Westgate Community School - Thornton, Colorado

Elisabeth O.

My oldest son attends this school. He is twice exceptional (gifted and a disability) and he has grown so much at Westgate. We have been able to focus on his needs at home during the school year because we know his school is meeting his educational needs. Westgate is not for every child, but most students will blossom here.

Matthias R. M.

My daughter is 13 and just started with Westgate about a month into the school year due to a move that made the commute impossible. For the most part she has never really liked school because the teachers would poke and tease her about her inability to focus and never offered a better solution. After the 1st week here she went into the weekend wishing she could skip the weekend and get back to school! Of course I have never heard my daughter or any other kid for that matter to speak these words! She is about 3.5 months into this year and still feels the same! We love Westgate and the staff! Two thumbs up for sure!

JB

I’ll start by saying that writing this review has taken a lot of thought. I’m not in the habit of reviewing on-line, but, I think this is very important for parents who may be considering Westgate.

Headline first, the executive director and the dean demonstrated to me that are simply not capable of supporting the needs of kids with a 504, IEP or any unique learning profile. Moreover, although they always have time to promote the school and any positive recognition that they can get, they just won’t have tough conversations about parent and student engagement.

There was some good stuff to mention. The teachers get one extra star for being nice, dedicated and energetic. In fact, I was 100% sold on the school during my campus visits and the shadow day. Just like anywhere, some teachers are stronger than others, but, I think that most tried hard and my child did fine in class.

The really big problem with Westgate is that the actions of the administration don’t support any type of authentic partnership and communication with students and families. Everything seems fine and first glance (and they certainly talk a good talk), but, if a 504, IEP, or a social challenge exists, then the school dean, executive director and staff just can’t handle the challenge. They make A LOT of excuses and they always focus more on ways to protect their reputation and public image than on the kids well being.

In other words, I found the school leadership to be so focused on their own status that they isolate parents and students from conversations that don’t reflect the perfect image that they want to promote. To put it bluntly, my child’s learning profile was absolutely neglected. They are quick to ask for cheerleaders from the community and they never accepted any crucial conversations.

Like some of you who are reading this, I simply wanted an environment in which my child could thrive. I was expecting open and honest communication and instead I actually even felt bullied by the dean and executive director (and so did my child). Crazy, right?!? I used to assume that even if there are difference that most people in education are at least good people trying to do the right thing, but, the dean here really challenged that belief for me.

Having the privilege of seeing first hand what great leadership at Adams 12 can look like at another school, there is no way I could ever trust Westgate to care for anyone important to me.

In short, my reflection is that the actions of the administration are ironic in the face of their stated school values, frustrating to me as a parent and extremely sad in he context to my child’s experience.

Stephanie L.

This is our first year at Westgate and we are so happy! To address the earlier review by "John" I have not seen any of these behaviors by the teachers, staff, administrators or board members. Does Westgate have some room for improvement? Yes! Does every school have room for improvement? Yes! However, the curriculum is challenging and innovative and there are "grades" they just aren't the traditional A,B,C, etc..... The students are monitored through MAPS and now the entire district is implementing MAPS...YAY Westgate for introducing the Adams12 District to such a great and meaningful assessment tool. Above all, my daughter came home a few weeks ago and said "Mom, I love this school, I love the teachers and I actually have friends now." That is worth everything to have a place for my daughter to feel like she belongs. I have all the faith in the world that the school is going to grow into an amazing place for kids in our community and become a model for other schools!

Benjamin C.

All Right come around parents one and all i have a story to tell. This is the true tale of a student at westgate(mainly a high school student the Schools concept: not bad. Execution: Problematic. k-8:great high school: Problematic the whole idea of this school is to give "gifted" students a chance for a better education. at least for the middle school part. every thing up to that point was great until high school came around. you are required to take a community college class each year and keep adding more classes until your scheduled is filed up with college and no longer high school, you do graduate with your associates degree yet putting a bunch of freshmen no matter what their educational gap is sounds like a bad idea and it is. the reason why students have to take college is due to the lack of staff and credits they have thus forcing students to a bipolar experience in school on having one easy class followed by one hard class. Not only that but if the student refuses to take college there education is Ruined now the teachers are a different story, from the get go they had amazing teachers yet they ether quit or dissolved into a shell that once was and filled with shallow charisma and some of the later teachers were egotistical and picked favorites, rendering some students to despise some of their classes. yet beyond me the office staff remains the same. students. this is a SMALL school and with small schools comes relatively larger clicks. these clicks will some times will over throw a teachers class and instructions if they disagree with any of the ideas or projects they yield. or try to exile students who dare to disagree with a teacher they can claim to be perfect. yet this is just one class but the sad part is that their class is their entire grade. However things do even out with the off campus policy (as of 2015-16) where you can just leave and run off to target during lunch. yet if you don't have a car (which most likely your child doesn't) then they have to rush to a fast food joint and eat while walking back. last thing to mention is that the School is always changing, in any way possible thus rendering this review useless in two years so any bad experience that may happened to me or my friends are null and will be replaced with more changes hopefully for the best. to sum it up, Avoid the High School aspect of westgate. but do try the elementary and middle school aspects of it.

not like anyone will listen to a Google Review.

Melinda S.

When our oldest son was at a typical public school during his first few years of schooling, I could just see his natural love for learning draining out of him. He is gifted, and yet it was like he was being squashed instead of allowed to blossom as he should. He was looked on as a discipline problem because of his ADHD and treated as a delinquent for issues (such as writing on his desk) that should have been very minor. Then he went to a gifted school, which was much better, as he was allowed to learn at his own rate and he finally found some friends (which he had never had before) who were similar to him. But the homework became an issue, and there were no accommodations made for his ADHD, so it was very hard for him to maintain his grades, as he would have so many missing homework sheets that he either left at school and never did, brought home and did but left on the table, or that he got to school with but left on the playground. Westgate has truly been a Godsend for him. He has flourished academically, and comes home talking about what happened at school (which never happened before) and how interested he is in the various projects he’s working on. He feels challenged and is never put down for his ADHD or asked to be anyone who he is not. And best of all, he has made amazing friendships with other kids he can relate to.

Cari W.

If I could give them 0 I would. The concept is fantastic but the teachers and staff are incapable of pulling it off. Egos tend to get in the way and their image is more important then the kids that go there. They promise big but lie. If you have a child with an IEP walk away, quickly.

Joshua ?. K.

Used to be great, but the teachers they hire seem to be getting worse and worse. I've been targeted for my political stance by teachers. High school is a tough place for conservatives.