The education is top notch, but what you said about bullying is correct. The majority of the kids going there are privileged fuckheads.

>. I hear that it is a great education and essentially guarantees your child will make it into university.

I wouldn't worry about making it into MSU, my spouse worked there for a bit over 5 years, said unless you just don't complete the enrollment process, you're going to MSU so long as you're a Missouri resident, pay your bills, and have a pulse.

Don't let that influence your decision.

I graduated from Greenwood about 15 years ago and the education is great, and the ability to easily dual-enroll gets you a nice head start in college. You get individualized attention and the classes (in general) are not dumbed down. High academic attainment is the norm. As a result of my education from Greenwood, I earned a handful of academic scholarships.

I was only there for high school, and the social dynamic was strange. 24 of the 29 people I graduated with had been together since kindergarten. There was a prevalent “bullying” problem in the early 2000’s that the administration turned a blind eye to. Some of the kids were outright malicious, and had the financial ability to get away with (metaphorical) murder because of their parents. While it might not be the “real world”, it does give some insight into how the world is different for the top earners in our community.

I go there. It is fuck all expensive and the kids are indeed privileged fuckheads as someone said. Bullying is better than it used to be but definitely still a problem. Good college prep though if you don’t mind soul killing amounts of busy work

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I know nothing about the school, but as a parent of active kids that 30 minute drive will become a nightmare. Will probably be fine on a normal day, but if there is an after school activity planned, or some school performance at 7, are you willing to be driving back and forth a bunch, or just hanging out in the car waiting so you don't have to be driving back and forth? Our child goes to school 15-20 minutes away in town and even that becomes a pain in the ass.

What small rural area/school? You may be surprised by some of the schools in the smaller cities surrounding the area

It is a terrible school. DO NOT Send your child there, unless they have low character and are bullies that will yell and fight their way without restraint.

We have kids there now. There used to be an old lady running the school who was senile (Duncan). She allowed a lot of bullying to go on under her watch. There still is a lot of it going on now. I PERSONALLY know of at least 7 children who have left the school because they were bullied in the last 4 years. I'm certain there are many more. In many of these cases, I have spoken to their parents and been told stories about how they brought their concerns to the school leadership multiple times. Little to no action was taken. The bullying continued on. I can speak to the character of most of the kids that left the school - they were all good, intelligent, non trouble causing respectful kids. These are the type of kids being run out of the school, under the watch and tacit approval of the schools leadership. I was even in the nurse's office once and overhead a disgusting story. There was an overweight child who went there frequently. When they asked him why, he told them he was constantly picked on because of his weight. The only place this didn't happen was at the nurse's office when his classmates weren't around him.

Often, there is violence from one student to another that goes with little or no punishment. Last year, a child choked another child 3 or 4 years younger for no reason and the school allowed him to go on a field trip the following day. I think his punishment was a one day suspension.

Academic achievement there seems to be a fraud too. Lots of kids are way behind in my kids grades and they school pulls them along, even when they have massive educational deficits.

There's a lot of Stepford parents there. They won't dare speak honestly about how disappointed they are in the school and their child's experience. They just simply smile and say it's going great! Don't be fooled by them.

There are some upsides to the school and not every child thinks they're the centre of the world, but while there are some good and bad kids, there's poor leadership, which allows bad behaviour to get way out of hand. There is little to no punishment for bullying and assault there. We have seen it with our kids and heard first hand stories many times from other parents.

Teachers - some are good, some mediocre and a few are rotten. One of them left last year thank god.

I am a student at Greenwood Lab. I have been bullied by a few people in the past because I am transgender. I would say the majority of kids (in my class, at least) are respectful and kind. I can’t speak for the kindergarten teacher; I don’t know her.

Greenwood is definitely overpriced, but considering you are recieving a reduced tuition it may be worth it. I don’t know if you plan on keeping your child here until he graduates, but since Greenwood is a smaller school we generally don’t have the classes that a larger high school would have, ie shop class, home etiquette, etc. You can only take college classes on MSU campus once you are a junior or senior.

However, Greenwood is a very safe school. With Bearpasses required to enter the building, it ensures no random bypassers can come in. I’m not sure if college students’ Bearpasses allow them to enter Greenwood. There are cameras everywhere except for classrooms and bathrooms.

I hope this helps you in your decision.

Your kid will have a better education and opportunities-outside-Springfield at Central doing IB. And will also be around all kinds of kids from all classes, races, etc.

However, if your kid can survive the rich kid bullying and actually make friends, they'll be well connected for a life in Springfield later on. There's a big if in there though. (And like, just having money isn't enough. If you do not, on a visceral level, know the social difference between being a Hickory Hills member, a Highland Springs member, and a Twin Oaks member, navigating the Greenwood social scene is not for your family.)

We have had a great experience and it is a wonderful education. We have not experienced bullying and I would highly recommend it. The current principal at the school is doing a really good job fostering positive school culture.

I went there, K-12. I started back when it was actually affordable (e.g. $50/semester.) It was highly competitive to get in at the time, and I was put on a waiting list when I was born. When I graduated, I believe my parents were paying ~as much as a University freshman would be paying (but I was taking college courses.)

I'd say the "spoiled rich kid" comments would be highly inaccurate based on my experiences, but that might be different now since the cost of education has gone up so much. I came from a middle/upper-middle class background. I had classmates whose parents were farmers, university teachers, librarians, as well as doctors and lawyers.

I also lived in a rural area, and driving us kids to school every day surely was a pain for my parents, but will be less of an issue for you guys since your wife will be teaching there. Greenwood follows the University schedule, so if Campus is closed for whatever reason (e.g. snow days) the school will be, too.

Since most kids stick with it K to 12, each class is a pretty tight-knit group. The quality of your kid's social experience will likely depend on the quality of the other kids in the group. My class was fuckin' awesome, with a lot of really bright and mature kids, whereas my little sister's class was full of cliques and holy terrors.

Bullying, yes. Hazing, yes. But these things happen in public school, too. My best friend went to Greenwood K-6th and then switched to Pipkin/Parkview. He had a nightmarish experience with bullying at Parkview. It was so bad he decided to homeschool his own children than subject them to public schools.

There are plenty of kids who go K->6 and then switch to public schools, so don't rule that out if things aren't clicking. That said, I think Greenwoods 7->12 experience is where the school really excels. They are very very much college prep focused. Getting access to university resources, college courses, etc is unparalleled. Not only was I able to take university classes for topics I was interested in, it put me ahead of the curve once I went to college --I had a bunch of pre-reqs taken care of, I knew what to expect with college coursework already, I was familiar with the campus, etc. If you don't think your kid will be college-bound, then switching them to a public school ~9->12 for access to more trades-style classes should be an option.

There were certainly some things I didn't like about my experience there, but if I could time travel, I don't think I would not go to Greenwood -- I generally think I'm a better, more successful person because my parents sent me there.

Pros:

Very low turnover with staff, smaller classes, a lot of individualized care and attention, creating a well-rounded kid and probably setting them up for life if they're college-bound. Access to University resources. The school sports programs are also very good and basically accessible by any student if they want to. Parents are also really proactive creating class extracurricular sports teams for K->6 students (baseball, football, soccer, basketball) -- I did them all.

Cons:

Expensive. Smaller static classes may limit their social experiences. Potentially some very intense schoolwork (esp as Jr. and Sr.)

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I would highly recommend Greenwood especially if it’s free tuition. It’s a night and day upgrade over public school.

I went to Greenwood, Catholic and Parkview, and Greenwood was the hardest one to endure. There was definitely a clique and bullying issue that made things difficult to navigate as an awkward youth, and because there isn't a huge student body, there's not a lot of places to go for other friend groups. My class itself had an issue where the 'smart' (driven) students would do the homework and the rest of the 'in' crowd of the class would copy it, but that class in and of itself was problematic to the extreme. They bullied teachers as well as students, and a lot of focus was put on not rocking the boat, aka, dealing with a cultural issue amongst the students that was clearly hostile. Again, it could be better now, but the politics of the office and the way the student body could get away with some pretty heinous behavior did not ever make me feel like I had an official avenue of recourse. I came in around 6th grade, so all these people already had relationships for years before this, and even some of them were permanently on the 'outs' because they were just a bit odd. The only black student I ever saw going there (at least in the secondary part) was bullied into leaving quite soon after they arrived. I'd say 95% of my class was white. So even that sort of 'innocuous' homogeny became an issue.

There are a lot of opportunities there, and some of my favorite/best teachers taught there, but there was also a lot of meh teachers. I will say the issue of the not-so-knowledgeable coach teaching history as a joke class is not as much of a phenomenon there as some other schools, so that's good. Student teachers from the college were a huge hit and miss. One semester I got stuck with some lunkhead leading both my science and math courses, and I felt I missed out on a lot because of it. Having greater access to the MSU campus as a whole was neat. I felt the arts program lacked greatly; no orchestra, only band and choir (the teachers were good, though). No theatre department at all, did like one school play while I was there. Not a lot in the way of art equipment like kilns, dark room, etc. I don't think shop/home ec or anything like that was ever offered.

I'd check in with the opportunities at your local public school--Parkview had a wider variety of classes and I earned college credit there quite easily even after switching schools twice and not performing great (Bs and Cs) up to that point. And socially, it was so much easier to find my 'group' when there were more people to choose from.

Bullying is something that is as old as schools itself. It happens at every school that I know of including Kickapoo, Hillcrest, Parkview, Glendale, Ozark, Nixa, Willard, and small surrounding schools. Raising kids is tough but kids will need to adapt to varying social situations and learn to deal with people.
I'm a proponent of private schools and would rather my kids learn to deal with pretentious assholes than the issues that come with low-income households that use public schools as baby sitters with no desire for upward mobility. On top of that the college preparedness is much greater. If you can get a Greenwood education for little to no cost, I would take it.

Looking at the kind of cars in the pickup line at the school should offer a glimpse of what you can expect from the school.