This review is just for the sports facilities. My son had a baseball game at their wonderful field…read more I have attended both football and baseball games here and the stadium facilities are top notch. The track is six lanes and built for speed. The concessions and restrooms are fancy by most high school standards. I cannot attest to the school itself, but the students and staff treated the visiting team with respect. Four stars for the sports facilities.

I've gone to this school for a year and a half and this is what I've taken from it so far…read more The consolers could not care less about your needs. They only care if they want to. The guys are the most annoying people I've ever encountered. Half the teachers don't even teach. They will take away the only thing you like about the school and try to cover it up by letting you wear white shoes. None of the bathroom doors lock. If you are an introvert you're out of luck. The people your mother asked if they enjoyed their experience either lied or went to a different Bishop O'Connell high school. The school is not as good as it seems.

I like the school and the principal is chill and most of the teachers are nice and funny, the…read moremiddle school is fun and there isn't too much homework. There are many kids there and I had fun in all my 5 years.

Commonwealth Academy promotes itself as a school that has expertise in ADHD and executive…read morefunctioning. Our experience there this last year with our son (12) was the opposite, and the staff was extremely unwilling to work with us on his needs. It gets worse. In the end, a false report of child abuse and neglect was filed against us, we believe and have strong evidence to back it up by senior school staff in retaliation for disputes we had with them. In my opinion, the place is not safe for your kids or you. We enrolled mid-year, when our local school was having issues meeting his needs. He has a learning profile that includes ADHD, language processing difficulties, and executive function difficulties. When we interviewed the school, which is billed as particularly suited for a child of his profile, we were very excited about the approach and attention to executive function, and the admissions head similarly felt it would be a great fit for our son. For a school that supposedly focuses on executive function skills, they offered him almost nothing in the way of support there, and made it very difficult for him (and us) to figure out what his assignments even were. There was no consistent place where or how assignments were listed; some were online, some were via emails, and some were given in class. This is a nightmare for someone with executive function difficulties, and only set him up for failure. The school was also slow to implement an assisted listening device, provided by us, that has greatly helped our son in his previous school. We had discussed using the device with CA prior to enrollment and they had agreed in principle. It took them over three months to actually begin using it. One of us is a licensed counselor and former teacher with years of professional expertise and success in helping children with learning profiles similar to our son's. With this expertise, we tried very hard to work with the school on how best to serve our son, and offered specific interventions to help him access the curriculum and get through the day. The school presented considerable resistance and foot-dragging and at one point, the head of the middle school told us that we were no longer welcome to email them. They were not only not interested in the resources we offered, they at times seemed offended by it. Another dispute centered around repeated and inappropriate suggestions from certain staff that we should get medical diagnoses and/or therapy for our son. For our son's privacy, I am not going to discuss the nature of these requests, but we have in fact involved his health care providers in addressing his in-school challenges, and we provided evidence of this in the form of doctor's notes to the staff on multiple occasions. After about the third time these requests were made, we complained to the head of school, who responded very supportively and agreed the staff had been inappropriate. It was two days after this that the false report to DC CFSA was made. The report included the allegation that we "refused" to take our son to the doctor, and other disturbing allegations that were simply made up out of whole cloth. After 35 days the report was ruled Unfounded by DC CFSA, which means a report they consider untrue. Based on the timing and the content of the allegations in the report as communicated to us by the social workers, we believe it's almost a certainly that it was made by one of three people there, two of whom are still there and are fairly senior in the school's administration. We removed him from the school the day the report was filed and home schooled him for the remainder of the year. The school was uncooperative in providing assignments and materials during this time, and was uncooperative in our investigation of who filed the false report. They have also not provided materials needed for applications to other schools, obstructing our efforts to find a new placement for him. Parents considering Commonwealth Academy should be aware that (1) it is not what it claims to be in terms of support for ADHD and executive function, and (2) it apparently employs people who are willing to weaponize Child and Family Services against parents by filing false and malicious reports accusing them of child abuse and neglect.

Popped in here for a Flu Vaccine Clinic & was greeted at the door by some friendly FCPS staff…read moremembers. We made our way to the room & were vaccinated by an INOVA nurse, who was very delightful, & I was able to get a preservative free vaccine so I was a happy camper. This school is also a polling place & had elections going on so there was activity all over despite students being of school/it being a teacher work day. I have no idea what the academic climate is like here, as I don't have any children attending this school, but the actual building itself is very clean & the halls are spacious. It seemed like a great, easy layout for students to navigate & the environment seemed upbeat & inviting.

Best middle school I got is a very good have fun almost no fighting unless the older grades decide…read moreif they have a problem with some body but some kids if they say bad about this school it's because they decide to put themselves in danger by bothering I do everything normally and so far everything's Alright.

To help Future generations of students who are forced to attend public school:…read more Other than the cellphone policy this school is pretty good, but the lunch food isn't great but THE MOTZERELLA STICKS ARE SO GOOD!!! Every school in Fairfax county has to abide by the cell phone policy and I find it problematic because listening to music helps me focus and Spotify is blocked on the computers and Pandora has too many ads. Most kids are nice and the teachers try, not all of them are perfect but they do their jobs. I am looking back at horror stories from when they were renovating this place so I'm glad we're not going through that anymore! One of my teachers let me make the seating chart because she didn't want to. I don't like the metal detectors, according to the school news paper 77% of kids think that they don't improve safety. But not really something I can control they have them at all secondary schools in Fairfax. (Or at least are trying to). One of my friends backpacks keeps going off because it has metal attached to it so they get stopped every morning. There is a crowd for everyone here and it is genuinely one of the best schools I've attended. The staff is wonderful and my councilor is wonderful. They have a lot of programs and even though the classes are stressful because Fairfax... they can be really fun. If you find an unblocked game website you're good to go! A lot of people who were students come back as teachers because they enjoyed it, might see me as a teacher here in a few years, not quite sure what I want to be though. If it were up to me, I would remove the SOLS but I can't do that. All and all this is a pretty nice school--just don't mind the random red goop on the ceiling in the language bathroom that's been there for a year, we don't know what that is, might be an alien not gonna lie. (There's a lot of smoking but it's easy to avoid). --Josie 10th grd

You have to sign and request permission on the computer to go to the bathroom. They pulled me out…read moreof class to ask me to take down my petition regarding the bathroom policy. Also it's overcrowded and the halls regularly come to a standstill multiple times a day. I thought I might miss the place when I graduated, but I loathe this school nearly two years later. I only hope my generation can fix the mess you all made of the school system. Grow as a community and try to think what it's like being a young adult treated this way before your students resent you more than they already do.

This school is so good. I know it is small, but it is super good. The school day starts at 9:24,…read moreunlike typical schools which start at 7:30 or 8. The school day ends at 4:06, again, unlike typical schools which end at 2:30 or 3. There are 8 blocks (same thing as periods) in a day. There is A-H block. You can take unique classes at HB like Chinese, German, or sign language. It is located in Cherrydale. Kids can start going off-campus in 8th grade. They usally go to Starbucks or Chipotle. For more information about this school, please go to http://www.arlington.k12.va.us/Domain/1591

The things these kids do to the bathrooms is diabolical, the staff tries so hard to make up for…read moretheir behavior but it doesn't work. Assigned tables at lunch in MIDDLE SCHOOL! kids are super disrespectful (especially if you have a service dog, it was hell). Teachers don't do crap about bullying. TS gets on my nerves! They had these chucky chromebook cases for a year but then removed them because they got moldy. Trust me it gets better but for these two years you just gotta buckle down and suffer.

I love this school and the staff. The teachers work hard to make sure the kids have a great time…read morewhile they are in middle school and are very supportive. Speaking of support, the ladies in the front office are the best! They do everything they can to help you with what you need and always do it with a smile. They are great with the kids and parents if they need any support. Karen always welcomes you with a warm smile and Jan can solve any problem!

Super rude staff and teachers…read more Super rude staff and teachers my kid said the bathroom was super dirty and the teachers super rude screaming at my kid for no reason at all. The other review is just crazy is not " the best teachers" is the worst teachers ever in us

The. Administration, teachers and non instructional staff are among the best in the Arlington…read morepublic school system. I know I'm married to one who worked here.

this school is just so fun! i really like the teachers there they have good teaching.read more

This review is for black people considering working at Luther Jackson or black parents considering…read moreLJ as a positive learning environment for their students. This story is about a black substitute teacher. It was 1:00 PM. That was the time just written in the logout book. The substitute teacher then gave his ID badge to a short elderly white woman admin. He left the office and proceeded to the front waiting area. While in the area, he noticed that the gym students were doing some type of test so they were not in their normal PE clothes. The teacher never spoke to nor interacted with anyone during this time. It had been about 5 minutes since the teacher had left the office. The same woman he had given his ID badge to cam up to him and said that he had to sit down by the front door or wait outside. He told her that he would do no such thing and that he worked for FCPS Fairfax County Public Schools and he knew that was not a requirement of its employees. He then said that the woman was racially harassing him and that he recognized her behaviour as such. The "lady" leaves and no more than 5 minutes later police officer comes over to the teacher and asks him to leave or wait outside. He can tell that the officer is only doing what was requested of him. The teacher again refuses to leave. No more than 5 minutes go by and again 2 assistant principals arrive to continue the harassment of the teacher. They tell him he is creating a disturbance. He disagrees. In the middle of their arguing the teachers ride called and he leaves mid-argument. He had a teacher request him for the next day. The students, "Respect and like you." was her rationale for asking him to sub her science class. But he knew that the racist white admins at Luther Jackson would, and did, prevent him from ever subbing at his alma matter again. Luther Jackson is a less than ideal environment for black children. They have no support from the culturally incompetent and racist white people that make the decisions there.