Rio Mesa High School

My child is now a senior here, so I have experience in dealing with this school. My child seems to have found some teachers he connects with and some teachers that seem to truly care about teaching. My experience has been very different. I absolutely hate the times I find it necessary to contact either this school’s staff or the district office, because more often than not, they have been jerks. Not returning phone calls, not returning emails, losing paperwork, and directing me to the wrong people when I have a question. I just called the office to inquire about whether a particular day was a day off or not. The person who answered the phone said yes, that’s a day off, and this info was sent out during the summer. I said, yes, I’m looking right at that paper now, and it doesn’t indicate that is a day off, hence my phone call. This is typical of my interactions with the school office: I call to ask a question, they say it was already sent out, and I tell them YOUR PAPERS HAVE TYPOS, WHICH IS WHY IM CALLING. DUH! It seems they operate under the principle of «push the blame onto someone else; don’t admit when you’re wrong.» I asked my child’s academic counselor to explain to me what my child will learn in a particular class (multimedia) and she replied, «just what the title says — multimedia. That’s what they learn.» So I forwarded this email to my child’s Assistant principal, and asked her the same question, what will my child learn in multimedia? The AP actually gave me a detailed answer. But WHY did the counselor give me a snotty answer? Why does it take contacting the AP to get an answer that should have come from the counselor? There have been many negative interactions with this school. I absolutely hate dealing with anybody from this school. Bunch of jerks.

My son graduated from Rio Mesa in 2012. He had the most positive and enthusiastic teachers throughout his four years at Rio Mesa. He was always surrounded by a great group of peers in other students, never any negative activity disrupting his classes. He was also involved in sports and his coaches helped form a confident, ambitious and helalthy young man. The support from Rio Mesa High School could not have been any better. My son attends a private College now starting his third year still involved in sports. Our love and respect for Rio Mesa will last a lifetime. Thank you Rio Mesa staff and athletic department for helping me raise a wonderful young man. R. Arthur

Once a Spartan, Always a Spartan.

I thought that for review #50, I would remember my alma mater: Rio Mesa High School.
I’ll remember how I wanted to play football, but my parents didn’t let me, which resulted in my joining marching band, where the music department was so small that we were outnumbered by the football team.
I’ll remember how ridiculously hard biology AP was with the cutthroat Mrs. Fujita, but how rewarding it was earning that darned 5 on the test and witnessing a 97 percent AP test pass rate in our class.
I’ll remember how run down our school looked for about three years, but by senior year having so much renovation with the bathrooms and Sammy Spartan and the pool, it was like a brand new facility.
I’ll remember the mouse trap cars we made in physics AP and how I realized that sandpaper makes wood smooth! Whodathunk?
I’ll remember Red Asphalt III and The Miracle of Life. I’m ruined forever…
I’ll remember the witty and ridiculously liberal Mr. Worth, who taught us our calculus AB material in two-​thirds time of the school year, leaving us one-​third of the year to prepare for the AP test, then kick it.
I’ll remember journalism, where I had a feature column reviewing local food places… my column was called «Cuisine Crusader.» I should have implemented a 5-​star rating system like Unilocal.That would have been cool.
I’ll remember lunch time, and kicking it with friends like Steven Q. and Michael S., and occasionally playing random things like the Pokemon Trading Card Game, Sony’s Infantry, Half-​Life, and even Dance Dance Revolution when people brought it in to school from home.
I’ll remember fried burritos.
I’ll remember fights at school… every other week.
I’ll remember how my friend Danny got taped to a pole, but we were telling the seniors doing it that he was a sophomore, but they just said «Oh, well we haven’t taped anyone today yet… so…» and we just let them finish and we had a laugh about it.
I’ll remember P.E. and how I was never able to run a mile faster than 8’30″. And I still can’t, by the way.
I’ll remember open mic, and how I sang a song for someone I had a crush on, but realized she was a total bore and a waste of my energy. She was cute though.
I’ll remember indoor drumline, and how cool I thought I was until I realized I don’t know crap about playing snare drum by being humbled by schools like Arcadia High and Fountain Valley High.
I’ll remember getting into UCSD which was awesome… but having to pick among that and what everyone else in the world thought were superior schools — UCLA and Berkeley.
I’ll remember graduation, and how afterwards, I was pretty much the last one to leave the school because I wanted to stick around for longer… because all the memories I had, they were going to be just that. And no matter how far I go in the future, I won’t have high school again. And what I made of it is what I made of it, and what I made of it is not what anyone else made of it.
I am so proud to be a Spartan.