I initially became interested in The Nueva School after subscribing to receive job postings. What…read moreimmediately stood out to me was how frequently new openings were being posted -- sometimes seemingly every week. As an educator, that naturally made me wonder about staff turnover. Eventually, I applied for a position and interviewed with someone who honestly seemed very kind and thoughtful. I left the interview feeling optimistic, especially because I was told I would hear back by the end of the week. In education hiring, timelines usually move quickly because schools want to secure teachers for the upcoming school year before candidates accept other opportunities. Weeks went by with complete silence. No follow-up, no rejection email, nothing. Wanting to close the loop professionally, I eventually emailed to thank the interviewer for her time and wish her and her team the best for the upcoming year. Oddly, the message bounced back, even though I had been communicating through that exact same email thread previously. At that point, I honestly began wondering whether the communication had somehow been compromised or whether I had fallen into some strange scam situation. I even called the school directly to verify that the interviewer actually worked there, and thankfully she did. The school then provided me with another email address associated with their official domain. I forwarded my message there as well, but once again received no response at all. Whether the message reached her or not, the overall experience felt surprisingly unprofessional and dismissive, especially after what had initially seemed like such a warm interaction. After later reading additional reviews and experiences from others, I ultimately realized this probably was not the right fit for me anyway. Still, basic communication and professional courtesy go a long way, particularly in education, where relationships and respect matter.

Interviewed here and saw some things that were surprising to me for a school that is as well funded…read moreas this one is. i would likely avoid this school if you want your children to have a fully rounded education experience.

Both of my daughters attended North Hillsborough Preschool with Teacher Marcia and Teacher Claire,…read moreand I cannot recommend this program highly enough. Both of my girls have really blossomed and learned so much under Marcia and Claire's guidance. What sets this preschool apart is the sheer amount of creativity and intention that goes into every single week. Just across a few months: the kids made Chinese dragon heads and won ton skins for Lunar New Year, decorated pretzel logs in honor of Lincoln's log cabin, harvested potatoes from their own garden and cooked them into smashed potatoes, took field trips to the Palo Alto Children's Theater and Hidden Villa Farm, hosted a Mother's Day Tea, raced stick horses in a "Preschool Preakness," built cars for their own Indy 500, and cooked everything from shamrock shakes to dirt cups to Little Red Hen pizza. Add in weekly Spanish, music, library, science experiments, and visits from parents who share their expertise -- and you start to see why my kids couldn't wait to get there. Marcia and Claire bring a warmth and consistency you don't find everywhere. They truly know each child, keep parents in the loop through detailed monthly calendars and newsletters, and the small touches add up to a preschool experience that feels more like an extended family than a drop-off. After two kids through this program, I can say without hesitation: if you're looking for a preschool where your child will be loved, challenged, and genuinely excited to learn, this is the place.

South School is such a great place for kids. The school is warm, welcoming, and really centered…read morearound helping children feel happy and confident. Teacher Tammy is an amazing teacher. She's patient, kind, and really knows how to connect with her students. Tammy always goes the extra mile, whether it's helping a child understand something tricky or just making them feel supported and cared for. You can tell she truly loves what she does, and the kids absolutely benefit from it. She also is interested in the parents and makes an effort to connect with each of us. The other teachers are equally as fun and supportive. I truly feel like I am leaving my kids with the ideal staff. Overall, South School is awesome, and having a teacher like Tammy makes it even better. Highly recommend!

Our child had a nosebleed at school, and the school director Colleen immediately called us to pick…read morehim up. Since we work 40 minutes away, I asked if this was part of the school's sick policy. It wasn't--the reason given was simply that a teacher couldn't manage 12 kids at once. On top of that, the preschool principal Laurie required us to provide a doctor's note confirming that nosebleeds were "okay" to let kid back to school. Even our pediatrician found this request ridiculous, but kindly wrote the note word-for-word as they asked. Despite the school's popularity due to its affiliation with a local private elementary, this has been our worst preschool experience compared to others. The teacher-student ratio is inadequate, tuition is extremely high, and communication with parents is minimal. Although it's promoted as a play-based program, most of the time children just play independently while teachers supervise rather than engage. Also they introduce screen time (TV, iPads) as early as age two. I initially chose Serendipity Preschool for my child because of its strong reputation. However, I eventually realized it operates more like a business and not care much about the kids as they claimed. After moving and enrolling my kids in other schools, the differences became very clear, in all aspects--and much greater than I could imaged. In response to Laurie's reply below: When a school director exaggerates facts by claiming "daily nosebleeds" and deliberately misleads the public while carefully managing reviews to maintain a 5-star image, it really makes me question their priorities. When I answered the call, I clearly heard the words: "One teacher cannot take care of 12 kids. Please pick him up as soon as possible." That completely shocked me.

We have one kid in his third year, a second kid starting out in the 2s ("Monkeys") class, and a…read morethird enrolled starting in 2025! If we had three more kids we would probably send them to Serendipity, too! Excellent preschool with teachers that clearly care about the kids and the school. Even coming out of the pandemic we have witnessed virtually no teacher turnover which has led to seamless continuity as the kids cycle through classes. Each class has a bit of its own feel to it depending on the focus of the teacher(s), however what is consistent is that there is a clear curriculum and excellent parent-teacher communication. As the older one has hit his stride, it is apparent that he feels a part of the community as we do as parents. It will be sad once graduation finally comes, but luckily we have two more kids to go!

Baywood Elementary is an outstanding school. It is a wonderful, clean, safe and exciting place to…read morelearn. Great administration and wonderful teaching staff that supports learning in a very exciting way. Great community support with maximum involvement on the part of parents. A perfect example of what an elementary school should be. Parents line up starting at 4am in the morning to register their children. Baywood lives up to their reputation as the perfect example of what an elementary school should look like. My grandchildren love to go to school and learn because of the staff at Baywood. Lawrence Dauch

I wish I could give 0 star here. This is the 2nd time I have had a bad experience talking to the…read moreadmin at the school. I am in the process of getting the tour dates of all the schools I may be interested in sending my little one next academic year. So I called and the admin who I spoke with was super rude, she ended up saying if you need any registration info please contact the district, and that she doesn't have time as She needed to do things for the current students and she hung up on me. I don't think it's fair to the parents who need information for their kids who may go to this school in the future. I had a similar experience a few months ago when I called to ask qs about the TK program they offer. I am so nervous about this school now, I just hope the kids are not treated so badly.

West is the best school in the Hillsborough District. The others are great too.West has one of the…read morenicest fields for the elementary schools. It's a great school. :D

Excellent school and highly recommend if you want your children to be respectful, be disciplined,…read morelearn strong Catholic values and be far away from people and schools who will push woke and LGBTQ agenda on your kids. Special shoutout to Sister Corinna, 2nd grade teacher, who is absolutely amazing. She teaches from the heart and teaches the love of Jesus in all subjects. Students are prepared and excel after graduating from this school and attend top high schools. Other things: I find this school to be the only Catholic school in the area with an actual indoor atrium (cafeteria) where students eat their lunch. Classrooms are also roomier (other schools we saw, students' desks were crammed-in and stuck together to fit more students.

My kids go here and it is such a good school and perish! Excellent teachers and staff!read more

Kids are very pale because they spend most of the time indoors playing on PS3 or wii…read more Good schools. Good golf courses. Ungrateful children. Pretty good place if you ask me.

Both my siblings, one year apart, have been mentioning that a specific teacher has been going out…read moreof his way to treat them and most boys in their classes badly for the past two years. Both my siblings had this teacher for 4th grade and the youngest one has informed me that, to add the cherry on top of two years of constant unprofessionalism and disrespect, he tossed her report card to the floor and told her to pick it up in front of the rest of the class. This is after constantly leaving her out of things, going out of his way to ignore her, and this was similar behavior given to my younger brother last year when he was in this man's class. I don't want to fully point fingers, but the fact that he is an older white male picking on latinx children and other students of similar and very different backgrounds, while heavily favoring female students from what not only my siblings told me but their friends as well, is severely concerning.

Highlands lives off the reputation as historically being one of the better schools in the San Mateo…read more/ Foster City district. In my experience; however, I'd say it's a school in decline. Highlands has a basic California-wide standard approach to teaching, one that would work in non-tech cities like Fresno or Modesto. Because of its location, a large number of its kids come from silicon valley families and have higher expectations for learning than just a standard California education. Unfortunately this school does not adequately cater its teaching to meet the needs of this large demographic as the elite schools in the mid peninsula do (Fox, Baywood, etc). The typical classroom at highlands consists of 2 large groups of kids with different skill sets. One group is of advanced learners and the other is of those who perform "below basic standards". There really aren't many kids who have skills in the middle. The school's main principal to teaching is to "ensure all students learn the essential set of skills needed for basic life" and that "no kid is left behind". In each class, all kids are taught the same level of math. Given the class's wide disparity in aptitude levels, this means that math is taught at a lower level and at a slower pace (one thats catered for the slower learners). Advanced kids are not challenged in class and their potential is not realized. Many of the advanced learners, (especially the boys), tend to become distractions in class, tune out of the lessons, or have low self esteem because they 'can't focus'. This is all due to their lack of stimulation to the unchallenging curricula being taught them. I'll also mention that there's a significant bullying issue in the school (especially at the 3rd - 5th grade levels). The teachers and administration have never directly addressed it and, in many times, choose to ignore it. My kid has witnessed this many times first hand and I have friends who have pulled their kids out of Highlands and into private institutions primarily to get them away from the relentless bullying that they were experiencing. The last thing I'll mention is that the school is pretty run down as it was built sometime in the 50's or 60's and hasn't been kept up much since. It is also populated over its initial capacity. The capacity issue isn't from local kids, but from the kids bussed in from a lower-income north of downtown neighborhood (a legacy of the 1960's inner city bussing regulations). To handle this extra capacity, there are 2 'temp structures' that have been used for years as 'permanent' classrooms. If you are a parent that lives in the footprint of this school and have the means to put your kid in a private school, I'd recommend that you strongly consider that option. A common theme I've noticed is that many parents put their kids through private school up until 8th grade and then send them to Aragon for high school (Borel, the middle school, doesn't have a great reputation either).

This one-star rating is not for the school, but rather the Principal. Overall, McKinley is a great…read moreschool and is one of the school districts in the Bay Area that ranks high in child education and development. The teachers my child have had so far have been great and very attentive to each child's personal development. Only issue is the principal. From my experience, her focus seems misdirected. It appears that her students are the last of her priorities, as she she seems to be non-empathetic, impatient, and rude to students and parents. She talks down to parents, shows no empathy, and seems more focused on maintaining a good image for herself. First example, in the 2016, she was involved in a discrimination lawsuit, filed by a parent of an autistic child (see I.M. v. Santa Clara Unified School District). I'm not going into the whole details of the lawsuit, however a settlement to the parents of the special needs child was granted. What was appalling, is that she denied the request for an appropriate educational environment and support for the child, even going as far as trying to remove the child by reporting to CPS that the parent was abusing his son!? Seems unethical to me and poor example of values and leadership for person in her role. Second example, just happened recently (October 2022). A student was struck by a car while crossing in a crosswalk. This is a crosswalk that's two blocks away from the school, and has no crossing-guard, but still has heavy pedestrian traffic during school drop-off and pick-up. Many parents made her aware of the incident, as well as requesting additional safety by implementing crossing-guards at that intersection. She responded by saying, "I didn't hear this from my staff, so this child is not a student of my school". She then stated that "implementing safety is "not my job" it's a city thing, so go talk to them about the crossing-guard". Yet another appalling behavior for a leader of an educational institute. A person in this position holds a key value that can shape the school and students. Rather than saying "not my job", a good leader would have taken ownership of the issue by making any inquiries to the Burlingame district/county in implementing additional safety, and (regardless of whether the child attends her school, or goes to a different school) would have inquired about the status of the child, extended empathy to the parents, and fight for additional safety to children and the community everywhere and everyday. This person should uphold the highest value of ethics, empathy, inclusion, compassion, and trust as he/she is a beacon of light for the school and community. This role can make for a positive of negative experience for everyone involved at the school and also reflects on the values and principles upheld. She has shown none, as she doesn't listen to parents, and lacks empathy and compassion. It should be a given that traits be highly considered for a Principal role and if she lacks these traits, then compassion and empathy training should be required as well as inclusion and diversity training to ensure a safe and positive environment for everyone. If she can't uphold positive values, then her role needs to be re-evaluated on a bi-annual basis and be removed if not met.

The people responsible for sending out report cards are not doing a good job. Student report…read morecards are sent via US Mail to the parents, but twice now we received someone else's report card and not our child's report card. It's a simple task to put the proper report card in an envelope and address it to the proper person/address. Seems to be too difficult for whomever is responsible for this task. How will the principal address this matter and correct it?