St Bernard High School

As a parent of a student, and soon to be 2 students at St. Bernard High School, I want what’s best for my children. The school is not perfect and there are several areas that need improvement. I gave 5 stars because I believe there are steps being made towards the goals put in place by the principal and her faculty. It’s easy to sit back and complain about what’s wrong. Get involved! Be a part of the process! I became more involved than I have ever been and I am a true believer that the school will be put on the right track. I am watching many positive things happen all around campus. But in order to see them, you have to open your eyes, your ears and your heart. Keep up the good work Dr. Hoepner, you are well on your way!

I wish I could give this school a ZERO! The administration department is horrible, unprofessional, and unorganized. They are very money hungry and the finance manager, Ms. Saltzman always have our child’s tuition statement wrong every month. We are not the only parents that experience this! The principal pretends that she cares about the school but all Dr Hopener cares only about the money not the children!!! I will say that teachers do care about the children.

what can i say i had the best time here when i attended St. Bernard. The memories, the friends the teachers were awesome. I hope things are the same now a days. I just hope they dont demolish the school for the lax expansion. Class of 2000 baby. V House!!!

I would have given St. Bernard HS more stars if the school didn’t have such a HIGH teacher/​principal/​coach turnover. As a parent of a recent graduate, I can say I am happy to no longer have to deal with this school. Some teachers are quite efficient and effective and others, well, just seem to be collecting a paycheck. There have been 3 principals in 4 years and each one seems to be less and less able to effectively run the school. While the sports dept is no where near award winning, it is decent IF you are a boy. More emphasis, time and money is put into the boys’ sports than the girls’ sports. A lot of pressure is put on the parents to attend the boys football, baseball and basketball games (whether you have a kid in sports or not) but when it comes to the girls’ games you’d be hard pressed to find a teacher, staff member or student who even knows when the girls play. Major discrimination if you ask me! SBHS is VERY money hungry and is constatnly asking for more but they’re not very responsive when you ask where the money is going. The school wants your money but doesn’t want the parents to hold them accountable. My child who will be in high school next fall will NOT be going to St. Bernards.

A forced transfer student, I spent three of the worst years of my life at this school. This was definitely the time where I developed severe social anxiety and depression, but hey, WHO HASN’T! I lived so far away from this school (again, why did I go here?), so it took a butt fuckload of time to actually get there, only to end up daydreaming about my future outside of this institution and spending lunch time in the computer lab, library, or outside eating a bag of chips by myself (except for senior year when many friendships and lulz finally occurred).
I do have to say one really positive thing about this school, though: the teachers here are fantastic. I did notice they have a high turnover rate for teachers (I saw a teacher once — not my teacher — look completely lifeless, sad, and depressed every time I looked at her face), but the ones I had were all nearly amazing. They were really dedicated to their craft and I learned a lot in many classes, from film as literature to psychology to creative writing to American literature. One teacher in particular, Mr Mallen, is one of the most generous, interesting, loveable, inspiring, hilarious, and nicest PEOPLE you will ever meet in your entire life. He tells really interesting stories and got me more into Bob Dylan. :) If a Bernard student, parent, or alumni happens to read this and runs into him someday, tell him I said hi. EVERYONE at school loved him, and the love is deserved. Trust me on this. I just wish some of his teachings didn’t fly over some of the students heads, though…

my alma mater!!!
the perfect racial mix at a school… about half Mexican (yes, I said Mexican instead of some all inclusive term like «latino» because, well there aren’t many other countries represented to a large extent) and half African-​American, with about a one percent population of asian and white (I know, I wish there were more of them too) but you must say that the mix really gives way for some interesting dynamics. in my experience it wasn’t at all cliquish and there was absolutely NO racial tension…
ever since the riots, people think that L.A. is full of racial tension between brown and black, particularly in high schools, but there is none of that at Bernard’s… everyone gets along very well (for the most part, it wasn’t exactly Pleasantville, USA)
the teachers were great when I was there and there was a pretty good variety of clubs and teams…
another thing that is quite unique about Bernard’s is that while it is a Catholic school, there are no snobby rich kids… most of the kids are from Inglewood and come from middle class families that are trying to keep their kids out of the horrible public school system… no rich hoity toity-​ness here!
I can go on and on but I just want to say that as for now, I have no idea what the quality of the school is, but when I was there (1998 – 2002), I had the pleasure of being taught by teachers that actually cared and prepared me very well for college
4 stars would be my rating if I was being impartial, but I have a bias about this school so 5 stars it is!
interesting fact: the movie «The Wood», starring Taye Diggs and Omar Epps was filmed here (while I was a student) because it is a true story about the director’s life and he is a St. Bernard alum… the uniforms worn in the movie are the actual uniforms we wore, and the teachers mentioned are actual teachers from the school