I recognize this will probably be brushed aside as another concerned parent, over reaching to be…read moreheard. But I feel my recent experience isn't an isolated case. In Modesto, educational options are limited. You often have to choose between overcrowded public classrooms or high-tuition private schools. On the surface, GVA (Great Valley Academy) seems like the perfect middle ground: a non-tuition public school with smaller classes and a focus on 'the whole child.' I attended the orientations and understood their pillars, but I was never informed that my child would be graded on her character on a numerical scale. There is a massive disconnect between encouraging 'character development' and issuing a formal report card that scrutinizes who a child is as a person. It is heartbreaking to receive a document that feels more like a subjective pronouncement on my child's personality than an academic evaluation. While I am thankful my child is too young to understand this level of scrutiny, the precedent it sets is alarming. Furthermore, the front administration's response to parental concerns is disappointing. If you disagree with a policy or wish to opt your child out of an assessment you feel is detrimental, the standard response is effectively, 'You can go to a different school.' While technically true, this 'take it or leave it' attitude is a failure of leadership. It treats parents as obstacles rather than partners. In the real world, performance is measured by output, reliability, and conduct. It is never measured by a superior's personal interpretation of your 'spirit'--especially when that superior isn't held to the same standard. Parents deserve a choice in how their children are evaluated without being told to simply leave if they ask for professional transparency.

I do not recommend this school! Its all good until your child needs help or if a troubled child is…read morein your class..... If your child is behind or struggling, no help... just excuses... If another child that is troubled in your child's class they will not do anything... they can curse, throw things, talk inappropriate, but just send them to the "connecting room". I know many parents who took their kids out of this school and I'm thinking of doing the same. Very disappointed.

My 4 year old daughter is in the Head Start / Preschool program at Everett and I am extremely…read morepleased with their care for my daughter. She comes home every day from school telling me all the new things that she learned including her alphabet, counting, sing-along songs, writing skills etc. She is always excited to go to school, and is well monitored while there with multiple teachers supervising in the classroom at all times. You can tell the teachers have a passion for children and genuinely love their job. They have flexible hours that you can adjust to fit your work or school schedule. They offer full day school and extended hours which is difficult to find for toddlers. There IS a waiting list, but it is well worth the wait! I highly recommend the program

My nephews go to this school its right around the corner from us and so far its been good.(3years…read moreand counting) We are enrolling our daughter this year and I'm excited for her. We had an option to enroll her at GVA with her other cousins but so far my sis- in - law has had some issues with them nothing major but enough for me not to feel comfortable with. When my nephews first got here (Everett elementary)they were behind in school due to my sister not taking them in Lodi, that's when we became legal guardians and enrolled them here, right away the teachers were very helpful and did everything they could to help one of my nephews catch up they split him in k/1st grade it was a lot for him but the teachers worked very hard for him. I now have two happy healthy boys and I thank the twins Ms. Vaughn and Ms. Vaughn for helping my nephew get through this rough patch.

My son was a kindergartner at Woodrow this past year, and I have filed an administrative complaint…read moreagainst the principal JOANNA O'BRIEN and am in the process of transferring him to a new school for first grade. I didn't know what to expect for the first year that my son is in school, but I have had an awful and truly unacceptable experience at Woodrow. I saw one review claiming that Woodrow doesn't notify parents when their child is hurt at school, and I can corroborate that claim with my own experiences. One day, my son came home and told me that another child had choked him at recess. I know that adults were present and aware of what happened because my son told me that an adult talked to the child who choked him afterward; but I was never notified about it. Another day, my son came home with a black eye after another child had accidentally kicked him in the face at recess (he was walking too close to the swing set); and again, I was never notified about it. I was only told what happened when I took my son into the office and wanted answers. My son could have been seriously hurt in both of these situations, and not only was I not notified about them; but my son didn't receive any medical attention! Unfortunately, this is not the worst of my experience with Woodrow. One day, I received a phone call from Woodrow that my son had had an accident and was in the office. I went to the school, and when I got there; I asked my son what happened. He told me that he had asked his teacher to use the bathroom, and she asked him if he could "hold it". He told her that he couldn't; and she said, "I think you can," and then he wet his pants. My son was embarrassed and upset. I complained to a woman in the office, and she said that she would "let someone know". It was obvious that she had no intention of doing that, however; considering that she didn't even bother to ask who had denied my son the right to use the bathroom, even after he had told his teacher that he couldn't "hold it". I asked her, "Don't you want to know the teacher's name?" and she said, "Oh yeah," as if it was an after thought. Her indifference and lack of action made it VERY clear that Woodrow does NOTHING to keep students safe or to hold staff members accountable for incompetence or misconduct. Again, it gets WORSE! For context - Parents can drop off afternoon kindergartners as early as 10:20 am, but the bell doesn't ring until 10:27 am; so drop off time for afternoon kindergartners is between 10:20 am and 10:27 am. For the first half of the school year, I dropped my son off at 10:20 every day. One day, I had to be at work early; so I dropped my son off at 10:19, and I instructed him to sit in the office until 10:20. There were other kindergartners and their parents gathered outside the school, and I saw my son's teacher walking toward them to unlock the gate for them and let them in. I waited until my son was inside the office, and I left. After school when I picked up my son, I was reprimanded by his teacher for dropping him off 60 SECONDS early. I was told that I left him "unsupervised", despite the fact that there were kindergartners, their parents, and office staff (who he was directly supervised by for the entirety of the 60 seconds that he waited) present. After that day, I changed my work availability so that I had more time in between dropping my son off at school and work; and I started dropping him off by 10:27 every day. Unfortunately, dropping my son off by 10:27 also seemed to be a problem for his teacher, who regularly passive-aggressively projected her frustrations onto my six year old. My son told me that his teacher (the same teacher who reprimanded me for dropping him off early) made MULTIPLE statements to him over the course of the second half of the school year along the lines of, "You need to tell your mom to be on time," etc. To clarify, 10:27 IS ON TIME; and regardless, talking badly to a six year old about his parent(s) is inappropriate and unacceptable. What's even more inappropriate and unacceptable, however; is that on April 1st, my son came home and told me that his teacher had given everyone in his class "pop it" bracelets except him. When he asked his teacher, "What about me?" she responded that the bracelets "are for kids who are on time," THIS IS NOT OKAY! This behavior indicates low emotional intelligence at the LEAST and is very concerning. Dysfunctional adults are in no position to be in the presence of, much less to be responsible for children. That being said, I'll move on to the straw that broke the camel's back. I'll post the rest of my experience in pictures since I've exceeded the text limit.

Woodrow is a very inviting and wonderful school. Teachers and staff are very helpful. Dr. O'Brien…read moredoes an exceptional job as principal and school leader.

The perfect school for anyone that doesn't believe in or celebrate the holidays. They do not do…read moreanything special for the kids. My children attended there and have since moved. We've only been gone a few months and we have noticed such a big difference in how much more their new school does for them. I do believe it has to do with the teacher that is in charge of the planning because she is a certain religion. They do a spaghetti fundraiser every year and make the kids buy nasty spaghetti but that's really about it. Nothing for Halloween, nothing for Christmas. Just them wanting you to buy stuff!!

if your child has any behavior or mental issues what so ever, please do not enroll your child here!…read morethey will call you for every little thing. i had to quit my job. the last straw was them telling me to go down to the school and try to talk to my son. next day i get a call from MPD saying the school has put a no trespassing order on me. the school is a joke. they don't have the patience or resources to deal with kids that have issues beyond their control. they just care about their attendance records.

If your kid is disabled I promise you the teachers will say lies about your kid especially if it's…read moreMrs. Baraha loves to lie about my kid. Oh and on top of it she won't see you in person she will send her Aid how lovely she won't take the time to meet her students parents shows a lot right there.

Great school. Love the teachers. They do a great job keeping parents in the loop and offering…read moreopportunities for parent involvement. I would have happily gave them 5 stars if the school was more diverse and had more events like the ones I loved growing up. A 50 day sock hop or other daytime events for the students. However, they do have family nights and evening carnivals throughout the year which are amazing.

Absolute garbage school, from the scheduling to the staff, to the curriculum. The teachers for the…read moremost part are uninterested in doing their actual jobs of teaching, the staff is more interested in earning brownie points with the district and the only one who seems to do their job well is the janitor.

Great school! I started my career in Special Education as a Speech Language Pathologist at…read moreUniversity Charter. I am not an SLP but I became an Education Specialist. Great school!

Love aspire schools. The only problem I have with this location is the office staff. Even my…read morehusband complained about them. Last year we both went at different times to pick our son up and we were both told that we cant come an hour before school ends it's to early! Makes no sense we were late to our appointments because of this. Even the staff and vanguard were shocked when I told them. This year they changed it i guess and claimed it was never like that well I'm not sure but it happened to us both on separate occasions. Also they called me to pick up my child but my child wasn't even in the office when i got there still had to wait for them to walk up to the front. And they make parents wait outside I understand it's for Stafety but if it's raining or cold who wants to stand in the rain there's nothing to stand under. Really my problem is with the office staff especially the one who I'm assuming is the receptionist she's so rude the one with the long black hair. I'm really considering not returning my student next year I don't want to deal with rude staff.

Ah, the old stomping grounds. Martone Elementary is nestled deep within suburbia on the outskirts…read moreof western Modesto, but with that comes a quiet, peaceful environment away from the city. The classrooms comfortably seat around 30 students and the school itself uses a year-round track based system (Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green Tracks) that gives children a small vacation after a month of schooling rather than three months of summer vacation after so many months of being cramped in class. For a working family, this sort of schedule is ideal, but it definitely is a change of pace from other schools that offer only the traditional schedule. Some years ago the school attempted to switch to uniforms, but complaints from both the parents and students seem to have forced Martone to return to casual dress. A fence around the perimeter of the school was installed roughly 10 years ago and a few years after that a small public playground was installed outside of the fence for neighborhood children to play in. The school has large fields of grass for playing in, a baseball diamond that is often used for little-league practice, a playground with jungle gym, monkey bars, and parallel bars (though they've removed the sand and replaced it with wood chips for some ungodly reason), and a large blacktop surface for basketball, dodgeball, tether ball, and that one game where you bounce a ball off of a wall whose name escapes me. The cafeteria manages to seat half of the school comfortably (there are two lunch periods) and there is also plenty of tables and areas inside the open-air school for students to picnic off of. The offices are well run and, as a klutzy kid, I can tell you that the nurse's office comes well-equipped to handle any scrapes that your child might get into on any average day of fun during recess. The staff and faculty keep a close eye on the students at all times, and the library is large enough to even keep a little geek like I was entertained all the way from five years old to twelve. I may be biased, but in my opinion I feel that Alberta Martone Elementary School is one of if not the best elementary school in Modesto.

Moved from the bay area mid year. I have to say, this school has exceeded my expectations. The…read morestaff is friendly and dedicated. The school is just the right size. Classrooms all around with a nice courtyard where kids gather to eat lunch everyday And host Monday outdoor assemblies. My son really blossomed in the 4 months he attended. His confidence went through the roof, he became a lot more artistic and showing interest in New things he was learning from classmates. He felt welcomed and fit right in. It will be difficult to move if i ever have to because the school is that great. I'm looking forward to this next school year and so is my son.

My nephew attends this school, they are very concerned about student safety. They are a closed…read morecampus school so there is only one entrance for adults, and two entrances/exits for the student. I've visited here a few times, and I must say, every staff member I have met is amazing, they are great with the kids and they remember who you are so quickly as well! Just all over amazing people who really care for the kids!

So far so good only complaint is the front desk lady seems like she hates her job. Every time u…read morewalk in she seems like she has an ugly attitude and is very unwelcoming.

Great school so far. My kids are doing great and teachers are great. But something about that front…read moreoffice staff. Most are very nice but the older office lady should not be in that profession. She is one of the main people you speak to when you walk in. She is very rude and unwelcoming always with an ugly look on her face. Me and my husband have both experienced it from her multiple times. You would think working in a school she would be greeting parents and students but nope she will look at you and look away unless she has to speak with you and when she does it comes with an attitude. That miserable front desk lady as well as the principal gave me attitude for wanting to pick up my children early (who have perfect attendance btw so it shouldn't be a problem). But yea other than that it's been great. The yard duties are so kind to my children and whoever puts together all the events for the school is doing an awesome job