Onteora Middle School

Overpaid staff. Kids are horrible here. Bullying ect... find yourself a better school for your children than onteora.

My children have been in the Onteora district since kindergarten. The district is pathetically small, lacking diversity and has drug problems starting at the middle school. Some good teachers, but only if you are going to support the instruction at home. Administration is very weak. Sports are limited and largely defeated. Some kids excel, but that is in large part due to the individual's talent, not guidance. The BOE is a joke. Members quit, move and no one wants to run due to the antagonism. And they wonder why people are home schooling and choosing private schools...

Onteora Middle School is a wonderful school with hard-working, caring teachers and respectful, enthusiastic kids. The person who wrote the 2010 comments should come visit again and feel the positive atmosphere in the hallways and classrooms. This is a wonderful school. Come see for yourself. You'll be glad to enroll your kids at OMS. (I am a new teacher here with many years of experience and I'm extremely impressed by the principal, staff, and students. It really is a place filled with WARMTH...that's the best way I can descibe it.)

Onteora MS is a decent place if your child is at the top or bottom of the academic heap. There are many excellent teachers, (along with some poor ones) and enough opportunities for the more academic students to excel. If your child has special needs, these will also be well tended to, although there are now attempting to de-classify children due to financial pressures. Where Onteora falls down, however, is in the vast midland of average students. The school lacks spirit and cohesiveness (indeed, it's really just a 7/8 MS housed in a few corridors of the larger HS). The atmosphere among students is poor--there are a lot of disciplinary problems, meanness and anti-social behaviors. Teachers frequently look the other way. The administration is weak, mostly due to high turnover (this is the 3rd principal in 2 years). Need I say more?