Concordia High School

At the end of this most recent school year, our oldest daughter stood in front of the entire student body at Concordia High School and received the Christian Leadership Award — This is the school's highest honor, awarded to only one girl and one boy in each grade. The Head of School who placed that award in her hands after reciting numerous quotes from classmates about why she was nominated for this award, then signed a letter last week informing us that the same daughter and her same grade level brother will not be allowed to return next year.
That contrast is difficult to comprehend.
Our family never threatened, verbally attacked, or disparaged the school. We did what the student handbook instructs parents to do when they have concerns. We used the school's formal grievance process to ask questions about how the handbook was applied in a student discipline matter. The handbook explicitly states that families will not face retaliation for using that process. But that is exactly what happened.
From our first email in mid second semester until the certified letter we received last week, not one school leader ever sat down with us to discuss our concerns. Not one phone call. Not one meeting. We live less than a mile from campus and would have been there as soon as requested.
The hardest part is not what happened to us as parents. It's watching two children who actually enjoyed their school, invested in their community, and believed they belonged there, learn that they no longer do.
We are not angry people. We are not difficult people. We are parents who followed the process the school itself provided, asked respectful questions, and lost both of our children's enrollment as a result. We are disappointed.
Our children will be just fine. They are resilient, loved, and surrounded by people who care about them. They have parents who have done their research and will make better decisions going forward.
But other families considering Concordia deserve the opportunity to make a fully informed decision. If you want to partner with your children's school in providing a growth path for your child, if you want to know that the adults surrounding your child throughout the school day will help to step in to guide when you aren't there, I warn you to proceed cautiously. In a school with less than 90 students, we expected an effort from the staff that they clearly boasted about when we were attending pre enrollment events. However upon actually attending we found that may have just been a tactic to get you in the door to collect the thousands of dollars they were able to get from us. If you would like to see the complete documentation of our experience, I am willing to share it: every email, both letters, the grievance brief, and the school's written policies. Read the documents. Draw your own conclusions.
I simply want other parents to have the information we wish we had. Thousands of dollars later, it's too late for us. But not for other families.