Mills High School

Great facilities and safe!

Great school, great teachers great
facilities. Mills is the gem of San Mateo High School District.

My teen graduated from Mills recently and is on the Dean’s List at a top tier East Coast school. A lot of complaining on these posts about how Mills didn’t prepare the student for college … some of it is true, but I think, my complaint is mostly that Mills did not do a good job in teaching kids how to write (at the other high schools in this school district also, based on comparison with other parent friends). I could say the same about the middle schools that fed into Mills and the other district HS. Anyway the AP classes at Mills may not have been as spectacular and thought provoking as we would have liked (a lot of busy work and not a lot of independent creative thinking) but they were good enough for my kid to get nearly all 5’s on the AP tests and one 4 —- without an outside tutor. So in my mind, the substance was there if the student did their part.
But Mills is a calm environment, not a lot of drugs/​alcohol, and according to Millbrae police, a really safe campus. My child could study, make friends, learn new things, be happy. There is nothing wrong with that.
Meanwhile parents have to do their part too, and challenge their kids with new experiences, new ideas, sports, and books outside of school.

Yeah Mills was a good school but there seemed to be more of a certain group school, not a mixed one

Hey summer k. It’s not your fault that you couldn’t learn Japanese well, but nor is it the teacher’s fault. Mrs SpencerMills is fantastic and I love her and her class! She teaches tons of stuff!
But I do agree and advise that kids better not take Japanese unless they know Chinese. I have no idea how some girls in my class managed to learn both the kanji (or vocabulary in general) and grammar from scratch; I technically started half way since I already knew what the Chinese characters mean and how to write them before first day of Japanese class.
And, DON’T take Chinese in Mills. Many people hate the full-​time Chinese teacher. The new part-​time one seems nice, though.
The reason I took off one star is that it is really stupid of Mills to offer advanced English and history but not have pre-​calc or chemistry honors. Mr Paul is totally qualified in teaching Chemistry H, and everyone would agree. That will definitely save some kids’ lives, since some are dying in Mr Paul’s class, and it’ll increase their chance to get Mr von Euw (easiest+nicest teacher).

I didn’t go to high school here but I’ve heard that it’s one of the best in the area. One of the moms told me that it’s 67% Asian.
The reason for my 5 star review is because it has a lovely running track that’s open to the public everyday from dawn to dust except when used for track meets. The track is well-​maintained, easy on the knees, and has both water fountains and bathrooms. The area has tons of foot traffic so it’s also very safe. Unfortunately, this track is also very popular with walkers so I often have to weave when I run (but it’s not that bad).
I don’t do any speed work, but I prefer running circles on the track in the pleasant California weather over using the treadmill any day.

I unfortunately went to this school, unfortunately loved it too. I was a kid moving into Millbrae from Sacramento and you don’t believe how much of cultural background check there was between the two places.
I enrolled in Mills in my freshmen year and was surrounded by Asian’s left and right (supposedly over 50% Asians). I didn’t think I would fit in as easily, yet I was wrong because I made an abundance of Asian friends in a week that I still keep in touch with today =). Mill’s has defied racial gravity and has taught me that there will always be people out there who are willing to become your friend even through all the hardships today.
This is James L. logging off

…continued because my review was too long for Unilocal
the TEACHERS: Unfortunately, I had more exceptionally bad teachers than exceptionally good. And yes, I’m about to name names. Not because I have personal vendettas against any of them (except for Lista for violating students the way he did — screw you!), but well, I just don’t think bad teachers should teach. Students’ education is more important than retaining your self-​perceived teaching ability. I’m going to be honest; nothing personal.
Let’s do the good guys first! 1. McMullin — The first pleasantly memorable teacher I had at Mills. Too bad future students won’t have him ’cause he retired. 2. Burdette — This guy knows what he’s doing; he’s the truth. He really cares about students learning the material and teaches well. He makes class engaging and interesting; I started keeping up with the news because of this guy. Lots of good class discussions. 3. Peel — Good math teacher. She teaches the material well to make sure students understand. 4. Beal — Maybe I liked the class more than Beal’s actual teaching methods? Can’t figure it out. A lot of people liked to sleep during her government class, but I found it useful and learned a lot. This class gave me a newsfeed and I found the discussions interesting. Ms. Beal’s also really nice and there’s no such thing as a dumb question in her class.
I’m sorry, but please learn to teach or find a new profession 1. Mr. Petersen — This guy is seriously speaking another language. Yeah, it’s math and it is like another language, but nobody ever followed a thing he was trying to say. Actually, it’s almost like he wasn’t even trying to teach US, but just talking to himself. I managed to get through his class without actually learning anything… I still have no idea what precalculus actually is. 2. Olson — He loved chemistry, but didn’t spend much time actually teaching. He left class in the middle of tests and made us watch these incredibly boring, useless videos of OTHER people teaching chemistry. The labs were incredibly boring and I never really saw the actual point in them. 3. Soda — Had her for two years in Japanese. Mean, angry. Belittling, scary. Bad at giving directions. Impatient. 4. Scott-​Jones — She doesn’t even try to teach. Don’t take digital photography or web design classes, they’re a joke. All anyone does is play online games, check e-​mail, or use Facebook. Expect to learn nothing. 5. Spencer-​Mills — I don’t remember doing anything productive in her class. We had Japanese-​speaking exercises, but I don’t know if they helped much. Hardly learned.
Words of advice:
I now go to a CSU and I’m glad I took AP classes (calculus and English). It gave me 15 units of credit going into college and cleared me from having to take some dumb, boring general education classes. Everyone could use that headstart of so many units to make it to graduation in four years. Although, I would say take Calculus AB instead of BC unless you plan to further your education in math. You’ll still get credit for math classes in college (assuming you pass the AP test) and it’s just easier. AP English was a huge pain, but I’m still glad I took it just ’cause it got some college classes out of my way. Whether or not it actually prepared me to write well in college classes is another matter. I’m not sure if it made me a better writer, I had no idea how to write the first essay that was assigned in college so it was pretty difficult. I got a B in my English class my first semester of college though, so I guess that’s all that matters.
If you sincerely want to learn web design or digital photography, don’t take either of these courses expecting good instruction. You will learn next to nothing, as everyone in class does pretty much nothing. If you want to screw around and waste time, I guess these classes are fine for you. Taking Japanese isn’t really worth it either. If I did high school at Mills over, I’d go with Spanish. Japanese is just a really difficult language and you won’t learn to speak it much. Plus, the teachers are lame and, in Ms. Soda’s case, irritating. If you do take Japanese, don’t expect to be able to actually hold real conversations with others — no one in my third year class could do this. I guess it’s just the nature of the language; you won’t learn as much in three years of Japanese as you would in three years of Spanish. If you just want an introduction to the language and a foothold on it, then I guess these high school classes are fine if you don’t mind the poor teaching.

lol Mhs on Unilocal is a rare sighting, I had a great time there despite boring old Millbrae

Ah, Mills…
I had some great teachers here. Among the most memorable were Jackson, Peel, and Hamilton [ tear :’(]. I won’t comment on Lista. Also, I don’t think Crowell was too fond of me, but from what I hear it’s all starting to come back to him.
It was pretty good academically for a public school. There wasn’t a lot of school spirit nor were many resources put into the performing arts, but I guess you can’t have it all. In my time, the «gay community» consisted of me and a bunch of lesbians, but I’d say campus was accepting on the whole. I mean, electing a gay Homecoming king was pretty awesome and really meant a lot.
As challenging as it was, I never really learned to study or take notes, which screwed me up royally when I went off to college. It took me a whole year to learn study skills I was supposed to have learned in high school.
Speaking of college, coming back and visiting Mills makes me realize just how freaking ugly it is in comparison. This is supposed to be the academic crème de la San Mateo High School District… sure doesn’t look like it. Meanwhile our neighbor Capuchino gets a pretty little facelift. [shakes fist]
In any event, it was really the students that made this school great. I genuinely had a good time in high school and I can’t wait for a reunion. I’ll tell everyone I invented Post-​it notes.

It was so funny to read about Mills High School on Unilocal today, so thought I’d add my own antiquated reveiw. I went to Mills, but back in the Stone Age, before any of you were born, no doubt. The demographic was much different. We had, I remember, 2 Asian girls. One was Dr. Fong’s daughter, and the other was the daughter of the Taiwanese Consul. The only black students were in special ed classes and were bussed in. Most of Millbrae was comprised of Jewish kids (dads who were doctors & lawyers) and Italian kids (dads were building contractors –there was a building boom there).
Before my sophomore year, girls couldn’t wear pants/​slacks of any kind, and the school checked the length of skirts by having you kneel. By the time I was a junior, people were coming to school in FADED (OMG) jeans and long hair, and more than one was stoned or tripping on acid. A lot of changes very quickly.
It was pre-​Prop 13, though, so the school had remarkable facilities: an Olympic pool and a diving pool, 2 full gymnasiums (gymnasia?) with multiples of every bit of gymnastic equipment. Football field, baseball diamond, track, and tennis courts. We had Humanities and Driver’s Ed in big Delta 88’s, and although the school looked like a factory to us, even back then, there were killer teachers who really spent time trying to modify classes to address kids of this new and mysterious era.
Oh, and there was an art teacher who was banging the most beautiful hippie-​girl art student, but hey, nobody’s perfect. Our Vice-​Principal had a crew-​cut, and was probably ex-​military, too, but I remember a kindly nurse who talked me out of running away from home.
I had heard that the much beloved Drama teacher died a few years back, and he’d been a favorite as well.
We’re Vikings, we’re Vikings — one of the weirdest aspects of Mills High School — the school song was the music from the Kirk Douglas/​Tony Curtis movie «The Vikings», infamous as the movie in which Tony Curtis’s Brooklyn accent informs his Viking lines, as in, «Yonda lies the castle of my fodda». They speeded it up, gave it a little oom-​pah, and some silly lyrics. whadda hoot.

What was once an elite gem in the San Mateo county public school district has slowly deteriorated into «just another» public high school.
Known for being academically competitive, Mills was once a school that staff and students alike vied for ferociously.
Severely needing a remodel, the resolution was a horrendous «lipstick on a pig» yellow and maroon façade that took several years to complete.
Recently, a teacher by the name of Lista was caught filming girls with a hidden camera in the ladies restroom. His room was adjacent to the restroom, making it easy to snake the camera over the wall via the ceiling tiles. Incidentally he was originally hired when he was the son-​in-​law of a prior principal… not as a credit to his ability as a teacher or the merit of his character.
It is rather unfortunate.
Funny thing is… this probably would have been deterred if an extensive remodel had been initiated to retrofit the school with the permanent fixtures (walls, for example) that so many had assumed were long overdue.

it was a long shot, but i can’t believe mills in on Unilocal!thats fantabulous.
Yeah mills has a lot of Asians, but I actually liked that since the schools I went to before had no Asians, it was a nice change that I never got any ignorant remarks for my slanted eyes, some dumb white guy asking me what ching chong meant, and people telling me they never heard of the country korea… But that’s just me…
my younger brother graduated 4 years after I did, I don’t know if its just me getting old, but mills has gotten really ghetto since I last walked those halls… i shake my head in disappointment…
During the years I was at mills, I feel like mills was one of the high schools with better looking student body, I would have friends from other schools look at my year book in envy. Shrug… but we were also known for our STRONGGGG cliques.
Most of our sports teams sucked unless they had maybe ONE star player to carry the entire team on their shoulders (if you want your son to be a student athlete send him to serra), our cheerleaders were a joke, and no one cared about voting… for ASB whatever it is… No one had school spirit. I was so jealous of san mateo HS. They were so proud of their school. but then again their school was prettier than ours.
But of all the classes, Mr. paul’s chem., and AP chem. Were probably the most memorable, and I probably learned the most in those classes. Mr paul was one of the few teachers that actually taught stuff that saved me in college. I cruised thru general chem. And o-​chem b/​c of that man… I hope he teaches my children chemistry one day… Mrs telesco taught me how to write papers. That saved me in college too. but i don’t think she’s there anymore
But I guess we were just spoiled by all the crazy teachers that actually really cared if their students learned a thing or two. But who knows if they’re still there…
But it def wins the ugliest school in the world award for shizzle. They spent a few million bucks remodeling it a few years after I left, I drive past it now, and it still sucks. They just threw on some concrete to cover the aluminum fugliness and painted it goldenrod and scarlet. I want my tax dollars back!!! But mills prepared me in a way to really cherish the beautiful campus of my college tho… so I guess it was alright.

all i have to say is, what the hell. mills high school is on Unilocal?mills high school looks like a fish factory, but most of the teachers are chill

well, well, well… good to see you old friend. fancy meeting you here.
the chance to rate the al-​ma-​matter? why not?
this tribute to higher learning was the most poorly designed atrocities in education history.
An eclectic mix of concrete and aluminum siding that keeps kids in and sunlight out. Not exactly harvard here.
All i wanted was a window which i could occasionally stare out and lose myself in the splendor of nature. Mills has very few of these.
The art department was emotionally challenged. The Industrial Arts were cutting edge and exciting. The Physical education was bored and uninspired and the leadership wasnt exactly leading anyone anywhere.
This of course was when i went there, that was almost 20 years ago.
Now Mills is back with a vengence! Shotty fabrications and bright colors have been added so that hell has a new look this year.
Im sure things are just the same on the inside.
Rotten to the core.