't be a table and my kid didnt talk so she wrote on a whiteboard and when someone would bully her the teachers would say ok i'll talk to them and the teachers dont talk to them but when someone bullies her and my child bullies them back the kid says heyyy she bullied me and they actually talk to my daughter and give her a claw but ms Arey and Gooding are great staff and mrs seymor my child is scared of her

The is school tailors to the needs of the individual child. My two kids go there and I would have…read morethem anywhere else Tiffiny Aery Mrs gooding and all the bear river staff really care about the students

This seems like a nice School and all, although they're always losing Paperwork or other files…read more Such as, when I was being signed in this School, even though I was registered in, they lost all my paper work! That just blows really, this School also is never in between, either its way to easy or hard. There's never one in between the two! Overall, this School is ok at best, though the Staff of the School, should get their Papers neat and organized, since all their paper gets all lost and then the Parents have to redue everything! Reducing more stress and waste of time on The Parents and the Child as well! Just be cautious when you bring in paperwork to this School, since they suck at keeping a track at anything, since everything just flies by them. But once your in this School, if you ever get in the School since again they have a horrible job of keeping a Students files in Order from being lost since a Horrible Idea to have all Grade levels mixed up with each other, then its somewhat of a Decent School, I suppose.

I personally go to this school and it's.. something? I mean it's ok? I'm in 8th grade and have…read moregreat teachers. I have a few problems.. 1. The school is heavily sexist and you can't even make it up.

They don't care about much aside from attendance. They tardy sweep regularly but do nothing to…read morealleviate the long lines and heavy traffic involved in school drop off. 20-30 minute wait times some days. Telling kids you're going to do an AM sweep doesn't help. The chaos of foot traffic against cars is always an accident waiting to happen. They take no accountability for the parking lot, students or cars. Whatever happens, happens but you better be in that seat at the bell.

My sister attends this stupid school, they will not allow the usage of any device but they will…read moreallow the students to wear whatever they want including shorts that show everything and shirts that are too short.. So in case of an emergency you won't be able to call for help

The school lunch is horrible but only on every day but Wednesday and Fridays and in 3 months there…read morehas been more than 13 fights in total.the teachers are nice though not the worst school but can do better

Horrible school that does not protect the kids. Has been repeated fights throughout the school year…read moreand bullying that has not been addressed. My kid has been bullied several times spoke with administration and they do not have a handle on it. The assistant principal was not honest about the situation and when I attempted to mention other fights within the school year that was reported and recorded on video he said that those were rumors. Video footage is out there!

A couple teachers honestly need improvement and i'm so glad I don't go here anymore. Mrs wakeman is…read morean english teacher and honestly i'm surprised there isn't a staff member who checks her class environment daily. This teacher has a bad temper over the littlest things like accidentally talking over her she'll yell or embarrass you infront of the class. One time I was late by 5 MINUTES and the door was locked so of course I knocked. When i knocked she looked over and ignored me and i continued to knock and that's when she told me I can wait because she's teaching. After that she closed the door in my face and honestly i should've reported her right there because it was completely unnecessary, she could've simply let me in and go on teaching. So after I waited for her to open the door again she comes out and asks why Im late and I tell her that I left my house late and she told me to be on time next time. I can tell a lot of kids in her class don't respect her because of how she treats them, including myself. She gets so butthurt when the whole class doesn't kiss her feet and say goodmorning back to her. I mean it's 8:30AM and you expect us to be kind when you have your days where you're not kind to us? Also making us write 5 sentences every morning like hello i'm barely adjusting lol. If staff or herself is seeing this, please improve because honestly yelling at students or giving them an attitude is NOT gonna make them respect you. I continued to show I disliked her such as giving an attitude and ignoring her at times. Lastly, Mrs wakeman constantly goes off topic which ruins my learning, talking about how successful her children are, how they are in college and how well they are doing in school. She constantly even talks about herself and her own issues like we don't got issues ourselves that are worse than yours. Constantly complaining about how she needs her coffee and how she wishes it was the weekend. Girl please. Other than that, I would say I got the work done and had a 100% this semester in the class.

As a parent, I am excited what this school has to offer and am proudly looking forward to the…read moreupcoming school year. So far, an orientation heritage high school sounds like it has a lot to offer and only needs the students to take advantage of all they were offering. The freshman orientation went very well and has the family excited looking forward to the incoming class of 2029!

This school has so many fights, it's full of some racist and dumb kids and the teachers SUCK. The…read morebest thing is when we can have inflatable day and early release. I hate how the district has our phones banned as well. We can't go out to the field either. It sucks here