Grissom High School (Huntsville, Madison: sell, elementary, good)

[Mississippi Alabama Line]

Originally Posted by Discouraged Parent

I was just looking at the Great Schools website, the same website I looked at before I moved into the area. The rating of Grissom High School as of October 23, 2017, when the information was updated, is now a 6/10. In 2013, just before I moved into the area, the rating of Grissom High School was a 9/10. The only school in the area school that surpassed Grissom was Huntsville High School which had a 10/10. These two school ratings is the reason we choose this area to live. We did not care if it was HHS or GHS where our kids went to school.

I was a parent at that Community Meeting after the gun threat. I was one of those parents who went on that Friday and got their kids from school. I do agree that we parents got little to no answers. I was embarrased, however, by how a lot of the parents acted at that meeting. Granted they were very pissed off. However, in my opinion, they acted just like some of the students that I have heard about act in school. Also, they were blaming our current superintendent for the mess he inherited from our previous superintendent. I am of the mind to give him a chance to prove himself. The people really should be blaming our current board representative, since she is one of the bobble heads that enacted all this nonsense because the previous superintendent said to do so.

I am quite comfortable with my daughter at the school. She will be in the 11th grade next year, and with all her honors and AP classes she is out of the melee. However I worry about my son who starts Grissom next year. Since I hear most of the problems occur in nonhonors classes, he will be taking some of those. So I worry about disruptions happening in the classroom. He is ADD and does not do very good in a classroom full of disruptions. I pray that his education does not suffer.

I can not wait for Grissom to become one of the best schools in the district again, but that may be after both my children are graduated.

As long as people don't all file out of the area at an alarming rate.....the school will end up being just fine.

[Mississippi Alabama Line]

I read an article once that Dallas Fanning worked very hard to keep Huntsville in control of all the land, rather than have it defragment like Birmingham. Good and bad IMO. The defragmentation of Birmingham (metro, I mean) keeps certain schools good due to property values, and they can't bus kids across city limits. But then you are left vulnerable to the federal government if the elitist libs declare you are racist for no apparent reason at all (as HSVillians now know). Who knows which way is right in the long run. I mean, I prefer homeschooling but that's neither here nor there.

But again, one thing is certain....it's left Madison in a great position because they still make their own rules.

Hoover is going through the same thing Huntsville is. People freak out when they bus the lower income kids around. I get it, but the schools are still great at the end of the day. You minimize the riff raff by spreading it out rather than concentrating it in one place and totally ruining the school. However, there could be a good case made for quarantining it too. Depends on the total number of problems I guess.

[StreetSense]

Coming back to this conversation, how are Huntsville city schools doing now? How are academics?

Have the performance increased for the bussed in students?

[danskgirl]

Yes, I am wondering the same thing as above poster. We found a house we love in South East Huntsville, but this post spooked me. So now we chose a house we liked but in Bob Jones. I am feeling sad about loosing the dream house. It's not too late to jump. How are things at Challenger elementary?

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by danskgirl

Yes, I am wondering the same thing as above poster. We found a house we love in South East Huntsville, but this post spooked me. So now we chose a house we liked but in Bob Jones. I am feeling sad about loosing the dream house. It's not too late to jump. How are things at Challenger elementary?

Personally, I think that Grissom and Challenger are as good as you're going to get in Huntsville. Grissom is no longer up Bob Jones or James Clemens standards though. Grissom has a beautiful new building though.

[danskgirl]

It's interesting. I was looking at the US News national rankings, Bob Jones, is ranked something like 555 out of 24,000 ranked schools, so it's top 2%. Grissom is just below 2,000, which puts it in the the top 8%... Better ranking then 92% of schools. Ok, Bob Jones wins. Duh. But Grissom is still a pretty amazing school. I mean if it were ranked at 40% , it wold be a no brainier for Madison- no questions. Rainbow is top 5% of elementary schools, and Challenger is top 10% for Alabama. I kind of regret going under contract in Bob Jones. I let this thread scare me too much. I think SE Huntsville is beautiful with the rolling hills/ mountains, access to Greenway, bike ability, the marina, it just appears to have a really laid back style and schools that are still top 10% in nation and state. Way better traffic patterns. Anyways, if Grissom is top 8% in the country with those bussed in students, then clearly they are a pretty good school.

[danskgirl]

Also, dicipline issues in schools are an issue I hear about from numerous teaching friends. They are not allowed to dicipline their students as they see fit. I have worked in after school programs and pre-school and I have seen my fair share of entitled upper middle class children, where the parents do not care how the kid behaves. That attitude of " not my child". I know teacher friends who could tell you stories of disruptive kids almost every year and how administration micromanages classroom behavior management. This is not a problem unique to bussed in students. It seems to be the trend for many schools in America.

[Hsv256]

Originally Posted by chadinhsv

I have a cousin who's son is a sophomore at Grissom and I asked her how she felt about all of the news coming out of there. She basically said that it has been blown way out of proportion and she said her son told her it is isolated incidents and it is NOT an everyday occurrence that these fights happen. I believe the parents are freaking out because they are accustomed to the ways before the desegregation rule where they didn't have a lot of kids being bussed in from other parts of the town. The values and the way these kids are brought up are just different from the way the parents brought their kids up and it will take getting use to each other.


I haven't heard a lot of complaints from parents of Huntsville High students lately and I think the reason is is because Huntsville High has always been a little more diverse and the kids interact more with the kids from the "other side of town". They've been going to school together since Middle School and know each other a little better.

Most HCS "issues" are blown out of proportion. A large majority of noise is a mix of teacher/system politics (i.e., "we can't punish students anymore!!) and media overhype (primary TV news audience is mothers of school aged children). This leads to unwarranted parental fear that ends up on message boards.

[Squat700]

This is slowly happening in the Madison city school system. The last 2 years the city council has all but stopped new growth and in turn areas like Triana are growing and the dynamics are changing. The poverty rate is increasing in Madison and that is threatening the only thing Madison has going for it. The school board is broadcasting fear to the city saying if this tax doesn’t pass, the school system will become more violent because of overcrowding and that is concerning to most parents as Madison feels like they are in a bubble. It’s a shame the board and council spin it so they can get a tax passed using Huntsville city schools as an example. When low income students start outweighing middle income students chaos will insue. Look what happened to Butler. Your elected officials could never say this but it’s very obvious. Where the federal standard is destroying the Huntsville school system, our city council, mayor and school board are destroying Madison’s system. It’s a cultural and economic problem and when people are put on boards that have no expertise in these areas you get what you get. Look at Providence. This is why there is a waiting list at all the private schools, MA, Westminster, etc..

[Rick In Madison]

Unlike some, I have kids in the Madison city school system. They have not experienced any problems with kids out of control, they have had both great teachers, average teachers, and one or two bad teachers; one of which was fired after her first year of poor performance and complaints/issues raised by multiple parents including our family. My kids have not had any 'problems' with those bussed in and they have forged friendships with many kids from diverse families.

I don't know much about the Huntsville school system. I do have co-workers whose kids attend and if I were to summarize their opinions I would say they are happy with the system but there is room for improvement. This can be said about almost anything anywhere.

I believe you get what you pay for. Unlike some, I am willing to pay more so as to have more or better.

Oh yeah, go Trash Pandas!