Our son was attending a large public high school when the COVID-19 pandemic started. This highly…read morerated public high school quickly transitioned to an online learning environment, but only provided one synchronous lecture per week for each class. As our son, and many of his classmates, fell further and further behind in their online classes, we repeatedly reached out to the school administration, including the principal, as did the parents of our son's school friends. However, the school's administration was uniformly unresponsive to our concerns. So, we decided to take our son out of the public school system, and place him in a private school. Our son transferred to Pacific Academy during his junior year of high school. I really can't say enough good things about our experience at Pacific Academy over the past almost two years. Everyone from the principal to the teachers and administrative staff have all been amazing. They are all very passionate about their mission to educate their students, as well as to help their students grow and develop into well-rounded young men and women. The small class sizes allow for a very personalized approach to teaching, and both the teachers and the principal are very interactive and collaborative with parents. The quality of teaching in all of our son's classes has been exceptional, and all of his teachers have welcomed engagement with us. (Unlike at the public high school our son previously attended.) I would especially like to recognize the principal at Pacific Academy, Keith Corpus, and the Director of Student Affairs, Jasmine Hsu. Their dedication, compassion, and empathy towards their students, and their families, has been extraordinary. They have both also been tremendously supportive as students, parents, and teachers have all worked together to manage the enormous (and ever-changing) impact of the pandemic. Honestly, we have come to view Mr. Corpus and Ms. Hsu as if they were part of our family, and we are so grateful to them for their dedication and commitment to their students, including our son. My only regret is that we did not transfer our son to Pacific Academy sooner. We love this school, and its faculty and staff, and we are so grateful that our son has been able to attend Pacific Academy!

This school hired unprofessional teachers like Ms Kuo in 4th grade who wasn't a certificated…read moreteacher and was very mean to kids. It is unacceptable that they allow their teachers to use language abuse on our kids! Principal didn't even care about the issue. Very disappointing.

I really wish reaching out to the district was worth it but sadly it isn't. They have zero interest…read morein what goes in their schools. The way some teachers treat students is alarming but since they aren't there to witness it there's nothing they will do. As a whole the leadership and district at these "prestigious" Irvine schools is very disappointing. You're lucky if you get a call back from someone here.

Just look at the reviews for this office. Dose not answer phones. When you you do get to talk to…read morethe receptionist they are unhelpful. Doesn't have any idea of what or where or who. Not friendly at all, hurry to get you of the phone "I don't know, I don't have any information". Then why have a contact or phone number at all if they just tell you to find email by yourself. Horrible horrible. The schools can be good if you keep up with the program. Anything you have questions about is most likely going to be through email but never responsive. Please DO BETTER!

Good morning/afternoon/evening my good readers, Today we…read moreface the final review of well-known University High-school, which I know you have all been waiting for because of the significance of it. From the pristine art on the walls to the treacherous steep hills, there are many goods and bads to write about. To start, our arrival: "It's a school," one student explained to me, with not many strong feelings. Perhaps they didn't admire the money that went into creating this, what some people might call glorious, school? Or they had no idea of the danger ahead... We blew dandelions for a while, which were luckily in abundance. We hoped for good luck in our marching which we would perform in just an hour. Trees around the parking lot shaded us and added to the beautiful view, which was created with pink and blue contrasting colors and a tiny moon. This was especially cherished during the moment before we stepped onto the field, with a crow flying gracefully through the high sky. The most terrible element of our time at this school was the hill. This hill which brought immense struggle and buckets of sweat. With this addition to our problems the ending amount of stars could in no way be five or even four. Waiting for food was a different struggle, instead of something of the school fighting against us in our venture back to the buses (the hill), we were instead found with the pain of waiting. Signage was minimal and people were forced to yelling at others about where to go. "People aren't picking up their food," a person at a food stand told us. There also definitely should have been a sign towards the restrooms as well. Thank you for taking time out of your day to thoroughly read this review, ultimately making yourself more knowledgeable of the true marching band ways. Dearest, marching band pro performers

Just graduated from another high school, and I just wanna say bad, they will never help you on…read moreanything you are struggling with in that pathetic high school. To this point I was there for 3 years of before senior year, and I was completely abused from all those years before transferring high school. I was going nothing but torture, teachers were so bad especially math teachers not giving a support to me when I am struggling with math. Specials expected you to just move on with your issues without caring your mental stability. Let me give one unbelievable thing one teacher said to me which you will not believe of how this is even good advice, One teacher named Leo Maldonado just give me this advice over going through problems and how the campus treats you stupid, "You don't have to tell your parents anything" not even giving the principals information of any stress I was going through also as time moves he talks to me horribly, and treats me like crap, I hope he gets fired. at least some teachers understand my emotions when I am determined, that was at least one good thing some good actual teachers. Bullying is a lot in that school, and the school does not ever help you, for my experience, I fought, hurt threaten, a lot of people to stop bullying, which brings to a fact that every report you filed will never change anything and it will be the same. The most unbelievable issue I have deal with is a aid in a classroom named smacked my shoulder over me talking trash about another aid who didn't even help and made me fail Algebra. not even assault me, but also talk crap about not knowing what I am going through. The last issue I think that was completely disgusting is that counselors and aids have horrible physical behavior and act mostly like perverts. one counselor, and one aid thinks it's normal to touch my armpits showing support which made me real uncomfortable. Their names were Nathan O' Leary, and Ryan Leal. That is what I have experienced in that high school real torture. I hope any parent/ Guardian or Student will see this review, because this is student's experience who used to go to that school. This school is not-supportive, not caring, never helpful, garbage people, and will make you purposely fail your education. If I were you newcomers out there, I would go to a better high school with much better support, treating, and better education. Absolute piece of crap.

I come here for after-hours open-play pickleball…read more Likes: + After hours, the scene is quiet and peaceful. + Numerous pball courts. + Plenty of parking. + Other visitors come here for quiet, peaceful dog walks and private exercise. Non-likes: - The pickleball courts are terrible quality. Confusing kitchen lines, unsecure nets, nets set at incorrect heights, no boundaries to prevent ball-on interferences, if you lose the ball, you have to run all the way to the grass to get it.

Terrible school do not recommend. My son witnesses a lot of inappropriate behavior. He got his…read morephone taken away when he putting it away. Overall i am extremely dissatisfied.

My daughter has been struggling her whole life in school and we finally get her into Mardan School…read moreand she's having an amazing time. She's finally getting the support she needs and the education she deserves thank you to her teachers Mr. John and Mr. Zack thank you so much erin! You are so kind and helpful. Thank you Bonnie for everything thing you do thank you so much

I can't say enough about how amazing Mardan is. This school and the staff forever changed my sons…read morelife. Prior to coming here , he hated school , had a ton of behavioral issues and was so unhappy and school was just awful for him. We have been here for 4 years now. He loves school , he's thriving and it's absolutely remarkable to see how much he's changed and grown. The staff is amazing and I'll forever be grateful to have found this school. They truly do care about our children and they go above and beyond every day to make this environment a positive one for my son. I highly recommend Mardan if you're needing an alternative to public school , especially for children with special needs.

School has been through a lot of changes In the last two years, but I think most importantly my…read morechild is happy, the teachers are very loving, and she has good friends. Academically she's learning Chinese, and other topics she has grown a lot too (reading, math, etc...) The school is small so getting to know other students and families is fairly easy. It's a good community and we all have the kids best interest at heart! - father of first grader

Most of the negative reviews reflect the chaos of school politics. It doesn't really reflect the…read moreteachers' hard work and students' lives in the past year. I don't really write Yelp reviews often, but I feel I need to share my point of view for my son's first year at this school. I don't want to see teachers' hard work and devotion to be erased by all these negative reviews. This new school does not have a lot of resources like Irvine Unified School District. The facilities at the campus are out of date and the campus is leased from IUSD. The faculty has been trying hard to maintain the school facilities, but it is very challenging. - 2 of 5 star I have been volunteering at my son's classes in the past two semesters, and both English and Mandarin teachers from the 2nd Grade are very passionate about teaching and helping our children. I have heard a similar compliment for all other teachers at different grades. The school only has one PE teacher, who is working hard and carrying a lot of responsibilities for all the kids at school- 4 of 5 star The communication channels between teachers and parents are very clear. Teachers will quickly respond and answer questions or concerns from the parents. - 5 of 5 star Before enrolling at IIA last year, my son has no knowledge about Chinese handwriting. As now, at the end of his 2nd semester, he can do both reading and writing more than 117 Chinese characters. For reference, attached are words he has learned so far. - 5 of 5 star Some parents have questions about the on-site after-school program. From my observation in the past two semesters, my son was able to complete his homework at school, attending enrichment class for music and art, and playing with his friends after school. My son always asked me to pick him up last so that he can spend more time at school. - 4 of 5 star To sum up, my wife and I feel very fortunate that our son has this opportunity to learn both English and Mandarin at the same time without sacrificing our weekend attending Chinese school. Everyday when we dropped our son to school, he always rolls his backpack with lightening speed and runs to the teacher. We can tell our son really enjoys his first year at IIA. This is a tuition free charter school, not a 5 star Private school. This school requires a lot of parents to involve and help. This is a new school starting with a bumpy start. We all hope one day the school board and parents can come to an agreement one day so the teachers/students in between will not be sacrificed.

The teacher this school is very good except for some of them,there are specific teachers that likes…read moreto make inappropriate jokes with students and race is still a problem in the school,I hope they could have done a better job on that.

i am student of venado as 7th grader, i say there are amazing teachers, they are not that strict…read morethe reason they get strict because students isnt behaving well, we got so many activity and field trips i love that school, they even got delicious lunch, every ball is there, PE is so fun you can enjoy there, infact the lunch is long and fun. The School IS AWESOME!!

Here, students always come first. The tutors are amazing, patient, and truly care about every…read morestudent's success. Highly recommend!

I paid one week SAT class, after the payment, I got an additional invoice from accounting saying I…read morehave to pay $60 to register which is never mentioned during the consultation and the payment link they send to me. They also changed the class schedule which means there is no SAT class during the week I want to attend, they told me they have SAT class every week then after paid they send me the real schedule which is every other week, when I want my refund they said they have to deduct $60 for the processing fee, so now I have to dispute with my credit company to get my money back, so never ever trust this company again

Director Jennifer Ahn and teachers at Jen's learning center teach children with love…read more And they are sooooo kind! My son has been studying here for almost two years. During Pandemic, He had online classes, and I was very satisfied with the new workbooks. I already recommended this center to my friends p.s. Thank you Hannah ! Joon enjoys studying with you very much.

My kids have been attending this learning center for the past 2 years and my wife and I love it…read more The center recently went through rebranding and enhanced their curriculum. It is definitely more advanced but my kids are loving the new challenge. I really appreciate all your help for my kids. Thank you!

We are extremely grateful for the support this college counseling company provided our family…read morethroughout my daughter's high school. The process of preparing for college applications was overwhelming, but the guidance we received made all the difference. Felicia, who worked directly with my daughter, was outstanding, supportive, knowledgeable, and always encouraging. She helped keep everything organized and made sure my daughter felt confident every step of the way. She was always there for my daughter when she needed her. Justin, the owner, has clearly built a wonderful program that truly supports students and families. We're thrilled that my daughter was accepted into the university she had been hoping for, and we're very thankful for their role in helping make that happen. Very Highly recommend.

My student sat for practice tests in AP Chem and AP Calc AB with Premier Prep. Justin was friendly,…read morehelpful, and very responsive.