Wilmette Junior High School

620 Locust Road

School District

Wilmette 39
Grade

7-8
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:11
Type

public

School Map for Wilmette School District 39

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by student on September 24, 2024

This school is not good here. The better reviews were a decade old, the school has a bad air conditioning problem and im always falling behind, sweating, and getting picked on. Work on your school because I dislike it.
Submitted by other on September 23, 2024

Hate it here. This school is overwhelming, unprepared, and most importantly, doesn’t take bullying accountably. There is a lot of kids that get away with mean disrespectful disruptions in this school and most of the para helpers are false, absolutely untrained, and don’t try to understand the students. They are just lazy and don’t know how to help the students by just asking things they were told, and it won’t help anything. They need to be more free thinking and understanding. The normal teachers themselves are pretty good though. They help, make funny jokes and are warm and welcoming, but some of the ones lingering in the halls can be quite weird. The school environment itself is HORRIBLE. It is impossible to focus, the pe room is nasty, many hallways are un air conditioned and have no warm surroundings, no carpet, and kinda feel like a giant jail-like labyrinth. Some rooms have bad odor, some rooms boil a ton, and students are forced to learn like this. UNACCEPTABLE, they need to fix this issue RIGHT NOW. The curriculum is advanced and not paced well. Students are all nervous about this school and it’s A MESS. PLEASE MAKE IT COMFORTABLE OF LEARNING, PLEASE FIX THIS SCHOOL OF LOST POTENTIAL, IT IS NOT A GOOD LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AT ALL, IM DONE DEALING WITH THIS SCHOOL CONSTANTLY AVOIDING THE ISSUES. Done.
Submitted by student on July 13, 2015

It's great here. The teachers and staff here are really kind and caring. You won't regret going here unless you want to make your experience bad.
Submitted by parent on May 25, 2015

My students had a great experience at WJHS, and the middle school (Highcrest). The principals and teachers were impressive in their depth of knowledge regarding academics, educational innovations and the social pressures of tweens/teens. They felt supported and were definitely felt prepared to succeed at New Trier High School after graduating from junior high. They learned a lot at WJHS and talk fondly of their time at the junior high.
Submitted by parent on December 10, 2014

I've had two children move from WJHS to New Trier, and one more on the way. Coming from WJHS, my children were 100% prepared for the rigors of high school. And, they confided to me that they felt like kids from WJHS were more prepared than students from other "sender districts". WJHS is indeed a fairly big school with 800+ students in 7th and 8th grade. But, despite the size, I always felt the teachers knew my children very well. My observation is also that the size may be an advantage in terms of WJHS students being well-acclimated to a larger student body when they move on to big high schools in our area (e.g., NTHS, Loyola). The teachers, the facilities/resources and principal are all very impressive. The academic rigor and learning environment has exceeded our expectations.
Submitted by parent on November 23, 2014

This school is full of arrogant and entitlement minded teachers. They have a disjoint and ineffective relationship with the High School.
Submitted by parent on November 07, 2014

Amazing school. Team 7b are smart, caring and enthusiastic teachers. They really care about their kids and give them to opportunity to work to their fullest potential. The curriculum is advanced compared to other schools and prepares the students for high school and beyond. Much of the credit goes to the Principal, Dave Palzet. He is progressive and really listens to the parents. Totally worth paying the outrageous property taxes in Wilmette!
Submitted by other on December 25, 2013

While the education and curriculum is very good, there are some issues on the way this school is run. First of all, the school puts a lot of money into anti-bullying programs that are useless due to a basically 0% of bullying at this school. Because of this, most of the teachers are blinded. Really it just gives students a chance to tattle. If they just say exactly what the program says to say, they can get the other student in trouble. This also leads to the Merits/Demerits. If a teacher gets a student in trouble when not at fault, when the student tries to say something, the teacher just checks another box saying, "Talks Back". When trying to get a merit (reward) students just get obnoxious. Only newer teachers or long term subs get these problems. Some of them even skip the anti-bullying curriculum because they know the students really don't get much out of it other than boredom. On the good side, some of the teachers are great and give support such as staying after school for 2 more hours so students can get help or study for a test. Money wise, this school also replaces APPLE technology every 2 years but still, there are no good, working drinking fountains.
Submitted by parent on August 11, 2013

This school is wonderful! Most of the staff is very good & cares about the students. They keep bullying to a minimum. Communications are outstanding. The kids can log into their class website & parent's can track their kids grades weekly if desired. I can't imagine a better school for my kids & feel very comfortable recommending this school to anyone! There are advanced classes remedial classes & everything in between. My daughter has ADHD & needs extra math support. We love the Academic Strategies (AS) option for kids that have executive functioning difficulties. An LBS works with a few kids during this period, to help organize their work, reteach difficult concepts & work on long term projects. Her LBS (Megan Spellman) was outstanding. There are so many options offered that other kids don't notice the pullouts. Her teachers were very supportive & understanding, with the exception of a surly science teacher. I am also very impressed with the principal Dave Palzet. He is capable, kind & approachable & the kids really like him. He is frequently seen roaming the hallways & greeting students. WJHS offers a ton of after school clubs & free before & after school study sessions.
Submitted by other on April 22, 2010

My family recently moved to Wilmette from Skokie and my younger sister started 7th grade here. The first few weeks it was a bit rocky socially but after that she had tons of friends and liked it much better than her old school. The curriculum is much more advanced and some of the things she is learning I wasn't taught until my junior year of high school (investments and stock market operations for example.) The teachers teach the kids the basics but then expect the students to use that to teach themselves the more advanced topics on their own, which results in me having to tutor her a lot as she isn't much of a book learner. Class offerings are broad, such as Photography, Mathematics in Economics, and 2D/3D Art. She gets about 2-3 hours of homework a night, compared to the 30 mins to an hour she used to get.
Submitted by student on February 12, 2009

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Submitted by parent on August 27, 2008

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Submitted by student on August 15, 2008

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Submitted by student on February 09, 2007

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Submitted by parent on October 16, 2006

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