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    Junipero Serra Elementary School

    3.3 (4 reviews)

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    Marjorie H Tobias School

    Marjorie H Tobias School

    3.4(13 reviews)
    2.4 mi

    Experience could be better... I graduated 10 years ago, so a lot of things have changed…read more From the get-go, no one wanted to be friends with me, which made me dread school. In kindergarten, I wanted to play with the building blocks, so I would hang out with the boys, but they would never include me and single me out, so I decided to hang out with the girls, and they would also make fun of me and would not want me to hang out with them because I was different. The PE instructor was mean to me as well and singled me out for a lot of things during first and second grade. On top of that, I was a victim of bullying, and a lot of people thought I was incompetent and worthless, even though I did nothing wrong. For the most part, the teachers were nice, and I know that some of you all had complaints about this one fourth-grade teacher (ifkyk), but in all honesty, a majority of your complaints are due to you enabling your kids too much. Yes, I do get that they were harsh at times, and they even singled me out for being disorganized, but it was a life lesson for me. I also witnessed them being harsh towards a student, but they were doing their work on a table that had a chair on it, and they were kneeling on the ground, resulting in their inability to concentrate properly, so in that case, they had a right to be harsh. Some of their biggest flaws were singling out students who were ahead or behind, which I was not a fan of. I remember one of my classmates transferred schools because they got singled out for being the "bad" student, which was messed up since if you were worried about their progress, it would be better to talk to the student's parents about it rather than humiliating them in front of the class. That being said, in most cases, they had a right to scold students since the students would be rather mean to the teacher (I witnessed this throughout my whole K-12 education), and they were the most stern about it, which led to parents and students not liking them. I have a feeling that maybe her reputation wouldn't have been so bad if parents didn't constantly enable their kids I also noticed that the school should do a better job with substitute teachers. During my fifth grade year, my teacher was on maternity leave, so we needed a sub and this led to the class getting out of control and my parents were having complaints about the students not learning and the children behaving badly (bullying, passing mean notes, talking over the teacher, having no regards for the rules, etc) and again, this could have been a result in parents enabling their kids too much. I was more grounded, and this led to me being bullied and singled out, so when graduation came, I felt empty towards everyone. There was this one yard member who would always come to my classroom and yell at everyone for no reason, which got on my nerves and was rather unpleasant to deal with at 8:30 am. I was also not a fan of the fact that some of my classmates were boy crazy in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade since I just wanted to live life. In all honesty, my experience could have been better, but the end of my fifth-grade year made my experience pretty bad, along with cliquey classmates and bullies.

    I'm not going to say that I hated this school BECAUSE I DIDN'T. However, I have had a considerable…read moreamount of negative experiences at Tobias. These experiences were mainly pertaining to the staff of the school. To start, the P.E. teacher, Ms. Brown. She was very rude and it's very clear that she had favorites. She would yell at many students she deemed not athletic enough. It was incredibly humiliating for various students. I just feel like she could have dealt with this in a better way, due to comments she has made towards me specifically, I've started dealing with low self-esteem and insecurity. Another teacher that MANY of my friends and former classmates have reported having very unpleasant experiences with is Mrs. Harsono. I don't really need to use many words to describe how she acted towards me and many other students. She acted incredibly brutal with certain students, going as far as showing their work and criticizing every little thing about it without permission. Something that I noticed is that she would "pick on" students who had trouble participating and were behind when she could've put in the effort to help those students by simply being less harsh. Honestly, my fear of failure goes to her, the same with all my anxieties. I was so stressed AS A NINE YEAR OLD because of her. Although I had some bad experiences, there was also some good! Most of my positive memories come from third and fifth grade. I had made lots of good friends and made many memories during those times. During these years I had great and understanding teachers. All in all, this school was okay. I wouldn't say that it was great but it wasn't horrible either!

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    Marjorie H Tobias School
    Marjorie H Tobias School

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    Hillside Christian Academy - HCA Christmas Program

    Hillside Christian Academy

    4.3(19 reviews)
    2.5 mi

    Found this school in the summer of 2023 for my granddaughter. My first impression was really great…read moreseeing the summer school program teachers and aides were very welcoming. Enrolled her to 1st grade and I can say that it was the best decision we made for her. She was always happy and excited not only to see her friends and teachers but the learning experience she has with this school. I can understand the frustration of some parents about the recent changes that the school experienced, however I am also confident that these changes will bring better outcome too. The school earned an accreditation despite the changes and that speaks a lot. On a personal note, I would choose this set up than public elementary school where ratio is somewhere between 20-25:1 (student:teacher) vs 2:1 at HCA. If I am looking for quality education and experience for my granddaughter, I am still going for HCA.

    Never seen a school environment where the parents and teachers giving 200% involvement on the sake…read moreof our future leaders. Everyone knows each other children. A very save environment. A small community has its potential. At least I see it from my niece. Due to low enrollment, 1 teacher teaches 2 grade students. Being in the kindergarten last year, she was exposed listening or learning the 1st grade work. Now, she is in 1st grade. It's just the 2nd week of the school year, she did 1st grade homework all on her own.

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    Hillside Christian Academy
    Hillside Christian Academy - Our Proud Students

    Our Proud Students

    Hillside Christian Academy

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    John Muir Elementary School - Rock program visit.

    John Muir Elementary School

    4.2(5 reviews)
    3.7 mi

    My son's Kinder year was terrible. His teacher was so disorganized they even brought in another…read moreteacher to assist, which also didnt help as she was just disorganized as the first one. His current 2nd grade has also been bad. His teacher left in October, kept pushing her return just to not come back at all. His class has been covered with substitute teachers. I signed him up for an afterschool program only for them to tell me they had no room, however the afterschool program made sure to charge me the registration fee and weekly fee.

    John Muir is a wonderful school. The principal, Dr. Frances Dunleavy, is warm and caring...I've…read morenever seen a school principal as involved as she is. Every morning she is out greeting the kids (ALL she knows by name) and parents. She will stop and take the time to speak with anyone who has a suggestion or concern. AND she goes to all school functions. Besides that, she is a fun person with a great personality. The parents are very friendly...you always feel welcome there. I honestly wasn't expecting the other parents to be so involved and so nice to be around. This makes you want to go to all functions because you know you will have a blast. I can't speak for all teachers...but the kids I know all seem happy with their teachers. MY sons kindegarten teacher is top notch in my book! Mrs. Claussen has a wonderful way of being warm and loving with the kids and at the same time, is no pushover and the kids respect her for that. She has a great sense of humor and a wonderful teaching style. There's my 2 cents (more like 80 cents!) If you are deciding whether to have your child attend John Muir, please call Dr. Dunleavy and schedule a tour, you will not be disappointed.

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    John Muir Elementary School - Cars are ready!

    Cars are ready!

    John Muir Elementary School
    John Muir Elementary School - Lucky in school bus :)

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    Lucky in school bus :)

    Good Shepherd Catholic School - Merry Christmas

    Good Shepherd Catholic School

    3.0(4 reviews)
    1.8 mi

    I can't say much about the school yet since we are waiting to see if my son will be accepted. This…read morereview is based on the school tour and interaction with everyone on site. My experience was great. The tour lasted about an hour and Principal Torres gave a group of 6 parents the tour. We were able to shadow each classroom and speak to the teachers. He answered all our questions with confidence and ensured us he is focused on making positive changes. Every staff member greeted us with a a smile and positive energy. What I love so far is how the staff openly told us their child(ren) were students here and even though they graduated, they are still working here. Everyone told us how much they love this school. Academically, you can see how much the kids learn. They cover every subject required for high school and colleges. Ms. Soulette's syllabus is thorough and includes expectations from students and parents. I'm so impressed with how behaved the kindergarteners were. The first graders are extremely advanced. When asked what they're doing or learning, multiple students raised their hand. When the second and third grade teacher quizzed the students, again, multiple hands were raised. They also have a buddy system for younger students! The playground structure is small but new. They have a basketball court and gym on site. Pick up and drop off was my number one concern but Principal Torres reassured us there isn't much morning traffic with their process.

    One star. We're leaving after four years of unresolved safety, supervision, academic, and privacy…read moreissues. I kept hoping things would improve. It didn't. It got worse. What broke us this year was the school's awful handling of a four-month illness. Between October and the end of January, my daughter was mostly out. In that entire span, not a single teacher, the principal, or the vice principal reached out. Not once. The only outreach came from one front office staff member. For a school that markets itself on "values," that was clarifying. Academic support was worse than the silence. On paper, support was offered. In reality: no teacher conferences, no meaningful communication. The first response to my requests was a round of finger-pointing between teacher and administration about who was supposed to send what. After I escalated, the school produced a poorly-prompted ChatGPT "support plan," delivered paper-only and take-it-or-leave-it, with no timeline, no coverage detail, no accountability. Months in, the principal finally said they "can't help" because what I asked for sounds like "independent study." We lost months of instructional time. This time had to be paid for via experienced private tutors just to catch up, not to mention stress for the child. The school also has a broader communications problem. Ask for paper, they point you to SchoolSpeak. Ask for digital, they insist on sending paper. One thing always works seamlessly: the electronic deductions from your bank account and the steady stream of solicitations for money and teacher gifts. This year also brought unresolved bullying ("pretend tasers" used on classmates), dangerous objects in the classroom, regular yelling at students, and a testing incident where another child could see and comment on my daughter's score. In small classrooms, supervision should be easy. Instead, the pattern is the same every time: staff deny anything happened, then dustup. Earlier years brought their own version, including a first-grade teacher who refused my daughter a bathroom break during a test, with predictable outcomes for a young child, and then claimed she didn't know what happened. The school apologized and made excuses, this teacher to this day pretends she doesn't see me. Yet the principal likes to quote "code of conduct" that seems to be applied too selectively. Administration has its own privacy problem: personal matters get aired publicly, right there in the front office, rather loudly, no matter kids or other parents, with tactless questioning on top, like, "I thought your father died on Monday, not Tuesday...", or my favorite, "let me call your daughter X, because I like it". My daughter has a name, that's what her family prefers! Accountability is the worst part. Push back, and you find out the "investigations" wouldn't pass scrutiny anywhere. Example: interviewing two children simultaneously, with the conclusion baked into the question. Raise a concern and the response is lip service at best, tone-policing and retaliation at worst. Most parents don't push back, and I understand why. Escalating doesn't help. Leadership is unresponsive and unhelpful at every level, all the way up to the Archdiocese. There are good teachers here. The second-grade teacher, theater, PE, and some extended care staff are genuine bright spots. The problem is structural and sits with leadership. None of this is what we wanted. Leaving means real disruption for our family and the loss of friendships our daughter built over four years. We hoped it wouldn't come to this. We're quitting, like other fed-up families before us.

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    Good Shepherd Catholic School - Christmas musical.  Thank you Catholic school teachers.

    Christmas musical. Thank you Catholic school teachers.

    Good Shepherd Catholic School
    Good Shepherd Catholic School - Church of the Good Shepherd school Fall Fest 2015 - Knights of Columbus, Marian Council 3773 bar service.

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    Church of the Good Shepherd school Fall Fest 2015 - Knights of Columbus, Marian Council 3773 bar service.

    Junipero Serra Elementary School - elementaryschools - Updated May 2026

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