Nathan Hale-Ray High School

I've been attending this district since I was in second grade, and I have absolutely loved being here from the moment I walked into the elementary school building. Sure, it may be a small district with a limited budget which of course does relate to less resources for extracurriculars, but we offer everything from your all-American baseball team all the way to Multi-Culture's club back to a fencing team! All the teachers that teach here do so because they love the school and have insane pride when it comes to their pupils/work. Almost every single teacher in the school coaches a sport, has a team they preside over, participates in after school activities (you can find tons of teachers at our games grilling hot dogs and burgers for us during halftime), etc. One teacher in particular, my Gifted and Talented teacher (I'm a straight honors student!), spent time with me and, even though I've left the middle school, I remain in close contact with her. She started working with me in the fifth grade when I was an insecure nerd awkwardly going through puberty (by the way, absolutely no bullying in this school!) and stuck with me all the way through eighth grade when I left, better for having met her. I was a member on her mock trial, debate, future problem solvers and math teams. She pretty much made me into who I am today. All the teachers at the schools, elementary through high, are dedicated to bettering their students, and it's made possible due to the small size of the school district. Less is more in this case. I know all my teachers and they all know my name and face as well. This isn't a big school where you have to be a small fish in a big pond; here, virtually everyone is a big fish in a small pond due to their personal strengths, whether it be academics, people skills, athletics, artistic talents, pretty much every teacher will know you, even if you don't know them (and it's great because you know you can trust absolutely anyone with your problems!!). If someone's crying in the hallway, you can bet that within five seconds, ten kids (whether their close to this person or not) are trying to comfort them and at least two teachers are there trying to smooth the problems over. Though we may not have the largest cultural diversity in the school, there are several students from Hispanic backgrounds, there are quite a few African Americans, and I myself was born out of the country. It's a school dedicated to creating open-minded members of society. Our administration is so anti-bullying that if you even threaten to bully (a.k.a. say "If she doesn't stop I'm going to go up to her and call her an slut" or something like that) it's treated as bullying and you could serve detentions or harsher punishment depending on the accusation and the situation. Our close-knit community ensures that not one person is overlooked or "lost" in the shuffle. Everyone gets the attention they need and, if you have any problem whatsoever, be it school related or not, you can definitely approach the principal, currently Mr. Spencer (our ex-guidance counselor), our assistant principal, Mr. Espinosa, or our awesome guidance counselor, Miss Strunk, about it and know that it will be taken care of and that they will do everything in their power to make the situation improve. These guys (and girl) have seen it all and know how to help you with everything. We have one teacher, Mr. Flarehety, that's been here long enough to have had students' parents and even grandparents!! All in all, I think this is one awesome school and I could go on for years about how much I love going here, and knowing how lucky I am to be in a school where our biggest issue is kids stealing gym shirts out of gym lockers to wear during gym!! (Hope this helped in any way possible!)