Raymond J Fisher Middle School

I was a student here (now going to a private high school for reasons below)
The good: nice layout and some good teachers
And the bad: 1. The students, I was being bullied as a eight grader from a seventh grader. I told teachers but it never ended. And overall there is just a «I don’t care attitude/​vibe» we’re my class now in high school (the public one) is having a 25% turn in rate with homework.
2. The teachers, most are good but some are terrible, I had a 504 for some writing disabilities and one teacher never went to the meetings for it. But while every other teacher (even a teacher I was an assistant for) decided to show. We had one last meeting 2 days before school ended to figure out what to do at the high school. That one teacher finally comes and when we are starting to say what we should do with my 504 She goes «Ohh that’s why he’s been having so much trouble». Needless to say I failed that class. 3. The principal, normally you hear nothing about the vice principal and everything about the principal but here it’s bad. So the amazing vice principal they had us now gone and the principals hired her boyfriend. Also the principal deals with nothing about the students problems, yes she makes speeches here and there but normally stays in her office. The only students she talks to are the Asians that work and get 100% on all of their grades.
The Ugly: My sister now has no friends and is a complete shut in, she stays in her room anytime it’s not dinner time and now goes to fusion academy for private schooling. Also this is probably the only school that you can go from a 96%- 100% four quarters straight and making honor roll and the next year failing 2 classes four quarters straight. And trust me if you think thing get better in high school it doesn’t. There is no dress codes so many girls dress immodestly and new tech is just a way to have lazy kids bum off of the hard working in projects. This area is a nice place to live but if you move here (like I did) your kids will have it rough. One last thought on the classes at the middle school, there only one middle school so for 3 years straight, my sister never had the same friends ever in her classes the next year. So if they say that the high school has a 99% collage acceptance rate, remember that’s the only for the people that want to go, where as many of the kids don’t care they just bum off of their parents after they graduate now.

Is it weird that I’m Unilocaling about a school? Well… when in Rome.
Let me give you some perspective: I’m from a tiny redneck town in Arizona… we’re talking about 3,000 people in the whole town and a graduating class of 100. We had the basic sports (football, baseball, track, wrestling, basketball, and soccer for ONE year), but nothing cool like swimming, golf, tennis, or any of the other sports that Bay Area schools boast. I didn’t know what an API score was when I moved here, and I didn’t know that I needed to fill out reams of paperwork to enroll my kid in school… including more proof of residence that I was really comfortable in divulging?
I have had my daughter in the GAMUT of schools the Bay Area has to offer…“Program Improvement” status schools, parent coop schools, «pretty nice» schools, and now, a Distinguished School. I’m sure that last one speaks for itself, but I am blown away by something new that this school offers… constantly. From the iPads for every student in class, to the counselors that are always on hand, the extra help that is always offered, and the easy online access to EVERYTHING that has to do with what is going on with my daughter in school.
Last year, we were having some «issues», so I informed the vice principal and a couple others and before I knew it, there was a meeting with every single one of my daughter’s teachers, the vice principal, counselors, me, AND my daughter. Man, that cleared things up SO FAST. It blows my mind that I have access to my daughter’s teachers like that.
They are ALL so caring, compassionate, and invested in the success of the students there. They offer themselves up in any way they can in order to help these kids… now…“these kids” aren’t all awesome. A lot of «these kids» have nannies, more access to electronics than is appropriate (my daughter has been the ONLY one in her class without a cell phone since 5^th grade), and could really use a healthy dose of reality, in my opinion. It doesn’t seem to phase anyone at this school. There is a special place in heaven for people willing to teach over-​privileged middle schoolers. Seriously.
I don’t know how I got lucky enough to find an affordable place to live in this school district, but I did, and I’ve been around the Bay Area enough to know how lucky I really am… and why I have to go to such lengths to prove that I live here.