Forest Hills Public Schools
- GRAND RAPIDS, MI
School District
Forest Hills Public Schools Reviews
Rating 4.14 out of 5 266 reviews
Overall I don't really enjoy being in Forest Hills Central High schools. They are not very diverse, with the major of the students being causation. The facilities aren't very good; it feels like they skim and spend their money elsewhere when we know they have plenty.
I have a senior graduating this year (2024)from FH Eastern High, a 6th grader at FH Eastern Jr High, and a 4th grader at Knapp Forest. My issue is mainly with the 6-12 buildings. This district is full of entitle kids with mean clicky attitudes I assume are from the parents and a severe lack of diversity. I plan to pull my 2 remaining school aged kids and put them in a more diverse charter academy. Racist comments were made to my 6th grader this year and we had never dealt with that prior to this year. Since I am not interested in teaching my children to tolerate disrespect, we will be removing ourselves. If diversity is not important to you and you are upper economic class or rich, Forest Hills Eastern is for you!
There are plenty of classes that challenge my son. He's taking a very rigorous course and have enjoyed working with the teachers. The teachers make him feel welcomed and genuinely show they care about the students and him.
I attended this district for 5 years, and I was pretty impressed overall. There's a great culture that pushes students to take AP classes and challenge themselves. However, they struggle in diversity and food. The schools are overwhelmingly white and Christian, and the food is absolute garbage. I swear I've taken ten years off my lifespan eating that trash.
My main priority in high school was to prepare for college admissions, and this school district helped me out a lot. There is access to a lot of AP classes, extracurricular activities, and programs to help optimize your college application.
The main issue some people have with the school district is the culture. There have been a lot of incidents in this district especially surrounding bullying, and there is an apparent lack of diversity that makes the expereience harder for some people than others.
The main issue some people have with the school district is the culture. There have been a lot of incidents in this district especially surrounding bullying, and there is an apparent lack of diversity that makes the expereience harder for some people than others.
As a senior student who has attended Forest Hills Public Schools my entire education the best parts definitely over power the worst parts. The first thing that pops into my head when I think about Forest Hills Northern is the students being a welcoming community as we are full of diversity while being at Northern this is one of the best parts. Being apart of this community it is important that we do not judge each other and that is one thing the school has passed onto its students. The only “bad” part of Northern is the new dress code policy going into this year 2023-2024 I am not saying the dress code policy is bad, but the only downside to it was the fact that is was inconsistent and some teachers were a little extreme when dress coding students or some didn't even care, so it was a little confusing. Overall the Forest Hills Public Schools are great schools and I’m glad to have been apart of this school district.
My overall experience going to school in the Forest Hills public school district was interesting. I met great friends along the way that hopefully I can speak to later on in life. I had a great time playing sports for my school because we earned a lot of respect this year by taking the Football team to playoffs. I've had my bumps in the road by attending this school, but nothing crazy enough to where I tell others not to enroll here. It's a great school to attend with great clubs, staff, and education.
I have been attending Forest Hills Public Schools for all 12 years of schooling and I don't think I would be as prepared for my future if I went elsewhere for my education.
Forest Hills Public Schools is a wealthy district. Despite this, however, it does a terrible job at supporting it's students academically and emotionally as well as properly allocating funds to basic necessities or programs that benefit us. The bathrooms are a prime example---the disabled stalls in the girls bathrooms have had broken locks for the four years I've been here, and no one's bothered to allocate money to fix them. The bathroom floors are always mysteriously wet and the toilets leak. Terrible decisions that affect us have been made very often, with rarely any concern for the consequences those imprudent decisions have on the difficulty of students' and teachers' lives and the effect on our mental wellbeing. For example, the district-wide switch to Canvas was a terrible decision; furthermore, the fact that it was made during the pandemic of all things is profoundly disillusioning. If I had to use one word to describe the Forest Hills experience, it would be disillusioning.
Northern High School is an interesting place to learn. The best parts are that there is a diverse population of students and the teachers do a good job teaching their subjects. The worst is that there are issues with bullying that diminish the safety at our school, especially for LGBTQ+ students. I would like to see Northern become a more accepting school for all students.
I like going to FHPS, as it is a generally very good school district. Subjects are covered very well and I feel prepared for college. Sports are very popular here, and are celebrated often. District-wide, I have met lots of amazing people through theater and other events.
Overall, my experience within Forest Hills has been pretty positive so far, and in regard to college readiness, that is on the student. The district offers many courses and classes that students can take based upon what they would like to study in college, and senior year is very accommodating and allows for more exploratory options. The only thing I would have to say that should be changed would be the food in the cafeteria. Maybe more healthy stuff and less mystery meat.
My school offers many different programs which I enjoy. Still, I have discovered that many of the classes I want to take are limited on the schedule because of a lack of students wanting to take it and then the class ends up interfering with another class that I need to take. While I am not involved in many extracurricular activities through the school, I can say that they focus a lot on the different sports teams that they offer.
It was nothing special. We may have a lot of diversity, but a lot of the student body is not very open to change.
I mean it was fine. The music program is fine, and they have a lot of great AP course options. The counselors are terrible though. At least mine were.
The community is great. I moved here from Colorado at the beginning of my junior year, and the staff is so welcoming and kind. I am so happy we moved.
Personally, my experience in Forest Hills Public Schools was moderately alright. There are certain aspects this district excels at, such as its policies to keep students safe. However, there are other instances that I feel the district failed me as a student. Coming from a family that has always struggled and relied on government assistance, there were many situations I found myself outcast from the social group of FHPS simply because I couldn't participate due to funding, or because I was socially looked down upon. Additionally, when I was going through mental abuse at home, there was not much offered in terms of help. In fact, one of the counselors brought in the very person who was treating me this way - making it more unsafe for me at home. And later, when it worsened, a different school counselor told me to "get over it" and that she "does the same thing" to her children. How appalling and absolutely gut-wrenching to hear as a depressed, suicidal student.