It's a great school (minus the drop off and pick up fiasco!)…read moreRules are put out about proper drop off and pick up yet parents break the rules, cut in the line, block crosswalks and stop in the middle and not pull all the way forward as instructed. People on parking lot duty never enforce the rules..... super frustrating! The Principal and teachers are great and they also have a wonderful PTA! If you can ignore the rude parents at drop off and pick up, you will survive

La Madera is a nice small elementary school with not a lot of bells and whistles but it does the…read morejob. Each classroom has a door leading to the outside and a door leading to the grand interior hall that connects everything together. The campus is quite small but has recently built a MPR in the farthest corner of the lunch area and there is a substantial grassy area for the children to play on. The parking lot and surrounding streets can be a little hectic in the morning drop off window and from 2:30 on because La Madera lies across the street from El Toro High School. The parking lot is one way so that helps a lot with the flow of traffic but there will always be those that cannot conduct themselves in such a setting. ;] All in all, its a nice little school and your kids will be safe.

The teaching staff here seems to have a great interest in teaching our kids…read more Their ideas and concepts about getting our kids ready for each upper grade and always striving them forward, are great.

- i attended trabuco mesa elementary school from kindergarten all the way to 6th grade, excluding…read more5th grade. i absolutely loved this school!! the teachers, students, volunteers, lunch activities, and all the many other things this school had to offer was absolutely incredible. this school has given me unforgettable memories and experiences. just one thing,,, i had an incident that had happened my 6th grade year that's had to do with bullying and let's just say when i was offered help, the principal was no help AT ALL. if anything, she made matters worse. when i has reached for help, no help was given by staff nor the principal, all i got was a very, very loud yelling from her and questioned by the police after demanding i have a parent present before further questioning. i never knew a principle could talk to an 11 year old student in such a offensive and demeaning way. not to mention, she told my parents lies about my behavior at school and that i was a bad student even though i never was. - overall this school is truly great. one of the best and if you're thinking about enrolling your child into trabuco mesa elementary school, your child is going to have the time of their lives. you will not regret it. :)

This school isn't that great for TK special education the teacher here Ms. G lacks communication…read moreand the teacher has you download 4 different apps that she barely uses to stay connected in regards to your student. Another thing about the school is that for picture day or career day or anything that has to do about dressing up or pictures day if you like to be informed last minute, this is your school.

We love this school. Learn all about it from the principal here…read more https://parkbench.com/blog/beth-ewing-interview-rancho-santa-margarita

My daughter graduated from this school in 2015. I later found out that most of her teachers (not…read moreall) were just awful to her and her classmates/friends. Up to this day she and her friends would talk about how awful some of these teachers treated them. The teachers absolutely showed favoritism to students whose parents practically did their job by volunteering everyday and will not let any parents do so. My son was attending at this school but their Special Education is less than satisfactory because they had nothing to offer him. I ended up transferring him to Foothill Ranch Elementary and it was best thing that ever happened to him. When my son strarted attending Foothill Ranch Elementary, they sent me a letter saying that they were opening up a class accommodating my son's needs and that Portola Hills is his home school. I told them that he will never return to this school. I saw my son get bullied by these kids in front of my eyes by purposely not including him to their reading groups during Dr. Seuss birthday celebration in their classroom because he read slow. He read slow because he's autistic. My daughter is forever scarred by this school but fortunately, she overcame it with my constant re-assurance because this school destroyed her confidence. By the way, Cookie the office woman was just awful to my son. She would get upset if he comes in to the office to ask for help. If you are a brown nosing parent you will thrive in this school but if you are working mom who cannot always be there. I wish you the best but keep an eye on your children or you can transfer them to Foothill Ranch Elementary. For what it's worth, Mrs. Shanton, Mrs Morrow, Mrs Lindenhoffen (my daughter's teachers) are wonderful teachers. Mrs Lau and Mrs Franco are wonderful as well, they were my son's teachers. The rest, well...Good-luck along with the principal Mr. Ledaux (if he's still there)

This is a great school with caring teachers. My son has been here only a few months but acclimated…read morewell. The afterschool program is great and the supervisor is amazing as well (I know this should be a separate review but it is on campus). I would love it if they allowed kids to play on the playground before school like the schools in Irvine but that is my only complaint.

I've only had my kids attend this and one other school in los angeles, so I can't say I'm an expert…read moreof elementary schools. What I can say is that this one seems to be pretty good. I feel that my children are safe and the quality of education is at least adequate if not pretty darn good. I've seen both happy and sad parents at this school and a lot of it depends on how their children have fared and been treated. I've seen people who love the school and those that left the school to pursue opportunities that were more to their liking. This school is in a super nice community and offers a lot for those who have the skills to take advantage of it. If there is extra help needed, I'm not sure if this school can provide it adequately. There are usually at least 30 kids per class and that makes it hard to give individual attention. I personally am happy at the school. The children are well behaved because that is the culture of the school. They are well versed in academics and the school has a solid technological focus. There is a good amount of computer time. They emphasize the use of computers and the importance of reading. Parents donate a lot of money to help the kids mitigate the large class sizes by funding engineering/lego building classes on a part time basis. This helps reduce class size by catering to only half the class in chunks, while the other half can focus on the regular learning. There is a good curriculum at the school and children get a well rounded education. It is a traditional school, not a charter school.

Just another money grabbing racket, borderline devoid of any ethical thought process, that values…read moretheir own bottom line over that of regular families. Unfortunately, this seems to be the norm in 2023. I will never give this school a single dollar of my money, or support it in any single way as a result. They get taxes to fund them, but over zealous planners just see opportunity to get their hands on hard cash and are too greedy to consider the needs and effects this has on families. Attended the "Boo Blast" and the most shocking thing about this is that fact that it's $10 per activity, at least for the better ones, so that's $20 if you have 2 kids, or $30 if you have 3. And what might you get for these VERY overinflated prizes you might wonder? 3-4 mins on a climbing wall. Or 3 mins walking school rooms set up like a ghost house. What makes it completely obnoxious is the fact that young children often want their parents to walk through with them, and that ladies and gentlemen, costs another $20 on top. Forget protesting this, they genuinely couldn't care less. Within 1 hour at this awful event wrapped up in fake smiles, but with green dollar signs in their eyes, a family of 4 might have to spend $200 just to do a couple of activities that all last approximately 3 minutes. That's after you have lined up for 30 minutes to wait for the activity in the first place. They even have the audacity to ask parents to volunteer their free time to support this so that they can maximize profits. The real kick in the teeth is that when raising this to a member of staff, who turned out to be the treasurer, she then asked "Are you one of the low income families here at the school?", which I'm not. And even if I was, it's not the point. The point is that their pricing is totally unreasonable, and unjustified. To not realize that is to be totally devoid of reality altogether. However I can get involved in making changes to this, I will. Yes some parents can afford to waste the same amount of money as it costs to go to Disneyland on some fair games, but again, that's not the norm for everyone. I just had to leave my kids with my ex wife, on my weekend with the kids, as I could not stand to be around this endless money pit. Totally disgusted. I raised this with Mr Pedraza, the School Principle, that was stood marshaling traffic on the front gate. I might as well have been speaking to a block of concrete, as all I got was a blank stare and some vague repeating of some of the words I had just said. He honestly couldn't have cared less, or made it more obvious that he didn't care and just wanted me to slide away so he could watch the money rolling in. He already got his fill, he got slime tipped over him on the Thursday prior. Not for any particular reason, but because he wanted to. That's where the tax money goes huh?

Fuck this school. I used to go here . My parents would literally BEAT ME WITH A BELT to a point I…read morewould bleed and be bruised and the counselor said to me "maybe because you're bad" like what the actual fuck?

This is a good school and the principal is funny sometimes. When I first go to this school it was a…read morebig school and they have stairs too. When I go to my first period class the teacher was very kind and every time when I was struggling on stuff she always helped me and easy to understand.

If you're looking for an unsafe, trauma-inflicting dump to send your kids, you've found the right…read moreplace! There's nothing like 12 year olds doing dr*gs in the bathroom and bringing g*ns to school and putting the place on lockdown!! (True story!) As a former student, I can confirm that the neglect at this school is beyond-belief. At one point in the disgusting bathrooms, there was graffiti of male g*nitalia with the word "sl*t" and an arrow pointing down. I was told you were meant to stand under it and take selfies. It was absolutely horrible! Students would drink alcohol from Hydroflasks and faint during class. At one point in my time at La Paz Intermediate, there was a student who brought a g*n to school, intending to fire during lunch. We were put on lockdown. It was traumatizing. The vice principal is an a-hole who runs her mouth non-stop without stopping to think what mental damage it's doing. Most of the staff acts like they don't want to be there. Honestly, I wouldn't want to either! The students are extremely disrespectful to adults and have no sense of authority. All in all, this is an unsafe, terrible school. I'd give it zero stars if I could. Send your children elsewhere, parents!

Amazing school, I've made a lot of new friends and had amazing experiences with them, all the…read moreteachers are amazing and if you want your child to have the most fun I recommend signing them up for music

My son going to this school 2 year already and no complaints. Staff is very friendly. Always…read morecommunicate. Class teacher also very helpful with homework. I love this school