Mountain View Academy - Colorado Springs, Colorado

Langat Paul

It's just two months at Mountain View Academy and I am truly impressed with the positive impact it has had on my children. The school provides a welcoming and supportive environment that encourages both academic growth and personal development. The teachers are dedicated, the curriculum is engaging, and there is a strong emphasis on values like respect and inclusion. It has been wonderful to see my children settle in so well and thrive in this community.

Fish

My son has been there for two years now and going on to his third. He has enjoyed his last two years incredibly and has made great bonds with his teachers. This year, we have seen a massive improvement in his academics and his behavior. The new admin change from last year has also been a great change for the school atmosphere and environment. We are thrilled about this upcoming year!

Carrie Barandon

So many issues here! There are some dedicated and caring teachers and. Admin, but it was bad the whole time we were there. We have 3 students all on IEPs. The first year my daughters teacher was fired and they had subs the rest of the year, it did not even come close to addressing educational needs, not to mention accomodations. My daughter could not read , and I asked for testing and was denied. My son was experiencing a medical condition and was treated like a nuisance. An IEP was finally put in place to address sons needs, so we gave it another year. Second year, no principal no sped to accommodate IEPs and other services. Daughter still isn't catching on to reading, still will not test her. Sped staff finally brought on at the end of the year, and finally created an IEP for daughter also, Mrs. F was awesome and our hope was renewed. Third and final year was absolute hell. Our youngest son began kindergarten there, as there was a new Dean. Kindergarten was structured totally different from other grades, much more stringent and it was expected that every kindergartner had attended preschool before, not the case with our son. Homework assigned 7 days of the week. Our youngest son was having some behavioral issues, we learned he had severe ADHD, and needed medication. At first there was no in school discipline for his behavior, it was only reported and documented. We requested a 504 plan and it was written in a way that was not helpful to anyone. That's when the suspensions started. He would get suspended for 1 day, then 1.5 days at a time and would come back from suspension and be suspended again after only being at school for an hour and a half. A 5 year old boy with ADHD ! His kindergarten class was absorbed into the other kindergarten classrooms when his teacher was fired. He struggled to adjust to the change, and with Mrs. Ackermans hard work, and an increase to meds,and a change to 504 plan he began to level out. He had more outbursts and a couple more 1 day suspensions. We began testing to put him on an IEP, and discovered his IQ was quite high and he was deemed twice exceptional. He did not qualify for an IEP, we felt our son had been singled out by Natalia Brunton. We never excused his poor behavior, but were confused why it went from observation to 10 suspensions in a few months. We did everything in our power to help and even got an advocate for our son. Contacted the school board and the department of education. We attempted to put him in another school in the middle of the year, and he was denied due to the suspensions. We finished our the year, as we had no choice, even when Principal Brunton made a comment in front of the entire school about my son's behavior. Now we are trying to get our son in a school, and he was set to start until Principal Brunton sent over her 'records'. No mention of gains or progress, challenges that were overcome, only the suspensions. Principal Brunton has no desire to help children that need accommodations. She sent several emails over the summer, repeatedly asking for the name of the school he would begin attending. We ignored these emails, as it was a red flag to us. If you don't want to ruin your child's academic career and self esteem, don't send them anywhere Natalia Brunton is staff, or to any NHA schools.

Bex Anderson

There are a plethora of issues at this school that the administration has no desire to rectify. If students arrive too close to the end of breakfast, they are denied breakfast and sent to class. Mountain View cares more about meat in the seats than it does making sure the children at their school have their needs met for optimal education. To make this issue even worse, teachers have been known to deprive children of snacks as a punishment.

It’s also a hostile environment for LGBTQ+ staff, parents, students, and families. They have made it very clear to queer staff that any display of queer identity will be punished, even if those staff are parents, and the punishment keeps them from participating in school-wide activities with their children.

I highly recommend looking elsewhere for your students’ education, and not just if you’re apart of the LGBTQ+ community.

Mountain View is operated by a charter called National Heritage Academies. This charter is owned by a Dutch man named J.C. Huizenga whose primary business is operating an investment fund. NHA is simply another business for him. It is a for-profit organization whose primary motive is profit, not the education of your child. Staff are specifically told to prioritize the financial interests of NHA in training.

They drain your tax money by siphoning funding from schools that need it to fund their business, and then have a habit of closing schools. Meaning all of your tax money that was dumped into these schools ultimately leaves the community, and ends up in Huizenga’s pocket.

Is it worth it for your child to experience potential discrimination and hunger just to make a multimillionaire richer? That’s up to you.

Thorne Foot

This is not a safe school for LGBT+ staff or students as administration believes a rainbow is a political statement. Do not enroll your children here, and if you are LGBT and are thinking about applying, don’t, at least until administration has been changed. Dr. Natalia Brunton is not an advocate for your children and will hide behind a rulebook to discriminate against your child and their teachers.

Morgan Stell

My child has special learning needs and a 504 because he is a slow reader and can't remember letters or words, his 1st grade teacher allowed him to continously spell his own name wrong and then tried to gaslight me in an email saying that it never happened (all of his school work had the wrong name). Found out just before withdrawing him from school, that even with his 504 in place, he wasnt being allowed to use equipment bought to help his learning, and they were only grading him on "trying" and not even working with him......... most of his school assignments came home on Friday's with no work done, and just doodles because even though he had his own "small group" time set aside everyday, he wasn't getting any actual instruction. It took the rest of the year this school year to get him back on track after pulling him out of this school. After pulling him out, none of his school supplies or equipment was returned because come to find out, it was given to other students even though it was all CLEARLY marked with my child's name. And to address the seperate issue of bullying that a lot of people have also had, they also waited until the end of the day to tell me about my son being attacked on the playground (by older students) even though they had to send him to the nurses office for bruising, AND they just "didn't notice" that (again) an older student had poured milk into my son's bookbag during their "supervised" breakfast/lunch even though the teacher could specifically recall the kind of milk my own child was drinking at the time. Do yourselves and your children a favor and avoid this school altogether.

kristen dimler

Horrible school with horrible staff. The kindergarten program is the worst I have ever seen. The people who respond to the reviews don't even work at the actual school. They are random losers who work at the HR office. Your feedback goes to the trash, not the school. Hi Nikki!

Steven Bartlett

This school does not support strong teachers and because of this many of them have left. The principal likes to single out students and pulls them to the office for minor things. Then she leaves an unattended child alone crying and wanders around. There are witnesses as to what she has done. Do yourself a favor - do not send your kid to this school.