Democracy Preparatory Academy at Agassi Campus, Las Vegas | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

I am a Junior currently attending Democracy Prep Highschool. Ive been at what was before known as Agassi Prep since Kindergarten and I can tell you if you are trying to go to this school DO NOT make this mistake! My 8th grade year, when Agassi first heard the news of this new “takeover” everyone was shocked and scared many of the students and AMAZING teachers did not return as a result of this. There were rumors that the Democracy Prep schools were extremely strict. Made kids walk in lines, long school hours, ugly uniforms, quiet hallways, short lunches, saturday school, and having to learn Korean. At first I was upset, I didnt understand why this takeover was happening and I was scared for this big change. To see this school I have attended all my life to have this DRASTIC change. There were even many protests about it. Such as walk outs, news interviews, and even support from the neighboring schools in order to stop this change. But then I wanted to give this school a chance, I thought maybe this would be a good thing, maybe its not as bad as people are saying, and maybe its for the better. So fastforward freshmen year, I decided to stay and give it a chance. Fyi theres this thing called prep academy that students attend before the actual first day of school as a way of preparing the kids and teachers for the academic school year. At that time you are required to turn in the completed summer homework that was given to scholars over the summer. The first week I found out that they had cut out orchestra, drumline, band, choir, wrestling, dance team, and choir. We lost a lot of GREAT teachers because the workload requirements were simply just TOO MUCH too handle. If youre a teacher who has taught for a while, and have a certain working style that works best for you. Going here would not be a good idea. The staff coach you on what to give and teach the students and you don’t have a lot of room for flexibility. If youre a new teacher and dont really care for it then this school would be a good option. Before Agassi became Dpac I did orchestra for 3 years. And Orchestra was a way of meditation for me it helped me forget about problems in my life and calm my stress. But when I found out I would no longer be able to do it I was DEVISTATED! And I felt a part of me was missing. They hired a music teacher but he was only educated in band instruments. There is no selection of instruments to choose from. The only thing that kept me going to that school everyday were the students, hands down. I met a lot of great people my freshmen year and it was good while it lasted. The rules and regulations on the otherhand was just too much too handle. I can attest to the fact that if you were to come to school without a belt, wear shoes with a color other than solid black on your shoes (laces, soles, etc), without a tie or have on a non DPAC jacket/outerwear then you would have to sit in the dream room afterschool for an hour. This was dumb and a waste of time, because there are kids who cant afford to get these items and it was inconsiderate of the time and financial stability of these kids’ households. And if you arrived even a minute late to school you would have to sit in the dream room for the whole class period bevause it would “disrupt the learning environment”. Even tho many staff would frequently walk in and out of our classes, and sometimes not even for a legitimate reason. Many of the rules were strict there but there were some teachers who understood what we were going through and were more leniant when it came to some things because they are struggling with us. The first year school dismissal time was 330pm. But the next year, my sophomore year they added 30 minutes making it 4pm. The school environment is depressing there are no activities no exciting school events or anything to keep me attentive. I feel like I just go to school, do work, and then go home. And if you would address a problem they would say things in order to make you feel better but not take actions to resolve it This not all of it but please take my word for it

PLEASE READ THIS IN ENTIRETY BEFORE CONSIDERING SENDING YOUR CHILDREN TO DPAC. I was a student at Agassi from 8th grade until 10th. That’s when I first heard about the consideration of a deal selling us to this company based in New York that produces schools. I considered transferring to another high school just because of some of the rumors I had heard, but after talking with several family members, I reluctantly returned to DPAC for my junior year. One of the main things that influenced my decision was the promise that graduation requirements would not change for juniors and seniors because we were already set on the Agassi and CCSD requirements. Well, they lied to us. By the second week of school, we’d already had 2 schedule changes and all graduation requirements were changed forcing seniors and juniors to take extra classes we weren’t prepared or planning to take. I had to show the CCSD grad. requirements of 2 credits of a foreign language on my transcript in order to be removed from a Korean class. Them changing all of our requirements caused a lot of seniors to be short a lot of credits, meaning a lot of them probably wouldn’t graduate on time. This made a lot transfer to other high schools where they could graduate on time. So for the first year of DPAC’s existence, they only had 7 graduates out of a class of nearly 40. I pushed through my junior year, although a lot of the teachers I depended on had left or been fired. The principal even held a town hall to announce that he was leaving us. Then came the debacle of my senior year, the year where I’m supposed to figure out what college I want to go to while also attending prom, grad night, a senior lock-in, and having so many more opportunities. Well, the first thing that went wrong was more of my teachers were quitting or getting fired for “not teaching the students the DP way”. Then the principal, Christina Bentheim, quit on us, taking her 2 besties, the student council advisor and the registrar, with her. So the founding Executive Director, Adam Johnson, took over as the principal as well as still overseeing the elementary and middle schools. So I took my classes as best as I could, my teachers were trying to hang in there for us, all the while more and more was being taken from us seniors. Our senior lock-in was a mess. Our grad night got canceled because they didn’t inform us of it happening in enough time for us to come up with the $250/person needed. Our entire high school had an emergency town hall informing us that DPAC was not a NCAA accredited school so if any of our prominent sports players wanted to play D1 sports in college, they could not. This made a lot more students leave because AGASSI was known for the basketball and football teams. Everywhere you went, someone knew of Trevor Diggs and Keith Jones. So this was a major disappointment. Teachers who hadn’t planned on becoming advisors of clubs were immediately thrown into the position (s/o to Ms. Maria Leon for becoming the student council advisor and trying your best to make the most of our senior year). This school does not believe in substitutes. They force teachers to give up their prep periods and cover classes than to hire substitutes like regular schools. We were forced to wear ugly uniforms with really strict dress codes for the shoes, belts, and accessories. If a student didn’t have a belt or a tie, they were sent to the dream room where they would either have to trade their phone or something else of value for one or get sent home. If your shoes were anything but all black, you were sent to the dream room. Middle schoolers are forced to walk in quiet lines down the hallway to another classroom for “another period”. Elementary kids are forced to have quiet lunches and are sent to the back of the cafeteria, where they’ll stay for all of lunch and recess, if they talk. Staff are unprepared or unqualified to teach a specific subject, students aren’t motivated to learn, a lot of programs, that were essential were cut. PLEASE FIND ANOTHER PRIVATE/COLLEGE PREP SCHOOL BECAUSE THIS ONE IS TRASH.

DO NOT ATTEND THIS SCHOOL!! Alex Daniels is very rude !! If you come to him with a problem, he will not resolve it. He completely ignores the problem . The staff are continuously leaving, there are barely any high school students. Students aren’t learning because teachers are constantly leaving . They expect students to adapt to a new teacher every month. If I could give them no stars I would. The teachers who actually help the students academically are always getting fired or quit. They give students detention for the smallest, dumbest things. In detention the students have to stand for an hour. High school students are not allowed microwaves for lunch. There are no special education programs for students who need it. They disregard students who need help. They keep students for 40 minutes after their LAST class for “homework time” that should be done at HOME. They basically keep your children at school for hours that aren’t needed. DO NOT ATTEND THIS TERRIBLE SCHOOL!!!!!