Vista Charter Academy 711 32nd Street Southeast, Grand Rapids, MI 49548

"This is a poor example of a charter school. My wife and I removed our daughter after just a little over one month. Heritage Charter schools say that their main focus is on taking responsibility for the success of the students. Well, how about taking responsibility for their failures as well. We didn’t get much information before starting the first day regarding where to park, which car line is which, we were not informed there where four different car lines etc.. We were not informed about bringing snack for our child. Our child had to tell us once she got home. The first week our daughter came home almost in tears because she hated class. She said her teacher would yell a lot and hated her. Vista claims to focus on safety but when a child has allergies its not their priority. My child has a lactose issue and the teacher asked me about it a month after school started where my child had milk everyday prior. What if my child had a more serious allergy, you do not wait a month to ask the parent about it. We filled out the allergy papers before school started and listed the lactose intolerance. Lack of safety and well being for a child. A teacher should be aware of allergies before school starts. There have been many student who have had Covid at the school. While they send out a notice that students had close contact with your student, they allow your student to continue coming until you show symptoms. Covid is still being studied and symptoms can very. Your child could be at school infected and spreading it…Unacceptable. Make sure you read their hand book. It states if a student tells or accuses a staff of doing something the student will be held responsible, the child can then be written up due to false accusation. So your student has no chance of reporting something without being reprimanded for it. How about you investigate the situation? Our child was moved to a desk by herself, the first week of school, because she likes to talk. I agree to discipline and moving her for the rest of the day and starting over again the next day however, this was not the case. Our child was told to sit alone at a desk everyday. How is this changing her behavior? How is this setting her up for success? She is five. This is unacceptable, this opens the door for emotional, mental and social abuse. This is not a success. My wife and I called the principal and left a message for her to call us regarding our concerns on Thursday Oct. 7th. We waited for a return call or email, never received one. My wife called again, on Friday Oct 8th and the office staff said they would send an email to the principal to reminder her to call. Monday came, Tuesday came Wed came and not a single call, message on the portal or even an email regarding the phone call. As a principal over a school that has such hight standards she didn’t seem to care about the wellbeing of a student. The principal should be more aware and responsive to matters that a parent is reaching out for. Since our concerns as a parent didn’t matter enough to call us back our concerns for how”great” the school is doesn’t matter to us. Thursday Oct. 14th at 10:20 am we removed our child from Vista and placed her in a different school. The front office staff tried reaching the principal when we stated we were unhappy. They couldn’t find her, not surprising. The school principal had a week to call us back, clearly this wasn’t a priority for her. Over all this school doesn’t show any of the high standards it claims too. Communication has been poor from day one, lack of safety concerns for the students, the emotional and metal abuse the children as young as five have to suffer along with the retaliation they could endure if they speak up or tell a staff of a situation. The schools leadership needs major improvement. Need to focus more upon being held accountable to higher expectations than what is placed upon the students. If the school or superintendent ever wanted to verify conversations, dates, or times I have everything recorded."

"My son has been going here for 2 years (he is now in 2nd grade) and he loves it and so do I. The staff here are amazing and Principal Hekkema plays no games when it comes to her students and that's what I love about her! I highly recommend this school to anyone who's looking for a place where they push your children to strive having no room for failure!"

"I had a situation take place today when I tried to get lunches for the kids they were not given to me because I was literally about 8 minutes early even though she open the door and talk to me to tell me that I couldn't have the lunches that were sitting right there I messaged the school and got an immediate response from their awesome principal who immediately rectified the situation above and beyond where anybody else could have or would have the principal of this school has the biggest heart I have seen and they deserve all the great things that they can achieve they actually care about their students and their community"

"If no stars were possible that's what I'd give. It'd be easiest to just blame the culture in this town but that's a disservice to this town as building a successful area starts with giving our children the proper opportunities to grow in. This school amongst many others in the Grand Rapids Area are not doing so. Turning blind eyes to bullying situations. Doing all they can to make excuses about incidents so they don't have to push paperwork over it. If they actually took the time and effort into holding particular students and their parents accountable for said students behavior this would be a much nicer community and school. We are very glad to be leaving behind a town who's standards for the children of our future are 2/10 for a school system that is 9/10. Our recommendation is that you should run from any GRPS affiliated school and any charter and Montessori school in the greater Grand Rapids area. They are all the same and you and your children deserve better. Kindergarten should be the place we learn to keep our hands off of one another, not a place where when teacher turns her back you get in a cheap punch and hold the kid your hitting down from telling about your horrid behavior. On top of calling him the B word. Poor(which we aren't as you can tell by my proper grammar), giving kids the middle finger, knocking kids teeth out, and stealing other children's belongings then bragging to your child's face about it. If these are things you'd like your kindergarten child to face then that's your choice, if your a sensible human being on the other hand heed my warnings. This school will do absolutely nothing to keep your child safe."

"Had my daughter going for kindergarten and one semester of first grade and at first was awesome but then it was terrible... the office people is rude and they like to know to much info about personal matters. I saw kids fighting, hitting each other and teacher didn't do anything.. i took my daughter to another school"