Although this does not apply to the entirety of either school, this article touches on topics for the general experience of one student who’s attended both high schools.

At Skyline, rarely was I intrigued to be a part of my classes and school activities. Most of the time group work was impossible. This meant not talking to one another and not being involved; eventually, one person always ended up doing all the work. Regularly there was some type of issue, drama, or favoriting and excluding of different people. To me, it wasn’t a community or team I enjoyed being a part of.

My classes at Skyline I barely passed — I was hardly putting any effort into school. Other students, from what I saw, usually put in the bare minimum for assignments and projects, which made it feel like a chore. I saw many who refused to do anything during the class. Many times I found in my classes that there were so many distractions throughout the entire block: kids constantly going to the bathroom, walking around the hallways randomly, being loud, and constant talking back to the teacher or comments on what the teacher had to say. This made it hard to stay focused sometimes and when it was a daily occurrence, eventually trying to focus at all became exhausting.

Because of this, I regularly had to do my school work at home and always had catching up to do.

There were many great teachers at Skyline, but they were commonly taken advantage of. They had to deal with things they shouldn’t have to on a regular basis. There were times when teacher’s were constantly trying to get the class to stop talking over them. They would offer help and take time from their day — lunchtime, after school, or even before school. Kids would have missing assignments and still not take advantage of the help offered to them. This was a regular occurrence and very hard to watch.

In my experience being in that environment, I saw the majority of students that weren’t goal-oriented or had no ambition in learning. This wasn’t anyone’s particular fault, the atmosphere just always felt so pessimistic.

I found the environment made it hard to learn and grow as a person as well as academically. By the end of the 2021-2022 school year I was considering doing online school and completely isolating myself.

I knew I couldn’t get through another year at Skyline with the goals I had in mind for myself. I felt hopeless for my academic future.

I didn’t feel connected to anyone around me, so my parents and I agreed to make the switch to Mead High School.

I talked to a few people I knew at Mead, and was mainly told great things. My friend from middle school, Marijane Carlson (‘23) said, “Everyone is really nice here.”

As the school year at Mead began, I immediately felt like a better student and version of myself. I was not only passing my classes and getting my assignments in on time, but continuously learning everyday.

Though it felt intimidating coming to a whole new school where I barely knew anyone, I was surrounded with support and encouragement from the people around me. One specific encouragement I remember from Carlson (‘23) was when she told me, “I would like to see you there”. 

Coming to Mead, I found students with the same ideals as me. I have and continue to be inspired by the people I meet.