Portola High School

UserID

New member
I am surprised to see that there aren't much talk about the Irvine schools on this forum. I presume everyone is bought into the marketing hype that all Irvine schools are amazing and you pretty much cannot go wrong.

We have a kid at Portola High School and there are so many challenges! The facilities are amazing and it is nice to go to a high school that is still not filled to capacity but I think those are the main positives. We were SOOOO excited to start at Portola but have gotten more and more disappointed as the time has gone on. There are so many issues and shortcomings and in the beginning you excuse things with, it is a new school and it is still getting started, etc. but at some point you just start feeling that you are attending a school that has so many issues!

Our experience is that there are so many things wrong with the school that the administration has stopped trying to make things better and listening to the feedback and instead has taken a position of defending themselves and trying to shut down anyone that has ideas for improvement or feedback. There is a lack of leadership and a real issue with listening to feedback from the community.

The feedback from the students on the teachers is also disappointing. In our experience when talking to the students they rate about 2 out of 7 teachers as good and the rest just don't care about the students and do not want to be there or are treating the kids like they are Irvine rich kids that need to be put in their place.

When it comes to the athletics programs and it is even worse. There are a few good coaches and programs but in general they are extremely underwhelming. There are so many super talented athletes at Portola and most of the coaches do not have the requisite knowledge and experience to coach the teams. We are hearing all the time of star athletes that quit the high school sports in Junior year as it is a complete waist of time.

All we can think is "if this is a good school, what in the world would a bad school look like?". The kids will of course turn out fine and go to good colleges but that is in most ways certainly not thanks for the school or administration but rather thanks to parent commitment to education, tutors and the community at large.

it is easy to wonder what ISUD is doing with the parent and student surveys they send out every year. We know that the feedback must be crushing but it should be looked at as a gift and an opportunity to make things better and not build protective barriers around the school to prevent people from looking in and closing doors so no feedback can be provided.
 
UserID said:
I am surprised to see that there aren't much talk about the Irvine schools on this forum. I presume everyone is bought into the marketing hype that all Irvine schools are amazing and you pretty much cannot go wrong.

I think it's very possible that many people on this forum would not even consider Portola Springs due to its remote location. Some even poke fun at PS as the value village.  :-[
 
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