The Manning School, Golden | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

Manning Middle School has got to be the most discriminating school I’ve ever known about here in Wheat Ridge! After two days of my son attending there, I was called in and was told that my son was behind on every thing! They didn’t ask me how they can help my son catch up on his work, they showed absolutely no care or interest in helping my son catch up to where he needs to be. They told me there was no program at their school to meet my child’s needs. They pretty much told me in a very polite way that my child was not good enough for their school. To move him on. I was so disgusted with how discriminating this school was, I was about to call our family’s attorney and file a complaint against that school. If it wasn’t for my son sharing with me one morning on our way to Evveritt that he was excited to see the rest of his friends, and my husband calming me down, I would have had that school’s name all over the local news!!! Bottom line people, if your son/daughter is not ” Harvard bound “? don’t sign them up. That school is being run by people who do not tolerate children with slow learning, or even learning disabilities. They will not help your child get to where they need to be, they DO NOT WELCOME SLOW LEARNERS!! And they will ask you with a very polite smile to move them on. They made me feel awful, like my child was not good enough to attend their freaking school! Again, I had the phone to my ear calling our family’s attorney READY to have that school’s perfect score all over the local news letting every body know how discriminating they are towards ” certain ” children. Obviously, from my experience, if your student is not a math magician, don’t sign them up! They asked if my child had hit his head as a toddler!! LOL”S! They are soooo dang lucky my husband talked me out of making that dang phone call!

We see and agree with Benjamin Oviedo’s point in her review and frustration with Manning. It took Manning 2 weeks to turn our “straight A” kids (transferred from Boulder) who always loved school to harboring a fear of school, the mean & unfriendly girls, and the teachers, including the principal Barbara Bares (somewhat of a bully herself!). School, as everybody knows, is a lot more than academics. They are a public school that’s trying very hard to be a boarding school with strict rules; unfortunately very inconsistently applied. They have, quote – “high behavioral standards”, which mostly applies to what one wears and absolutely NOTHING to do with the way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially towards others. How would the kids be much better if they are following their teacher’s examples? The front desk staff is also as cold as they come. The school has something called “the Manning way” – no one tells you what it is but you are expected to follow it (even new transferring students) or face the consequences without a heads up or an explanation of what it actually is. Academics, for us, was the easy part! We reside a few blocks from Manning and were excited to be going there.
We couldn’t take it anymore and did not want our kid’s psyche’s to be affected to the point of impacting academics so 3 weeks in, we moved them to Bell Middle School. One short week into Bell and we couldn’t be happier. None of the meanness and inconsistencies in applying rules. So much warmth from the teachers, staff and students – what a difference! They now leave and return with smiles, like they always did. We have no doubt they have a better chance of remaining “straight A” students in a hospitable & nurturing environment, even as they pursue advanced courses: iSTEM, Spanish, etc.

This is a great school with a focus on academics. The homework load is manageable so it’s possible to get a good education and participate in sports and other activities too. They have high expectations not just academically, but they enforce behavior standards and dress code.