Amazing staff and school. Love it ! I have never seen a HS with all the kids behaving and good environment. Lots of programs and excellent bus service too . read more

Just graduated from here, love it!! I think the facilities could use an upgrade, especially the middle school, but I had a very fond experience with this school's integration of the arts. read more

DO NOT LET YOUR CHILD GO HERE. This school absolutely wrecked me as a past student there. Student support is awful. Any student attending MSA would agree. I haven't heard a single good story from other students or my friends about their experiences in student support. The staff dismisses and invalidates any problems you may have. They meddle and stick their noses in places they don't belong, and do not respect privacy. They always have an attitude, no matter the interaction. They do the bare minimum when someone actually asks for help but go out of their way to control their students in all the wrong ways. The education is crappy, and I personally knew teachers that would say and do stuff to intentionally fail their students. One quote from a teacher this year, "Since you guys don't want to stop talking, how about ANOTHER test (we had just had our quarter 3 test) but I make sure it's hard?" That same teacher didn't respond to emails, failed to enter grades accordingly, intentionally failed kids, and didn't take the time to actually TEACH their students. Unfortunately, I can think of many other teachers who do/did the same. The school does nothing about this and ignores reports. There are constant issues with the building as well, like the elevator in the middle school building smoking or the bathrooms on the second-floor flooding. The students are cruel, the staff sucks, the building is gross, the education is poor, and the food is disgusting. If your kid ends up going here, I wish them luck and hope for their sake that they are carefree and keep to themselves. Otherwise, they will not be the same person they were before they joined MSA. Please consider literally any other high/middleschool. read more

This is the worst school you'll find in Manatee County. The students are treated like absolute garbage, the staff and teachers are treated horribly with things like favouritism. This school turns away many disabled children simply for being disabled every year, and the disabled students that do attend are treated even worse than able-bodied children. Student Support staff has no respect for any other staff and especially not students. High Schoolers are under prepared for further education. Middle schoolers are misbehaved and their behavior goes consistently unaddressed. They just recently wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new, inaccessible, useless building rather than fixing things that they actually need like improving the low quality of their lunches and providing teachers with materials. Mold in the ceilings. Rooms with ceilings that don't have tiles in some areas. Water damage, fire hazards. This school is horrible. Keep your kid safe and don't send them here, I know I won't. read more

I recently graduated from this school and had been attending manatee school for the arts for 5 years. If you are reading this and you are a parent, do not bring your child to school here. This school advertises so much that it is not. Don't let the tour guide fool you, once enrolled teachers treat students like prisoners. This school is strict in a way that hurts children's learning spirit and we are told to, for lack of better words, sit down and shut up. Walking through the halls as a middle schooler I was often yelled at from across the campus "and where are you going?" In the most awful instigating way when I clearly had a late pass in my hand. Middle school is treated worse than high school so it really worries me they are adding an elementary building. DO NOT LET YOUR POOR CHILD GO TO SCHOOL HERE. IN 2021-2022 YEAR THEY WERE GIVING OUT SPOILD MOLDY MILK CARTONS!!! The food is not edible and they give you ONLY ONE KETCHUP packet or get annoyed when you ask for TWO. If you are late ONE MINUTE to grab breakfast or lunch THEY REFUSE TO GIVE YOU FOOD. Activities of this school This school prides itself on art but they throw all the budget into dance classes, which is great if you are the teachers pet. The choir program had no real funding and had to raise their own money for trips to Disney. The school is always dirty and they "handled it" by implementing and idea of just making the students do it. It was supposed to change through all grades but I always saw poor 6th graders forced to clean in the hot sun around high schoolers during lunch. I can't imagine how embarrassed and uncomfortable they could have felt. They didn't do anything wrong and are forced to clean because why? The teacher said so? (SCREAMS prison if you ask me). The art classes are a joke. I took an art class in middle school and HATED it. Keep in mind I still do art to this day so it's not that I was interested... they would just force me to draw or paint what they wanted and graded me on whether or not I did it "right". I got a C. I took painting 1 in high school my senior year to give it another chance. The teacher barely talked to us and the students barely spoke. There's only one teacher for painting, drawing, and 3D art so no chance of having a more inclusive environment with her. One important thing to note: The marketing strategy this school is pulling when trying to bring more students into this school is the opportunity of students being bilingual. It is not ANY different from a regular school. They only require two years of Spanish, French, or Sign Language (they might have gotten rid of one or two). They don't bring these languages in any other situations other than the classroom. Why a normal high school is better This school has NO GYM. Our clinic was in the library for two years which made the library shut down. Middle schoolers are forced to walk in a circle in the hot sun, and most wear jackets because the uniforms require them to tuck in their shirts (I hated taking mine off because I was very insecure). Most high schools have chickens or animals but not this school. No science pets and barely any science labs. YOU HAVE TO PAY RIDICULOUS SCHOOL FEES FOR CLASSES. I paid $40 for entrepreneurship which was taught by a wonderful teacher, bless her heart, but was forced to teach this class and therefore was deemed "qualified" by her ONE class in college. We only did work digitally so WHY DID WE NEED TO PAY $40? THE SCHOOL MAKES STUDY HALL MANDATORY. Study hall is a nice idea, however all students in the class has to sit outside under a tent AGAIN IN THE HOT SUN. With 5 years of experience of attending this school, I know this school pretty much in and out. I am thrilled to be out of this school (graduation video was only a link sent two months after the new year had started). If you are a parent, run. DO NOT LET YOUR CHILD GO HERE. You'll be charged unnecessary fees that can get pricey over the years and are mandatory to pay or your child won't graduate. Horrible school lunches, spoiled milk cartons, pushy entitled teachers, trashy campus, horrible budget management, forced outside in the sun, false advertising, and unfair treatment between grades. read more

it's a great school but its like any school love the school and teachers hate the students especially 6th graders they always say "that's racist" if a white person says no or anything bad to some one of another race but its nor racist. but anyways it has the best teachers the best classes and all of my friends if your child is disabled and didn't get in its not because your child is disabled but its that the only way to get to any of your classes you have to go up stairs but if not then it might've been full I only got in because my brother was in already charter school are superior to public schools not that many fights happen and you can learn how to defend yourself with tae kwon do and spar with your sibling who also took tae kwon do. over all a great school don't read all of this read more

This was the closest school to where I had planned on moving to so I looked into it for my disabled child and I was told that they could not accommodate him. I never knew the difference between charter schools and regular public schools until this happened to my child. I was determined to do some research and this is what I learned summed into one quote, "Charters have a choice whether they want to be racially and economically diverse schools that serve ELL, Special Education and low-SES kids. Based on the various admissions and management policies ... charters choose their students, rather than families choosing their schools-- in essence, school choice is charter schools choose." [Cloaking Inequality, 11-11-13] read more