K J.

I enrolled both my kids in this school when we moved back Utah because their program looked very different and intriguing to us. It didn't hurt that the school had received some awards for best charter school in the city. We quickly learned though that SPA (as they call themselves) only has one school counselor and students only have 2 out of 6 classes at the school a day. They get shuttled over to Highland high school where they do most of their schooling. And if they for whatever reason miss the shuttle then they have to run down to Highland or up to SPA so they aren't late for their next class. As far as the school counselor there at SPA, I don't know if she is overwhelmed or it is just her way but she has a 'do the minimum' attitude toward her job and many of the students. You can tell she has her favorites. My daughter, who is a senior, and who has consistently been on the honor roll throughout high school, has ambitious goals for college and post high school and when she shared them with the counselor she told my daughter that she should just pick one thing to go for it rather than work to support her in her goals. The school secretary is nice to the parents but it is a different story when the parents leave. Her attitude with the students is that they are a hinderance and not to be trusted. The principal is the opposite. We only contacted him the one time to see if they had a program that gave students a special rate for public transportation passes as many of the schools here do. After several calls and emails my husband and I just popped in one day when we were picking up our kids. It seemed to us to be a simple yes or no question. We found him to be defensive and uncooperative to say the least. As if we were a hinderance. My son chose this school because he loved theater but their theater teacher there is another story. She regularly criticizes the kids for being late (many of them, including us, travel from different cities to get there and are at the mercy of traffic and road conditions). We found her to be unwilling to work with, and even listen, to her students. My son had an A in her class and just before the term ended she pulled it and turned it into an F based on some absences that were all excused by us based on an illness that he has. There was no discussion with us or our son from her or the school counselor before she changed his grade, he just noticed on his report card that it had been changed. I honestly could go on. It really is the worst school we have ever dealt with.

We recently bought a used car from Beaverton Honda; our second car purchase from them. Last time we were in the market for a car we spent all day shopping around going to several other dealerships until we finally landed at Beaverton Honda. Our experience then was so positive that when we found ourselves in the market for a new car we didn't mess around going anywhere else and went straight to BH. Aisen was our sales person and I, truly, cannot say enough positive about him. He was laid back and no pressure all the way! When having a hard time deciding on which car he jumped in helping me lay out the pros and cons of each, using MY words NOT his sales pitch. "When you first got here I asked you what you were looking for in a car and the first thing you said was space. So this one seems to have the space you're looking for. That one had the color you liked..." and so on. He was just so fabulous. No pressure what-so-ever and pleasant as can be!

After we bought the car we needed an extra key made (something we paid for when we bought the car) which is something that goes through their parts dept. What a fiasco that has been! We have received calls from and spoken with, well I can't even say how many different people, too many to count, in addition to physically going into the dealership twice. They don't seem to know what they're doing nor does one hand seem to talk with the other. There was much debate within the dealership service and parts dept s on whether the new key had to be programmed (which it clearly does) and they tried to give me a wrong key. Just a mess! So as pleasnt and good the sales of the car was BH has really fallen down on their parts dept.

My kids are currently in 9th and 10th grades. I made the decision to take them out of the public high school for two reasons. One reason was that my 10th grader was starving to be challenged academically and her high school had no program for gifted or talented students. My other daughter was suffering from anxiety issues that stemmed from being bullied at her previous school. I had heard nothing but good things about Connections Academy from several parents and students, they seemed to have a huge selection of classes to choose from (including honors classes, which was appealing to us), and they advertise that each student can work at their own pace. They even have examples of students who have pretty high demands on their time, such as child actors and even Olympic athletes. So we thought this would be a good choice. My older daughter would be able to get the stimulation she was craving with their large variety of classes and my younger daughter would get the space she needed to heal from her experiences. It seemed like a no-brainer.

We have been at Connections for 5 months now and I have to say I am not impressed. At all. My kids came down with a flu in February and were each down for a week. They have been struggling to keep up ever since, even though they have been putting in longer days to get caught up. I have contacted teachers, their advisory teacher, and the school counselor. Both my girls were A and B students until they started Connections Academy and now they are getting C's, D's and even F's. Teachers and staff have been very unhelpful with a "sorry we can't help you" attitude. While my kids' friends have time for the fun things, social things, that kids their age should be doing, my kids are stuck at home struggling to catch up from missing a week of school. I worry that they will lose their love for learning completely if they continue at Connections.

Hugely disappointed mother.