Challenger School - Sandy

Reviews

• SD

  Stephanie Dickson

  Oct 16, 2025
  1.0
  We enrolled our son Dimitar here at the beginning of the year. We were so excited to start this and get him what he needed to start kindergarten. After a week, they sent him home with a 99 degree fever and “called it 100” so he couldn’t come the next day. It then progressed into telling us almost daily how bad our son was. He was being bit and hit with rubber bands by the other kids. And still it was his fault he was being hurt. In the end; they called us into the office to tell us our son was unteachable and they were unenrolling him. The head master was in the office and supposed to be in the meeting but didn’t even attend. To Ms gaugan, Kristi was just taking out the trash. They threw our son out and gave up on him. It was too much of a challenge. This is not a school I would recommend to anyone. They are discriminatory and this is not a learning school. There are much better options: please do not send your child here.
• DK

  Deb Kirkwood

  Sep 12, 2025
  1.0
  THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ORDERED ALL FLAGS AT HALF TILL SUNDAY AT 6 PM. DISGRACEFUL & DISGUSTING
• TN

  Todd Noall

  Jun 28, 2025
  1.0
  After having our kids at Challenger for 9 years, I thought leaving a review here might be helpful for those considering Challenger: The Pros: Most of the administrators and teachers genuinely care about the kids (Karen Gohler, Miss Black and Miss Spence, in particular). They are traditional (pledge of allegiance). No cell phones. Armed security on campus. Not super “woke”. The challenger machine like approach to academics does yeild strong acedemic results (but at what cost?). The Cons: A lot of the student who attend Challenger are socially awkward, particularly in elementary and definitely in the middle school/junior high. The Challenger administration is insufferably arrogant and completely out of touch with why most parents send their kids there. They think parents want an academically rigorous education, when virtually every parent I asked (over nine years and four kids) stated the same reasons I stated above (safe, traditional, not woke). Few care about having their children be little academic machines. Most want well-rounded children. Not children who are brain-washed about doing things “the challenger way”. No one cares about “the Challenger Way” of parenting like they think. There is also EXTREMELY high teacher turnover over. And some of “one and done” teachers our children had created some real long-term challenges with our kids (Mr G I’m looking at you, buddy). This teacher's incompetence undoubtedly set one of our children back in her education. There is also a huge cultural divide at Challenger. Cultures that prioritize academics over all else are reflected in the students who attend. Last year, in my girls 4th grade class less than 12% of the students were black or white. This is undoubtedly due to how some cultures prioritize academics over being a well-rounded individual. Challenger also punishes students who are sick, take trips and other family vacations. The teachers are mostly unwilling to spend the time to help students when they fall behind, opting instead to blame the student/parents for being absent. When all Is said and done, are families going to regret their children not being the top of their class In 4th grade, or are they going to regret not spending more time together and family time? I guess Its all about what each family choses to prioritize. It also became evident that if your children don't fit into the "academic machine" mentality, that they propagate, you're children will be constantly put-down and made to feel bad about themselves in what can only be describe as mental and emotional abuse. Zero positive reinforcement. In hindsight, I think Challenger is maybe good for preschool and maybe kindergarten, but I think parents are doing their children and disservice by keeping them enrolled into elementary and middle school. I hope there isn't any long-term damage with our leaving our children in Challenger for as long as we did.
• TN

  Todd Noall

  Jun 28, 2025
  2.0
  We had four children enrolled at Challenger from preschool through sixth grade. There are pros and cons to Challenger. The pros: most of the administrators and teachers genuinely care about the kids. They are traditional (pledge of allegiance). No cell phones. Armed security on campus. Not super “woke”. The cons: A lot of the student who attend Challenger are socially awkward, particularly in elementary and definitely in the middle school/junior high. They are completely out of touch with why most parents send their kids there. They think parents want an academically rigorous education, when virtually every parent I asked (over eight years and four kids) stated the same reasons I stated above (safe, traditional, not woke). Few care about having their children be little academic machines. Most want well-rounded children. No one cares about “the Challenger Way” of parenting like they think. There is also EXTREMELY high teacher turnover over. And some of “one and done” teachers our children had created some real long-term challenges with our kids. There is also a huge cultural divide at Challenger. Asian and Indian cultures prioritize academics over all else, and this is reflected in the students who attend. Last year, in my girls 4th grade class less than 12% of the students were black or white, with 80 to 90% of the student body being Asian or Indian. This is undoubtedly due to how these cultures prioritize academics over being a well-rounded individual. Challenger also punishes students who are sick, take trips and other family vacations. The teachers are mostly unwilling to spend the time to help students when they fall behind, opting instead to blame the student/parents for being absent. In hindsight, I think Challenger is good for preschool and maybe kindergarten, but I think parents are doing their children and disservice by keeping them enrolled into elementary and junior high.
• AS

  Avivahc SUN

  Jun 24, 2025
  1.0
  The coldest school ever. If your kids are not perfect, I mean, actually perfect on everything, this may not be a good choice as a school because they will “return” them anyway. And then I hope I can get a refund soon. But per the below comments, I can only cross my fingers. I wish I had read the below comments before I applied for my two and half year old son.

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