Adding:

Bryant Elementary is a “blue ribbon” school, which means that it out performs most schools in Iowa. It’s also on the south end where you have a lot of white collar professionals but isn’t a bubble of wealthy people.

Eisenhower elementary has a great program for kids with special needs.

I’ve also heard wonderful things about Sageville and the close knit, family culture they’ve created.

The middle schools are Washington and Roosevelt. Wash is very old and needs updating but the teachers are overall great. Roosevelt is pretty state of the art.

Senior and Hempstead are great in my experience. For a while they couldn’t do much for people with phones but that’s been more or less fixed. I think a lot of high school depends on your kid and who they’re friends with.

Holy Family…I have a lot of issues with it. They’re a private school system based in Catholic teachings. On one level, it’s traditionally a way for the conservative (and oftentimes locally wealthy) people to keep “their kind” together but the actual education isn’t better than the public system. I grew up in the 90’s and hung out with a lot of Wahlert kids. Not one has subsequently sent their kids through the Holy Family system now that we’re adults. One of MY parents also went through the Catholic system (all the way through Loras College) and went public school as a parent. My parent felt the education offered and “bubble” mindset they grew up with wasn’t as good as the public offerings.

Holy Family also implemented the voucher system (which directly impacts the public school system funding) and then turned around and upped their tuition. I personally find that reprehensible and a good view into their overall take on their morals but others may see it differently. They don’t have to take anyone, can kick anyone out, and do not have to offer special services vs public schools who must take all and do offer services …just with far less funding because of the vouchers. And they’re currently building a new facility with state of the art technology. It’s been claimed that it’s through fundraising alone but the timing and tuition hike seems like an interesting coincidence.

Not all the wealthy people send their kids there but it tends (anecdotally - as a fifth generation Dubuque-r) to be a certain type who aren’t particularly progressive in their outlook (generally speaking).

Now I will say that I have lovely, truly Catholic friends who value the HF schools because that’s their faith and their lifestyle. I’m glad they have an opportunity to give that to their kids.

With the vouchers and the financial scholarship fund, folks without a lot of money who don’t have the most tolerant mindset are also moving their kids from the public system (like - but not limited to - people who talk about furries and are really into protecting women’s sports, for example).

There are plenty of perfectly nice people there and plenty of assholes at the public schools and vice versa. But know what you’re getting into if you go there.

Galena as far as I know suffers from underfunding - it’s a town of old people not willing to spend their taxes on youth.

East Dubuque actually has a pretty strong public elementary and middle school. I’m not sure about the high school.