Aspen Valley High School

Jul 23rd, 2018

Aspen Valley is ok if you are there for credit recovery. And even with that, make sure you are aware of all that is required for you to graduate. That said... Goerge Stone is an incompetent drama queen, with low self esteem and power complex If you kiss his a$$ you should be ok. Good luck. It's more fun if you scare him or yell at him. Lol
May 8th, 2018

Jan 31st, 2018

Nov 15th, 2016

Graduated in the class of 2015! It means a lot to me that this school is successful so I'm being as transparent about my experience as possible. AVHS was created to aid non freshman students that have been struggling in other schools beforehand. Mostly students who just wanted to get out of highschool quickly and not students who planned on continuing their education after graduation. The problems the school has with their graduation requirements is due to their start just assisting those who wanted to leave the school system asap. They require mostly english/reading related courses and barely any math for graduation. Which as I've said before is a issue for students who would wish to continue their education after highschool because it wouldn't prepare them well enough for basic college level math courses. And of course because if students don't have to take as much math, they usually won't. Aspen also doesn't have many upper/advanced level classes like Spanish 3 and calc. They're also lacking in Arts and Humanties and have next to no extracurricular programs other than Stuco, the student council event program. Many former alumni including myself have been struggling with college level math courses after graduation from Aspen. This school is designed for kids who wish to immediately enter the work force after graduation. If your child wants that, this school is a great way to achieve that as quickly as possible. The main benefit of this school is the small class size and the amount of individual attention every AVHS student receives including the fact it's a credit recovery program. That's definitely a bonus but a lot of the staff at AVHS have a hard time receiving criticisms and don't conduct themselves professionally. I loved the character of my teachers at Aspen but most of them were clearly not there to give anyone a challenge. I've also seen some of my instructors emotionally break down during a lecture multiple times and either that's the nature of the work as an instructor at Aspen or they're just as mentally incapable of learning as the students they're teaching. Hopefully it isn't the later of those two considerations. I can understand how working with these kinds of kids could be frustrating but that obviously is not how you calmly handle a situation like that. Especially not how to correctly teach a class. Many of the students AND staff cry and have had emotional fits when I was a student. It made me feel incredibly incompetent and gave me a lot of social obstacles to get over after I graduated and first got a full time job. If your child goes to Aspen as a freshman, just make sure they get the lost credits they cannot receive at the highschool through the college program instead. Otherwise if you want your child to be used to a normal academic environment, avoid this school at all costs. They will be babied. Make sure you actually go to Aspen and talk to all the staff there when you visit (there aren't that many people) to make sure if you think that'd be a good place for your student. Having a great experience at Aspen Valley is achievable but make sure you know what's happening and frequently ask your student about how well they're doing there and if their intellectual/academic needs are being met. In the future I hope to change this rating.
May 15th, 2017