Ingrid B. Lacy Middle School

Great school! Safe, clean. Very friendly kids, and the school emphasizes its anti-​bullying programs. Very diverse poulation and the kids are very accepting of eachother, not as clique-​ey as other Pacifica schools. Lots for kids to do, sports, marching band, leadership and Boys and Girls Club on campus. Lots of tutoring and academic support for any kid who wants it.

Love this school. Teachers are good, advanced classes, and field trips such as going to Great America, Yosemite, New York, Washington DC, Chinatown, and Catalina Island. Send your seventh graders to both Yosemite and Catalina. I went to Catalina. It was pretty great. We got to kayak 3 miles.

Two kids have attended. One graduated last year.
For a public school that is under the same extreme budget stresses as other middle schools in San Mateo County, they do a super job.
Very good: Principal, office staff & counselor. They care about the kids and are helpful and respectful to parents and other adults. Not all schools are like this.
Most teachers are above average. There is a built in honors track for English and math. The library is just amazing with a superb librarian.
If you choose to, you can get a first class education here. It is cool to be hardworking and smart: they offer honor and high honors (3.5 and above) ribbons and recognition each trimester. Quite a few kids at eighth grade graduation had received Presidential Award for 3.5 or higher for each trimester of middle school.
My major critique is the punishing level of homework. It needs to be reduced by about half. The top students become incredibly stressed by trying to do it all. The slacker kids throw up their hands and say no way can I do 2 – 3 hours a night, especially if no parent at home to help.
My kids pretty much gave up all free reading to get the mountains of busy work, I mean homework done. The main reason they are good students was BECAUSE they like to read on their own. Ironically now they have an initiative to force kids to read more, but it is not enjoyable because of countless hours filling out post its and reading logs.
Also a very easy way to raise Star test scores: Get rid of times tables charts up on the wall. They should of learned in grammar school, but if not, do not proceed in math until child has learned them. The times tables charts are removed during testing.

I have 2 sisters that went to this middle school.
This review is NOT for the staff or the location or the things you’re probably wondering about. It is about the kids.
Young misguided souls who I want to shake because
— the girls are wearing BOOTY shorts
— proud of their Victoria Secret push up bras
— slutty all around
WHY children?! WHY. you’re barely 13 and you dress like you want … sexual things. I feel so disgusted.
Btw, I’ve already threatened my sisters if they ever decided to dress like this.

School is fairly new, about 8 years old. Known for their marching band program. Good teachers but average academics. Decent sports program run through the Boys and Girls Club on campus.
As I see it, if your kid is smart, he or she will do okay but not advance much. If your kid needs improvement, it will not happen and might go down. There needs to be higher expectations from parents to get the overall school smarter.