This school has been a life changing experience for my son, the school staff treat the kids like…read moretheir own, everyone is welcoming, loving and genuinely kind. The education is top notch, incredible sports program, my son loves all his teachers, his coaches, athletic director Mr Ausman has been an inspiration for Gabe. Father Marcos is super cool and kind to the kids. We will definitely miss this incredible high school years at st francis Watsonville, sad that is coming to an end as my son graduates class of 2026! We will miss everyone so much. Thank you for being the best high school in Northern California! We love st francis!

Posting this as having 2 kids attend 4 years now. I'll start with the positives: small school,…read moresafe environment, some of the teachers and coaches (not all) are amazing and my kids love them! Negatives: no response from certain academic vice principal on multiple occasions regarding academic support or concerns. Over the years, I have to pester with multiple emails to get general questions answered and wait up to a week to get a response (or no response at all!). There is no excuse for not answering general questions to parents, especially with a student who is struggling. After submitting my initial review about lack of academic support, my daughter just informed me our vehicle and her backpack were searched and she had a metal detector on her today. She was pulled out of class for this because Claritin was sniffed out by the drug sniffing dog in our car. Seems like there is more emphasis on drug and weapons policing than academic support. They are using these random "searches" to warn these kids not to attempt bringing drugs/weapons. There was no reasonable suspicion, and it does not warrant pulling students out of class for. It is a commitment to attend there, some families and kids commute long distances and there is a graduation requirement to fulfill 80 hours of volunteering service. Families also have an annual volunteer requirement, plus the tuition expense.

I attended this school from 7th through 12th grade. It was a…read morerare thing, it's a difficult to describe culture among the faculty, but I'll do my best- an anecdote: two students steal from the school, they take thousands of dollars worth of video equipment. They get caught- now, in a normal school where students are payroll numbers, the school could have easily justified dismissing both students and even gained face for it. I'm certain they considered it to, but it's not a huge school, even the secretaries knew my name and asked me about my family when I needed to pick up some class registration form or whatnot. These two students had been going there since sixth grade, they weren't bad kids- they just got caught up in the moment and they let the thrill of what they were doing cloud their judgment. They just needed someone to put them back on the straight and narrow- so instead of dropping down like a ton of bricks they gave them the opportunity to come clean to their fellow students! What a concept- because that necessitates that the student body have a conscience and love the school, otherwise they would pat them on the back, and it also necessitates that the student body be forgiving else these two would be ostracized. They did come clean to the student body, returned everything, the school pressed no charges, and the incident was never put on their record. Now they both attend respectable 4-year universities. The capacity for mercy from a large entity is almost nonexistent it seems, a mom and pop steak house can let a guy who left his wallet in a cab come back the next day and pay, a huge lumbering chain never would. This is a school that upholds its values. Also the student-Teacher ratio is awesome and the English teachers have a bit of a Dead Poets society thing going on where they discuss literature freely with students/other teachers during lunch or after school. The math teachers are downright sassy and hilarious individuals. Overall it was an excellent experience and I feel that I was bettered greatly by it.

I worry about MVCS. Our two sons graduated with the 2nd son having finished with his 12th grade…read moreyear less happy due to changes in staff and programming. But that was about 4 years ago. We have a young niece in MBCS but we are uncertain if MVCS will be as good as it used to be. Hopeful but uncertain. Why? Because our younger son kept in touch with friends still there and have received some unfavorable reports, especially about a two year college credit program called I think IB (?) which has been with problems. And the problems have shown up in decrease in student population. Beautiful campus. We hope reforms improve things at MVCS so we can send our niece there when she is ready for high school. RH, Marina

This is an excellent school! It's small, which means that your child doesn't get lost in the…read moreshuffle. It goes from preschool to 8th grade and the students get to know all of the teachers well in advance of being in their class. The teachers are fantastic! Ultimately, this school is a hidden jewel tucked away in a charming little town. We are very fortunate!

Pioneer is a hidden gem! If you or anyone you know is looking for an amazing small school for a…read more6th-8th grader, please give them a call. Pioneer Academy has been a life saver for our son and has allowed him to enjoy his early tween/teen years without bullying or social peer pressure. He's happy, excelling, and loving his time there. I cannot say enough good things about this amazing school and the directors...from the morning hikes, daily meditation, life skills (learning how to communicate and effectively express what you feel, nutritional food cooking and shopping, friend/family problem solving), science, math, college-note taking, english, writing, physical education (anywhere from yoga, martial arts, cross-fit), field trips and multi cultural education, I could go on but it's best to go see for yourself.

Our son just completed his first year at Pioneer. After six years of public school, we experienced…read morea complete transformation from real resistance to going to school to it being a source of joy for him every day. Pioneer provides a safe learning environment with a focus on wellness and acceptance. We are very impressed with their approach both with academics and social-emotional support. All of the teachers are incredibly patient with and fair to the students. Because of this safe learning environment, our son excelled in academic subjects he had little interest in before.

My son went to Linscott after we moved to Watsonville, for 7th and 8th grades. We really enjoyed…read morethe Linscott experience and would recommend it to other families who are looking for the right place for their kids. The administrator, Alicia, seemed caring and organized. Her strengths were common sense expectations and fair consequences for the students on an age-appropriate level. The amazing office wizards, Patti and Our favorite teacher was Lisa Fowler, though, as a parent and teacher myself, I also appreciated Brett Hagerman's firm structure. It's necessary in middle school. The other teachers all seem incredible, too, I just don't know them well because we started in 7th grade.

Gud Evening, I've…read moregive this school FIVE stars because of the IMPECKABLE life experience I gained during my OCCASIONAL attendance. I list my attendance as ****occasional**** only to re-hit the fact that I still took away more life skills than any other bitch ass white kid who did school every day without missing anything except for standard hollidaze such as CHRISMAS, EASTER, HALLOWEEN, ETC. (PLEASE NOTE: these five stars are NOT related to my technical education and I would ask that you do NOT mock me for anything based on your judgement of what my education shud be. I have had enouph of that and we ALL move at our own pase. You WILL regret ANY mocking that you choose to do.) Anyway, my apologies for the note which I have been told is aggressive but it needs to be said and we are each the only ones responsible to stand up for ourselves which brings me back to my main point of this review which is that WATSONVILLE HIGH (GO CATZ!) IS THE ONLY SCHOOL WHERE YOU WILL LEARN TO BE A BALLER. DON'T TRY TO COME AT ME WITH ANY STREET CRED UNLESS YOU WENT HERE. Sincerely, Went There/Done That

I would give the school a negative star rating but that doesn't exist. The school like all the…read moreother schools has a strict no bullying policy, what I have come to find out is that policy is bullshit. I have a nephew that attends this school and he is bullied every single day, he has autism, so the boys call him names and threaten him with violence, the so called "teachers" do nothing to stop the group of kids from teasing and threatening him. When he finally can't ignore the ridicule and belittling anymore he responds, when he responds the teachers immediately step in and remove him from class and he is sent home. I want to be very clear on that point, the teachers IGNORE the name-calling, belittling and threats of violence until he responds back. The kids that had been bullying are never reprimanded about their behavior. A student recently was showing people that she had brought marijuana to school, when the principal was notified of this problem The marijuana was confiscated but the girl was not reprimanded, the child that told teachers that she had the marijuana was threatened by the girl and told "if you telling me again I will beat the shit out of you". The vice principals response to this was "I'm not going to suspend her or send her home because I didn't hear her say that." "I will talk to her later on today about what she can and cannot stay at school". The staff at this school should be fired and replaced with teachers that take there jobs seriously. The fact that teachers will ignore a group of kids teasing and threatening a child with autism but only react when that child tries to defend himself is shameful. If you have the option to take your kid to any other school in the area I would suggest you avoid this school at all cost.