Moved here from California last year and having to adjust your girls to MN winters in a new school…read moreis rough. Starting a new school in January as a first grader when you have never lived in frozen weather took a lot of courage from my daughters but a majority of the praise goes to the staff at Fernbrook who were absolutely amazing. Mrs Larson was a gift for a new family as a teacher who went out of her way to welcome our daughter and make sure she survived a major shift in culture :) Totally impressed with the administration, bussing from our local neighborhood the involvement from parents and extra curricular activities this school is one of Maple Groves best.

Well. If you ask meeeeeeeeee! Best school ever :) I have been to a ton of different schools aka…read moreprivate/public/homeschooled. This is my favorite, all the staff and teachers are really nice and appreciative:) they treat everyone VERY good, the principal is fun and nice as well as the other staff. I have been going to this school for 5 years and I love it. They don't have many sports options they only have basketball, cheerleading, soccer,volleyball. It's a small school but really nice :) they also have groups such as student Council, Spanish club, art club and a bunch more! GO HERE

Very nice school they had a grandparents day which was well done. The staff was very friendly…read moresupportive and helpful it was great to see the kids and their school environment and how much they enjoy their school day. Mrs. Johnson was fantastic.

We enrolled our child at the International School of Minnesota (ISM) for the 2025-2026 academic…read moreyear. We were living in New York at the time and, unfortunately, did not tour the campus or read reviews -- a mistake we deeply regret. We paid the $750 non-refundable registration fee and signed the contract, trusting the school's reputation and name. After moving to Minnesota and finally touring ISM in July, we realized it was not the environment we hoped for. Despite calling itself an "International" school, the campus lacked the diversity and inclusiveness we expected. It didn't feel like the right fit for our child, and we submitted a formal withdrawal notice well before the school year started. Our child never attended, never received instruction, and never used any materials or services. Still, the school insisted we pay an additional $3,200 cancellation fee (25% of tuition) -- not based on any actual expenses, just a contract clause. We asked for a breakdown or justification but received none. It feels like a punitive policy that shows no empathy for families. We are immigrants from a different country, and we didn't fully understand how private schools work in the U.S. We assumed it would be similar to our home country's system. Sadly, it was not. We now realize how important it is to tour the school, ask questions, read reviews, and take your time. We also found that the only child chosen to represent ISM at a SABIS competition was the daughter of ISM's executive director. This raised serious concerns about how fairly opportunities are offered to students. Looking back, we would rather lose the $3,200 than ever send our child to a school like this. Even though it hurts to pay for a service we never received, we'd rather walk away than continue this relationship. Please do your own research, don't rush to sign anything, and be wary of being pressured with quick financial aid offers. There are also multiple reviews online about bullying--read them carefully. We hope our experience helps other families avoid the same mistakes. There are much more transparent, inclusive, and fair educational options in Minnesota.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS SCHOOL FOR YOUR KIDS. They make big deals out of the smallest things. There…read morewere kids door dashing food and they had called the whole school for a meeting, yet when a kid tells people to kill themselves, self harm more, and had doxxed them online they let that kid stay with a warning. The student that was getting bullied by that student did try to attempt cause of it. Also what this school does is tell them that saying slurs of any sort is unacceptable as they should, but when a kid goes around calling people racial slurs they just ignore it and act like it's an "accident". It's a very challenging school, yet they have little to no mental health help. The counselor they have is part-time so you essentially have to schedule a mental breakdown. On a side note, one student got groped at a dance and nothing was done, likely because he was male presenting.

If I didn't (obviously) know better, I might think that Kenwood Elementary was a private school…read more The attention and love that every teacher shows the kids and the amount of involvement of the parents & families is on a scale I have never seen in an urban public school. To be fair, my comparisons are in Philadelphia and NYC but even compared to other public Minneapolis schools, Kenwood is head & shoulders above the rest! I've just returned from their annual back-to-school open house and BBQ. After the summer off, it was like a family reunion. My daughter will be starting 1st Grade and we are just thrilled. While waiting for our ride home, a dad and his son and my daughter and I were playing at the park across the street. The man told me that with the bus rezoning, his old address was no longer in the Kenwood bussing zone. So he checked out Jefferson...and then moved. To a new home, within the Kenwood bussing zone. That's how dedicated you and yours will become to this old-fashioned-in-the-right-ways and cutting-edge-in-others fabulous school. Every year they consistently score above every other school in the city- and they also take their arts education just as seriously as all the book-like studies. I once had a parent of a girl in my kid's kindergarten transfer her child to another school. When I asked why she said she thought it was "too clique-y". I highly and wholeheartedly disagree! Kenwood welcomes everyone, with open arms, regardless of ethnicity, race, religion or socio-economic circumstances. And I may be one of the few, but I do not like school uniforms and thankfully Kenwood does not use them. The one thing that kept me from giving a 5-star review are the school hours. 7:30 a.m. start time is just sooo early.......ugh! I'm editing this review as my kid is now in 5th Grade at Kenwood and I feel it's only fair to follow up in case parents of kids are considering Kenwood as an Elementary choice. Let's just say that the bloom has gone off the rose a bit since my last posting. To be fair, Kenwood and it's staff/educators are bound by the limitations that the Board of Ed put on them so I always try to keep that in mind--and because of that, and that the other complaint is actually more of a parent/neighborhood issue, I kept the stars at 4. I wound up having to hire outside tutors to supplement my daughter's education but because she is dyslexic. If your child isn't learning different, then thank your lucky stars and enjoy their curriculum (that sadly, since my last posting, is no longer geared as much towards art--they've lost their "Arts" status) but still has loads of cool things like an African drumming workshop, Taiko drumming workshop and field trips to cool places like museums and nature conservatories. The 5th Graders go on an overnight trip to Eagle Bluff which my daughter has been excited about since kindergarten. The media center uses iMacs that seem about 3 years old on average. The teachers are, for the most part, friendly and competent but sadly for you dear reader the very best, Mrs. Kohanek, retired the year after my kid had her. I'm sure you'll find your own favorite however. As for any special help your child might need, Ms. Kelly is very nice and has helped my daughter as best as she can but, we just now are only beginning to understand how the dyslexic brain "sees" and what a dyslexic student needs to thrive and, for my kid, and I feel confident in saying, any other kid, it's not Kenwood. But, to be fair, it's not any American public school that I know of. The social side of Kenwood is kind of brutal. Ironically, I mentioned in my first posting about a lady who said Kenwood was "clique-y". I didn't see it with Kindergarten. The kids didn't care who lived where or had what. The parents were all just meeting one another. It was wonderful. But by 1st Grade the lines were drawn. If you live in Kenwood, you are top tier as far as social status goes, and most of those parents are running the volunteer show--PTA., yearbook, Newsletter, helping with school plays, etc. If you're rich but live elsewhere, you're 2nd tier--of course being good looking helps too but not necessary. And the only color that matters at Kenwood is the color green. They are very "liberal". If you live outside Kenwood and aren't flaunting wealth- 2 bad. Those kids are at the bottom. You can try to volunteer, like I did, but I didn't get far. I never got replies to inquiries on times of meetings etc. Whenever I would email an exciting thing that my kid was doing (she acts in a troupe that brings awareness to homelessness) that they might want to mention in the school newsletter, I wouldn't get a reply much less get it run. A confidence boost like that would help my kid a lot. But who knows, maybe you'll get warmer neighborhood parents. I hope so.

I did not like this most kids are nice and some teachers are to but most teachers and some kids…read morejust these 30 percent are showing bad behavior and are ruining it for the rest and the bad teachers are punishing everybody most staff are just bad some are good but the bad staff are telling them what to do are being mean the least you can do is suspend one bad kid. Suspend those 15 percent bad and the other 15 percent punish them don't punish the rest of kids. then fire those bad teachers but you guys won't . You pay the good teachers very little so the government has it and they do nothing with it. The 70 percent good kids the 80 percent teachers and 15 percent good staff need to work in a place where they actually get respected and not in this failure place. I'm talking about green wood elementary . Don't go to greenwood go to a nice private school or move and go to a good public school where everyone is good and the bad kids and staff are fired. I'm only talking about green wood don't go to green wood

I like aspects except a few. I went to this school and graduated 3 years ago and something that…read morealways seemed to bother me was the extreme bullying, especially in kickball. It may normally be a bit rude but in kickball everyone is literally screaming at the top of their lungs and constantly arguing(for example if there is someone who they consider bad at kickball they will try to force them onto the other team.) But the thing that mainly bothers me in not just kickball but in all of the school is the structure. For example in kickball, the rule is that you are first to get in kicking line after your team switches to kicking instead of letting the person who was next in line after 3 outs in kicking kick next. Another example is in basketball. The basketball court on the school playground is designed with definitely some intent of making it interfere the kickball game. The court is right in front of the kickball turf and any far kicks or throws between 2nd and 3rd base would interrupt the basketball game by crossing the court. I also do not like the structure that teachers go through. I like that you do not have to move around with different teachers, but staying with that 1 teacher all the time kind of makes you super dependent on that teacher. Another thing I hate with the sports structure is the fact that no one plays as a team. The ball is almost always passed to only the same people who are considered good, those of which who completely forget about teamwork and try to show off instead of including others and completely screw up their team, such as chucking the kickball as hard as possible to try and show off by getting someone out instead of being safe, but those people often miss the ball versus others and screw up their entire team. A third thing I hate is the structure of the teachers. The teachers are nice and all but one major thing I see them fail to do is take action against bullies. Like the kickball bullies are people I understand because there would just be more and more conflict no matter how many you break up at the time. But there are other disagreements which people become overconfident of their side in and virtually take in nothing from the other person side and start fighting like hell. If a student tells a teacher of bullying or even fights between entire teams in certain sports then they are not going to take action and the nice and quiet people who want to say one thing or are considered bad at the sport will be completely bullied and excluded by all the kids. 1: I am credible in this insight such that I went to elementary school there and that I have been through all the years and have graduated elementary school there. Keep in mind that these people almost always end up becoming more inclusive, friendly, nice and mature in middle or maybe even high school/ 2: Please do not think of these people as forever being bad people. This is because many of the people I knew who were like this in elementary school ended up growing much nicer, friendlier, more inclusive and mature in life. Even some big elementary school bullies ended up becoming my friends in middle school.

best school system in the state of minnesota. enough saidread more