Our family spent two years at this school with both of our children enrolled. During that time, we…read moregave our full support -- volunteering, donating, serving as class mom, and even participating on the board of the school's charitable organization. We genuinely believed we were part of a strong, supportive community. Unfortunately, our experience took an unexpected and very difficult turn -- one that left our children deeply impacted and us, as parents, scrambling. Before winter break, we were approached by Jennifer Sherer, who suggested we consider providing an aide for our son to help with both English and Spanish in the classroom. We were told this was not required -- simply a supportive option. When we agreed to explore it, we were surprised to learn the cost would be $750 per day, amounting to roughly $3,000 per month. While we expressed concern about the cost and necessity, we were told that was the rate, so we continued, trusting the school's guidance. As class mom, I was frequently present in the classroom and soon noticed troubling changes: our son had been moved to the back of the room, seated alone with the aide. He began withdrawing at home, becoming more isolated and quiet. He shared that he didn't feel safe, that the aide was unkind, and he was being treated differently -- even teased -- by classmates. We voiced these concerns to Principal Jason Smith and Jennifer Sherer, asking to revisit the arrangement. We explained that we believed the aide's constant presence was negatively impacting our child's emotional and social well-being. Our son was not failing academically and had no diagnosis requiring special intervention -- this support had been positioned as optional. After three months of trying to work through this, we formally requested to remove the aide and asked to meet or interview the individual we had been paying thousands of dollars for. We were told we were not allowed to meet them, as the aide was a school employee. (This raised major concerns for us about the financial structure and accountability of the arrangement.) We also asked for any documentation showing how the aide had been helpful. Instead of receiving answers, we were informed that the aide was now required for our son's continued enrollment -- and that he would not be permitted to return after winter break unless the aide remained in place (at our cost). We respectfully pushed back, stating that we could not continue paying for a support role we believed was doing more harm than good, and that the school should follow appropriate procedures and ADA compliance as required of private non-denominational institutions. We asked for an opportunity to finish out the final 10 weeks of the school year without the aide. Principal Jason Smith responded by immediately dismissing both of our children from the school. No warning. No transitional plan. Just an email notifying us that our kids were no longer allowed to return. This decision was made just days before school was set to resume -- leaving us completely blindsided, heartbroken, and scrambling to find alternative schooling with enrollment already closed in many places. Our younger child, who was not even involved in the aide situation, was removed as well. We are still in disbelief that a school -- and leadership -- we once trusted could take such a drastic action without regard for the emotional toll it would have on our children. We are sharing this not out of anger, but as a warning. If your child has unique learning needs, or if you expect transparency and partnership from school leadership, we urge you to ask difficult questions before enrolling. Names you should know: Principal Jason Smith and Jennifer Sherer. We have documentation of everything mentioned above and are open to speaking with any parents who want more details. Please think twice.

Good Start, Rocky Finish - 9 Years of Experience…read more I've been at this school for 9 years, so I've seen it from every angle--especially how things shift as you move from lower to middle school. Im writing this from my point of view since ive been at ISA for 9 whole years. The lower school is truly the heart of this place. The teachers are caring, the community is strong, and the environment is perfect for younger students. You feel supported, safe, and excited to learn. It's where I built my confidence and love for school. Unfortunately, things change in middle school--and not always for the better. Academically, it's fine, but the overall experience doesn't feel as structured or supportive. What stood out most was the lack of real consequences. Students would break rules or act out, and nothing would happen. It sometimes felt like the people trying to do the right thing got overlooked while others just... got away with it. That made the environment frustrating and unfair at times. Im not gonna name names... but the directors and the principal of the school COULD'VE and SHOULD'VE done better at their jobs as directors of the school and helped out when the students needed it most. Overall: Keep in mind, not everyones expirience is the same at ISA but this is just what i thought. I'm "thankful" for the strong foundation the lower school gave me, but I wish the middle school had followed through with the same care, consistency, and accountability. The teachers were good for middle school, not the directors or principal. If you're thinking about this school for younger grades--go for it. But for middle school, I don't recommend, but if you do, get ready for some challenges and a lot of rule-bending that doesn't get addressed.

I don't often leave bad reviews for businesses, but when the behavior of a preschool director /…read moreowner is this egregious, I feel compelled to share my experience. TL;DR - Lack of communication, unprofessional behavior, petty conduct, limited to the school's director Adam. Teachers are great. Long form: We brought our daughter to Global Minds in November of 2021 and things were great right up until two weeks ago. She loved the school, made friends, and we got to know many of the parents. There were some problems, like their seeming inability to answer the phone or call us back, but we were willing to overlook that for the sake of our daughter's happiness and the fact that she was learning both Mandarin and Spanish. Also, we really liked how the parents all formed a tight-knit community. Recently, my wife and I got COVID while traveling out of state (we are fully vaccinated). We attempted to contact Adam via phone on 3 separate occasions to inform him that our daughter would not be at school when we returned, and to receive guidance about what we needed to do before bringing her back. No one ever answered, nor did they return my calls. This lack of answering phone calls is a problem that goes back about six months, with only one of my phone calls being answered in all of that time. I was told multiple times by teachers that they would tell ownership about the problem. Adam finally responded to an email my wife sent several days earlier, telling us that we could bring our daughter back to school when she was feeling well. No other guidance was provided beyond that. There was no mention of a need for a negative test prior to her return. Current CDC guidelines are that children who are asymptomatic may return to school 5 days after exposure to someone who is COVID-positive. We waited until the 8th day to bring her back. She was never symptomatic. In the absence of any guidance from Global Minds other than the email we received telling us to bring her back when she was feeling well, we followed CDC guidelines and brought our daughter back to school. When I brought her back to school, I was told that I could not leave her there without a negative COVID test. I was a bit annoyed, since we had tried to call them multiple times for exactly this reason, and no one bothered to answer the phone or call us back. Adam's email also said nothing about a negative test. So, I said it was fine if she can't stay, but I was a bit annoyed that no one had bothered to give us any guidance before drop-off that morning. Chi (Adam's wife) called him and asked what to do, and he apparently said it was okay to leave my daughter there because Chi changed her mind and said it was fine. Fifteen minutes later, Adam called me on my cell. His behavior on that phone call was beyond the pale. As an adult, I have never experienced the level of disrespect he showed me over the phone that day. I could barely get a word in, in fact I think I said maybe 5 words in total. When he was done chewing me out, he demanded that I pick my daughter up immediately, and then hung up on me. I couldn't believe it. I went to the school and got my daughter and later sent Adam an email, addressing his disrespectful phone call, lack of guidance, sudden change of heart, and their habit of not answering phone calls or returning messages. One week later, Adam sent me an email and said he "found a lot of truth in my words" and offered to apologize in person the following day. I showed up to the school as he suggested, and was told by his wife that he was not there, nor was he planning to be there that day or the next. She had no idea about our meeting. I emailed him again, and asked what happened, giving him the benefit of the doubt. He offered no apology. He said, "My intent was to be at school on Monday and Tuesday, but I had some showings of properties and some meetings that popped up that kept me away." Obviously, he has more important things to do than follow through on a meeting he proposed with a parent at his school. Given the lack of communication, unprofessional conduct, and the fact that Adam seemed to be deliberately misleading me to waste my time, my wife and I made the extremely difficult to tear our daughter away from her school and friends, and enroll her elsewhere. When I informed Adam that I would be removing my daughter from his school, I received an email response one week later that simply said, "Turd." See the attached screenshot. This behavior is unbecoming any adult, let alone one who is entrusted with the care of children. I think it is important that anyone who is interested in taking their children to Global Minds know what they can expect from the director before enrolling. I don't know if any other parents have had a negative experience with Adam. Before these events transpired, I would have said that everything at the school was great. But, given what I experienced with Adam, I wouldn't recommend Global Minds to anyone.

We are sharing our experience below in hopes that the owner of Global Minds will seriously consider…read morehow unpleasant and unprofessional he can be with parents . After seeing some of the prior reviews and speaking to other parents regarding their interactions with him, we learned that our extremely negative interaction was not isolated, but rather part of a toxic, dismissive, and volatile behavior set. Before we talk about our experience with the owner, we would like to praise the teachers and support staff. We found them to be energetic and polite. They were engaged and nurturing with our child. We'd like to compliment them. Now we will continue with the owner. First, we started to notice something strange when we wanted to speak with our child's instructors via text or email. This is prohibited. Strange. Our intention was to glean feedback and/or insights how to best help our child progress with Mandarin. We were told communication with instructors was only possible in person and after the owner personally set the meeting up. That raised a red flag. Due to our jobs, our family has lived in multiple states over the past few years and we've accumulated a fair amount of experience with preschools. Let us tell you, this is NOT the norm. When we were told that, it made us think that something is being hidden. Why in the world could we not speak with our child's instructor unless it was 'pre-vetted' by the owner? We got suspicious so we started asking around. As a member of the Chinese community and native mandarin-speaker, I reached out to the community only to find a strong negative narrative about the owner. At first, it seemed odd that he was described as angry and volatile as we never really observed that, but, then again, we had never really interacted for more than a couples minutes with him at any given time. Only after a shocking, and, frankly, disturbing meeting with the owner did we realize this is a very accurate description. This all started because we had a question about a school policy. The owner, instead of answering the question over the phone, insisted on meeting at the preschool to talk. Honestly, we didn't think anything of it and came to the preschool very casually. Our expectation was that our meeting was going to be pleasant and informative as the owner arranged it. You can imagine our surprise when the owner started to shake with anger and speaking obscenities to us. We were literally stunned, and, honestly, scared. We had absolutely no idea that such a volatile and unprofessional person was running the school. That day was our child's last. Again, we don't want to bash the school as there are many capable and caring teachers, but we do hope the owner will mature as a person. It is completely unacceptable to us to enroll our child in a school that is ran by someone that struggles with anger management issues. We had a simple question about a policy that could've been handled with maybe two or three sentences, but instead blew up into an owner meltdown. Please grow in professionalism and learn to lead in a respectful and dignified manner.

The instruction I've received at SFLI for the past 3 1/2 years has been very helpful and even…read moreentertaining. I'm now a 1/3 time resident of Mexico and John's help with his curriculum as well as explanations of questions I encounter (e.g. why sometimes vamos and sometimes vamanos) are invaluable. And it's a great value and they're available via facetime!

Started taking private lessons (FaceTime during these times) with John St Clair…read more In short. Great teacher. Educated. He understands the work that needs to be put in to see progress. Enjoy his program he created for learning and his style of educating. Always excited to have our weekly class with him and get that much closer to being fluent. Also genuinely a nice guy. Highly recommend!

Thank you for the great service. I truly appreciate your patience, professionalism, and depth of…read moreknowledge throughout the entire process. It made a big difference and was genuinely helpful

Summer and her team are awesome! They use a fun way to learn. Not only am I learning the Mandarin…read morelanguage, but I also am learning Chinese culture. I'm very lucky to find them and I highly recommend them if you are interested to learn Mandarin and Chinese culture.

As parents, one of the most important decisions we make is care for our children. We absolutely…read moreLOVE Miro. Our son is excited to go to school every day. The love and care for our children by the entire staff is phenomenal, the course curriculum and structure is fantastic. Our son is developing very well. We could not be happier with Miró and feel very fortunate that our children will have the opportunity to attend.

It has been two years since we enrolled our son at Miro and words can't truly express how grateful…read morewe continue to be to have now both our children attending (1.5 and 4). The teachers are consistent, the love and care they show our children is truly above and beyond and the learning and growth they experience is absolutely amazing. A very big thank you to Miro and Fabiana but most especially to two teachers that go above and beyond for our children each and every day, Maestra Alejandra and Maestra Sandra...we love you!!

My son took their ACT vs SAT diagnostic test this week. This 4 hour test is designed to determine…read morewhether the student does better on one test over the other. Since colleges take either one, it would be advantageous to take the one that the student scores better on. So based on this diagnostic, my son did better on the SAT which wasn't a total surprise to us. All this service is free. They do offer several options in improving your scores. They offer group help or individual tutoring. Looks like there are many options and pricing options. What I like about their service (other than test help) is that all their service is designed around the actual test dates. Also, they teach strategies on taking the test, which I'm almost certain will help my son. We were told average score increase for their students are around 150 points on the SAT. Some higher and some lower. Needless to say, my son is signed up for their program. I am very optimistic about this business helping my son perform his best. I will update once he's done with their program.

I took my daughter for geometry tutoring. She liked her tutor and felt she understood the…read morematerial. There is a small waiting area inside but it was close to Costco so I usually just did some shopping while waiting.

Tina has been an incredible resource for my college applications! Her help has made my essays much…read morestronger, and she is always an amazing person to work with. I love Focus, and I'll absolutely work with them again!

Both Tina (owner/director) and the tutor we worked with were great! We contracted their services to…read morebring our foster son up to speed before starting kindergarten. He wasn't used to sitting down with teachers, but the tutor really knew how to keep him engaged and to handle his behaviors (hyperactivity) when they arose. She also helped instill in him an excitement for books, which is invaluable. She was able to see his strengths and work with those. As the director, Tina was very responsive and flexible in working with us every step of the way. Most importantly, this company has a lot of heart. It is not in business just to "do business", but rather to do good at the same time, for kids, their families and the community. We highly recommend!