I think when it comes to school, people's opinions can vary quite widely based on their and their…read morechildren's experiences at the school. As a graduate of San Marino High School, I can only say that I have had some of the best memories of my life at this school. The students and parents are extremely dedicated to education at San Marino, which in turn attracts some of the best teachers and students to come join this community. San Marino, itself, of course, is a very special community as well, and that further influenced the high school and its population here. I, for one, would certainly wholeheartedly send my children to San Marino High School over any other private school for the educational rigor and teacher quality that it offers. Perhaps I am very biased due to my fond memories of growing up here, but it is after all a wonderful school as well!

Principle is condescending and very unprofessional... Wouldn't tell her name either just kept…read moresaying Im the principle nobody is higher than me here you can't file a complaint.

What a beautiful campus and top notch facility. There is so much vibrant history here and a great…read moreheadmaster who really cares about the kids. The teaching staff are really helpful and great and any kid would be lucky to come here and experience life on this campus!

The teachers here are wonderful and really go above and beyond. the classes are small so each…read morestudent can get the help they need. Lots of field trips and experiences for the students.

The school is pretty good because its really big, the area is clean, and has a lot of nice…read morestudents, all the teachers are very nice especially the 6th grade teachers. But the band teacher (ms. simpson) is very rude, and if you were to join the school don't pick band, it is the worst elective, I definitely regret choosing band. The teacher is disrespectful, rude, and passive aggressive and she won't pay attention to you when you need help, if she doesn't like you she will pick on you. If you were going to enroll into the school don't make the mistake of applying into band class and apply into a positive elective with a positive teacher.

I've been to this middle school multiple times for my cousins' graduations! I just went to the…read morebabies of our family's graduation on Thursday and thoroughly enjoyed it. When I was attending my middle school, we had a much smaller 8th grade class because there are 13 middle schools in Alhambra. At San Marino's middle school, the class is probably 3 or 4x larger. The parents, guests, and I truly appreciate the staff calling the names of the graduates two at a time, it saves a lot of time! Their field is really spacious and even on the black top, everyone was able to take photos with their loved ones! Parking wasn't a hassle this year, because we decided to park behind the school (which is super super close to the field where they held the graduation ceremony). Such a beautiful ceremony! Congratulations to my wonderful and amazing cousins, Karen and Ethan!

This is Thanksgiving and I have pledged to thank those who helped me succeed this year…read more I'm an alumna of this school. To be fair, I arrived with a solid academic foundation from Foothill Country Day School. Poly was a great school though. Quite large, so you need to find your people, as they say. But overall, the campus is beautiful, the classes challenging, and the other students were kind and ambitious. I went from Poly to Princeton and now work in a science field in Silicon Valley. I'm grateful to Poly for guiding me on my path.

Administration is full of hypocrisy. This school tries to mold young kids into thinking a certain…read moreway than allowing them to freely learn and critically think. 1/2 the kids in upper school are socially awkward and equal amount of parents are clueless as this school is living off a rep from 20 yrs ago.

I've visited this campus and it's nice. My friend grew up attending this school and said there have…read morebeen several upgrades. The staff is very nice, the ones I've met. And the campus is clean and very safe.

I was invited by a close friend to attend a Christmas concert. Her daughter plays the cello. I was…read moremesmerized by the talent of all those children and the dedication of all the music teachers involved. I felt moved by the passion and professionalism of all the participants. I love classical music and I regularly attend to concerts and plays. I sincerely felt like I was in front of professional musicians. The band , the choir , the orchestra and jazz band were all so amazing! I could definitely see those children playing in the future at venues like Disney hall , zipper concert Hall and the Hollywood bowl. They all behaved like pros and gave their best. My only observation is : the parents need to be educated on how to behave during the performance. They whistled so loud and one had her phone on right behind me. I think a memo or an email to the parents should go out before each performance reminding the parents what the protocol is during a concert. Is not an sport event where you scream and whistle. They really ruin it and set a bad example. It was well attended by parents and that is wonderful. More civility is needed.

I had graduated from this school recently, and the teachers there are real good (especially Ms…read more Edwards who taught 8th grade math, Algebra 1, and Geometry).

I hated this school so much. It seriously put me in a depressive state for a prolonged period of…read moretime. So many of the teachers are hard to work with or extremely mean and uncooperative. If you have the money, I would completely recommend a private school because of the cons listed: CONS: -Very dirty -Mean and uncooperative teachers -outdated teaching style -Nasty food -Almost 2 hour long classes -A lot of rude kids -Most classrooms have little to no decorations -Some teachers seem unhappy to be there -Disgusting bathrooms -Very few lunch tables -More that would take too long to name PROS: +Good sports fields +Some nice teachers +Some decorated classrooms +Some nice kids

This is going to be long, but it's worth the read. I used to attend this school. Granted, it could…read morebe much better now, I admit that, but based on what I've heard from students and parents who still go there, while there has been improvements, it has a ways to go. I attended in 2017-2020. I had undiagnosed ADHD and autism, but I had the symptoms of both, and I had diagnosed Tourette's and severe anxiety. If your kid has any sort of mental illness or neurodivergence, I do not recommend this school. They try to throw any students they find "annoying to deal with" into special ed. In my experience, they tested me, barely looked at my test results and said that I was below average in English. My mom had to look at the testing and explain to the testers why all the answers they marked as wrong were correct, which eventually they realized that my mom and I were right and they were wrong. Furthermore, some teachers are mean. Some specific teachers are traumatizing. One in particular, who I will not name here, traumatized me and several other students so badly that we were all scared of the subject she taught for years afterwards, and when we tried to all get transferred to a different class, we were told by the principal at the time that it's "good for us to learn how to deal with difficult characters". This "difficult character" would show videos of men bashing their wives heads open on concrete to 6th graders and laugh. She would barely teach during class, then assign hours of homework for her class alone, expecting you to teach yourself everything you needed to know about the topic at home, then do the hours of homework for said topic. She should be working as a prison warden, not a teacher. On the topic of issues with the staff, let's talk about their counselors, one in particular who again I will not name. I had recently been in a mall shooting and was struggling with a lot of anxiety and emotions. I put in one single request to talk to my counselor, but I was called into the office a lot to speak to a different, specialized counselor for other reasons (who ended up having issues as well). My counselor at the time threw out my single request to see her and then emailed my parents telling them I was being too needy and requesting to see her too often. Also, I was put into a class with a girl I had once had issues with in elementary school and we were supposed to be on a "don't put these two in the same class" list. It was gym class and I was feeling a bit targeted by this girl, so I talked to my counselor asking if I could be moved to a different class. The counselor told the other girl that I had asked if SHE could be moved to a different class because I had issues with her, which led to the girl sending all her friends after me for doing such a "heinous thing" like taking her away from her friends in gym class, when that was never what I asked for in the first place. I did switch counselors after that. The cherry on top of it all, however; I started having non-epileptic seizures as a result of a medication I was on in 8th grade (I'm fine now). One day I had a half-hour long non-epileptic seizure that had head movement so severe that I got a concussion and memory loss from it. Someone, who we suspect was the principal, forbade the nurse from calling paramedics for me because it "wasn't part of school policy". The district did in fact apologize for this, got me a private tutor, paid for my therapy and very promptly re-taught every school in the district what "school policy" is for seizures. But the teachers were not very patient with my recovery process, expecting me to turn in all of my assignments despite having to relearn years worth of information I lost from the brain damage. However, my neurotypical friends and acquaintances seemed to love this school. So, for neurotypical kids, it could be a very good fit, it's a good neighborhood and there isn't much of a threat of violence. But when it comes to the actual education itself, if your kid is neurodivergent, you're better off finding somewhere else or homeschooling, which is what we eventually did.

Both of my children have attended Clairbourn School for over 6 years, and they have thoroughly…read moreenjoyed their time there. I am immensely grateful that they have developed leadership skills and become proficient public speakers during their time at the school. The supportive and kind staff have played a crucial role in nurturing their confidence. Additionally, Clairbourn offers ample opportunities for students to explore various interests, making it an ideal choice for parents seeking a well-rounded education for their children.

We were very fortunate to have our daughter join Clairbourn's Junior Pre-K Class led by Mrs Rankin…read moreand her TA, Ms Macchi. My daughter was attending a Montessori school prior to our looking into Clairbourn, and I felt that she needed more opportunities to perk her growing curiosity in life. Clairbourn School definitely has an abundant resources and opportunities to provide! What really made me so happy about switching over to Clairbourn was their strong emphasis on teaching and instilling kindness and respect for one another. Clairbourn also really felt like a family, a very caring and welcoming community. Every event they put on is so carefully thought out. Their back-to-school STEM event was amazing, the Grandparents/Parents Appreciation Days were so special, their Entrepreneur/Family BBQ was so much fun and their Christmas Show production was so well put-together. Unfortunately COVID hit us all by surprise in March 2020. I applaud how quickly Mrs Rankin learned and adapted to providing a virtual learning setting for the remainder of the school year. She personally dropped off weekly activity kits for my daughter and surprised us with a photo book at the end of the year with snapshots of our daughter's remote learning journey. We were looking forward to joining Ms Rubio's Pre-K class this past year, but due to LA County's Safer at Home mandate, their preschool was not able to open for in-person learning for Fall 2020. In the meantime, their head of school, Dr Patzlaff, and their lower school director, Mrs Paciorek, were very attentive and provided guidance on age appropriate activities our kids could engage in and continue in their development. They've been very communicative throughout this past year and very flexible and understanding of each family's situation. Your child will be loved at Clairbourn School--200%! You will have no doubts.

The racism, bullying & harassment was so bad here I had to pull my child out of this school for the…read morefinal month of the year and enroll him in another elementary school to finish the year. My son is African American and we do not use the racism word lightly. I enrolled my son here under emergency enrollment as an evacuee from the Eaton fires for 2 1/2 months (as a 5th grader). He was well liked and adjusted at his previous school but it was overall unsafe to remain there due to toxicity & my son's medical condition. We were initially excited as Carver's reputation online touted it as top tier in education. We received a very nice tour; the staff was kind and helpful adding to our excitement. Keep in mind, my son has never had any physical altercations, behavioral incidents, disruptions, or unpleasant encounters prior to his enrollment at Carver.. On the second day of his attendance he was assaulted by 2 children on a field trip. No adults witnessed it. During the year, he had been called everything from " Monkey" to "fried chicken". Both the Teacher and principal were made privvy to all situations. (The principal actually defended the children calling my child a "monkey" unprovoked because of the "zodiac". The children were mean and isolating towards him. Class seating arrangements had to be changed because the children he was initially seated with, became increasingly unkind & aggressive towards my son. There was no appreciable reprimand or consequence for any of the racial slurs hurled at my child, even after administrators had sent home a routine behavioral contract. This contract plainly stated layered consequences for inappropriate behaviors to all 5th grade students (a contract that was violated by several students against my child and the punishments were not upheld). The final straw is when my child was punched in the chest by the class president after calling him a "monkey" on a separate field trip. I immediately came to the office to demand actions be taken so that my son could receive some form of justice. The principle essentially shoo'd me away due to a tour of prospective families occurring in earshot of me vocalizing my concerns. Not only did the principal of the school disregard my concerns, he called my child's old principle to see if my child had any prior issues or incidents (he found that my child was a model student). Why would you call his prior school to find dirt when my son is the victim? The principal's solution to this debacle was to have my son's biggest bully ,the class president, (yes the same one who punched him and called him a racial slur) become my child's "MENTOR". I dis-enrolled him the next day into a whole different school district with a month left to go. This incident occurred almost a year ago (2025)...The ONLY reason I'm posting this now is because my son found a school shirt today from Carver elementary in his closet and with tears in his eyes asked if we could get rid of it. His heart is still broken from his time there, as is mine. I suspect he'll carry a hole in the heart for the rest of his life because of this teaching institution and how nobody cared enough to protect him or seek justice on his behalf. Teaching is not just about math science reading etc.... We must also teach the children to treat each other with love and respect. We're all different but we're all humans. I hope significant changes have been made & no other family has to endure what we experienced in our time at Carver.

Personally I love this school for my kids! Their principal takes great pride and love for the…read moreschool! Mr. Caldwell is very friendly and wonderful to the kids and staffs and well basically everyone really haha! But their teachers really care for their students which is what made me feel at ease under their care! I know my kids will get the best education and attention they need to strive in the future! Such wonderful staffs there and volunteers as well! I also love how this school always have something going on to keep the kids engaged and helps their mind always working! I highly recommend this school if you live in this district. If not it maybe difficult to get your child in this school because there's a long I mean long waiting list! Which makes perfect sense since I feel they are the best! Second to none! Hands down! Thanks Carver!