Worse school they never cared about social anxietys and Feeling safe but 1 of my pe teachers was…read morethe BEST She would let me do the work after everyone left best teacher God bless her

Ive never gone there but because of the ratings I guess its good but then also there's some really…read morebad comments there's not many though so I guess I really don't know. I'm a third grader by the way.

Please save your child from this! If you're thinking about enrolling your child into this school…read moreplease read this review before so, I have been at this school since I was in TK and my sister too. It used to be a good school that kids enjoyed but now it's like prison. Many kids in all different grades suffer from bullying and harassment. My last year there which was in 5th grade because I couldn't go there anymore even if it was last year there. I was harassed by a kid who would tell girls just dirty stuff and the principal would just not do anything ,we got the police involved and she would constantly try to hide from them to the point that the case closed due to this. The kids parents that harassed me even followed a kid home and started telling him stuff and the dad even brought his own kid to fight a kid that didn't want anything to do with him. I was told by the principal that "what happens in this school stay in this school". Which was a big no, kids should tell their parents about this ,not just let happen in the school, I suffered there all 5th grade because of bullying harassment and even more while principal would just not do anything about it beacause she's lazy that doesn't help and do her dang job??? She should go to jail for all this she's done!!!! Please save ur child from this torture.

My good old elementary school. Back in the days this school was called Hillsdale but changed it's…read morename to Captain Jason Dahl elementary school following 9/11 in honor of Captain Dahl. This campus is super clean and pretty. The walls are painted the forest green and a cream color. the bathrooms are kept clean as well! That's always a plus. :) it's you're typical elementary school with K-6 in the Franklin district.

Amazing opportunity for girls ! Outstanding education by a very professional group of teachers!!read more

Great education. This school produces smart, independent leaders. We have been incredibly happy and…read moreour daughter is thriving.

As a recent graduate, my time at Piedmont Hills was good and bad. A lot of the teachers are very…read morepassionate about their work and are down to earth. A lot of them are kind and always nice to talk to despite the decades long age gap between student and teacher. There are a lot of resources such as a wellness center to support students. One of the biggest problems about this school is the terrible management over the bathrooms. There are several bathrooms across school, and many of them will be closed throughout the day. Newer and nicer bathrooms such as the ones in the new art building and science buildings are always closed. The bathrooms that most people use in the hallways also were closed on and off. There are also locations such as the portables and track where there is no bathroom close by (or the nearest is closed). There is also a 10 minute bathroom policy where you can't go to the bathroom for the first and last 10 minutes of class. For me, as someone who drank a lot of water as a cross country runner, this was hell on Earth. There were MANY times where I would go to class, wait 10 minutes for the 10 minute rule to pass to be able to request to go to the restroom, have to take a long walk (~3 minute walk) to a bathroom, find out that it was closed, walk to the other hallway (approx 70m away) to see if their bathroom is open and find that it is closed, and then be forced to give up or try to find staff to open the bathroom or go on ANOTHER long walk to the office to go to the staff bathroom where I'm not supposed to go to because that's the only bathroom that was open. The lack of bathrooms being open and 10 minute rule also leads to LONG lines for the bathroom during breaks and lunches, which is only exasperated by some of the stalls being taken by girls who smoke in there. Not to mention the bathrooms that were allowed to be open were DISGUSTING. The soap was almost always out, there was ALWAYS a sink (out of the two sinks in the bathroom) broken, and cockroaches everywhere. Reminder that there are 8+ bathrooms, but only 2 were ever really open. Just stupid and silly. Just because there are a few bad apples who use the bathroom to skip class doesn't mean that the rest of the school population should suffer. It doesn't just end there though. It took months of student advocating for there to be a porta potty installed at the track. Hundreds of students use the school's outdoor sports facilities throughout the year (track, xc, softball, baseball, tennis, badminton, soccer, etc) and there was no bathroom near there for a long time. Oftentimes after school, the closest bathrooms (the locker rooms which are still ~.25 mile away from the track) were closed. While the porta potties were eventually implemented, they were CHAINED shut and padlocked. The school has a great student life and I made a lot of memories and lifetime friends here, but the bathroom situation was so horrible it gives this school -2 stars.

even as a graduate, i still come back to the track! open to residents all summer + during non…read moreschool hours in the school year. sunsets are beautiful and u get the magnificent view of the hills (green in the spring) and a wide assortment of trees (palm, oak, pine, birch). super peaceful track for working out, inner grass area that's cut every 2-3 weeks. no lights after sunset is a downside.

The school that once held a bear mascot is no longer the same , this school by far went down hill ,…read moreprincipal was joke and so was the whole new team staff . Mrs Labaw was by far the worst teacher with an attitude . But hey to each there own

I'm not sure who uses Yelp to rate schools, but anyhow, here's the dirt on why this place is great…read more(and a few things that may put some people off). Awesome: * Small-school vibe with only ~500 kids for grades TK-8, meaning everyone knows everyone in each grade and the kids know almost all of the adults within a year or two. * Big age range of TK-8 when almost all elementary schools are only TK-5...this is rad because it means younger kids can have older mentors, and it keeps the older kids acting like good brothers & sisters, not that "nasty middle school" vibe that creeps up sometimes at big gr. 6-8 schools. * Staff really knows students individually and stresses the social-emotional stuff well, like being nice to adults, looking out for each other, taking on special jobs around the school, etc. This is very trendy but most places don't do it as well as LB does. Just watch the alumni try to sneak back to see their former 8th grade teachers over and over - kids really form a positive connection to the adults here, which speaks for itself. * FREE after-school program until 6pm for gr. 1-8 and FREE meals for all kids gr. TK-8. This is huge for working families who get busy and have a hard time making afternoon pickups and packing lunches. It also makes a nice friendly vibe with the kids where there's no stigma to who eats the cafeteria meal or who stays after school since all of their friends do, too. * The teachers have a lot of experience - at most schools I find teachers who've been around 2-5 years are the norm, but here it seems like most teachers have been around 5-15 years. Here's what probably puts off other people (and maybe you too, if you're a jerk). * It's a fairly high-poverty neighborhood, so you don't see mountains of white kids or super-high test scores. You might want to question your prejudices if the first one is a problem for you, and you may want to read some educational research if you think the second one matters. * Teachers are a bit old-school (see experience above)...this can be annoying if you're super keyed in to the latest practices or it can be chill if you're more comfortable dealing with teachers who remember how it was when you were a kid. * Leadership turnover - you've probably heard about this district's old drama, and there can be some politics here which have a negative impact on the school when the principals get churned around too quickly. But hey, that's just the principals, not the teachers, so how much this affects your student is anyone's guess. Check this place out. Lots of people are turned away by something superficial, but those who know have a gem here.

Awwww.. Im glad this school is still around even though its now a different name and a different…read moreprogram I miss San Jose... The old San Jose.

It's a great school with teachers who are dedicated to their work. It's flawed due to the lack of…read moreresources provided by the district for programs that promote individuality through art, music, theatre, etc. The students who attend this school are primarily low income and are learning English as their second language. I'm proud to be an alum of Bridges Academy and current college student at Cal Poly SLO.

This is a great school. My daughter graduated from here and now my son is attending. Staff is…read morewonderful and supportive when it comes to any concerns I may have. Teachers are available right away when I need to call in or set up a meeting. My son is doing so well. He really enjoys going here.

I am a student at this school and this school is funny to go to but as a parent I don't want to…read moresend ur kids here. Fights, teachers not really caring and the most but I think it a good school cause there is fights like every other day and they mad funny but overall this school hella ghetto

This is a nice campus and the school develops students socially and intellectually to prepare them…read morefor both college and adult life. Investing in your child where your boy becomes a man. You can't put a price on the future.

First, understand that your son will not get into the best college he possibly can if he goes to…read moreBellarmine. This is lost in the fine print and is conveniently elided in the promo materials. The school will tout the few grads that end up at MIT or Harvard and act like they pulled those strings, but the truth is those kids are geniuses and would have gotten into those colleges with or without Bellarmine's name. In order to understand this effect, we have to look at the average performers at Bellarmine --- the average kids who work up until 3 AM every night only to get rejected by UC Davis or Cal Poly. A good portion of Bell grads even end up at SJ State. I personally know a grad who ended up at community college. Allow me to ask a very simple question: if you're paying money for an institution, should you not harvest an advantage from that institution? These types of outcomes are simply unacceptable for the tuition fees that Bellarmine demands (100k). The problem is every student at Bellarmine is ultimately remarkable and intelligent. However, colleges can only accept a certain amount of students per school. Thus, only the geniuses (who are fine on their own) get top acceptances while your reasonably bright son ends up with a disappointing result. This is the dirty secret at Bellarmine. There is a lot of coping built into the culture where people say "Well, at least I'm prepared for college" --- not understanding that their college result would have been much better had they just gone to a public school for FREE. Their grades would be better and their workload would be slashed in half. This outcome is absolutely unacceptable for the dollars spent. Second, the workload at Bellarmine is huge. Even nearly 12 years later, I am shocked at the inhuman level of work assigned if a student opted for a competitive curriculum (APs, Honors, etc.). It was commonly accepted that the average bedtime was 2 AM. Students walked around with heavy backpacks filled to the brim with books. The library was always crammed with students studying and finishing up presentations. Stress was rampant. During junior year, a classmate ran away from home after scoring a B on an exam. For this level of work, one would expect great rewards upon graduating. This never materialized. Tons of students who worked themselves to the bone found themselves matriculating at unremarkable colleges surrounded by students from public schools who didn't work nearly as hard. Unacceptable. Third, the academic difficulty at Bellarmine was ridiculous. English classes expected students to write at a college-level and graded as if it was college-level. Presentations were expected to last the entire class period (30-50 minutes). Afterwards, you were picked apart by an open forum like a thesis defense. Exams were incredibly difficult. I distinctly remember a random pop quiz dropped everyone's grades by 10 percent. A's to B's in 10 minutes. This is absolutely UNTHINKABLE in public school. When I finally had gone to college, I was mortified to learn that presentations were 10 minutes max at even upper division level courses. Now, you might think that academic difficulty is fine for a "college-preparatory" high school, but your son bears that price when his war-torn "B" is weighed disadvantageously against an "A" from a kid who didn't nearly work as hard. Colleges do not make that distinction. Bellarmine is only locally recognized, but it likes to think of itself as Philips Exeter. This is a horrific deal. Fourth, there is a problematic culture of teacher worship at Bellarmine. Now, there are always good & bad apples. But the bad ones had a profound effect on the students. Teachers are very aware of the hyper-academic culture enforced at Bellarmine and understand the power they wield over their students. What results is extremely unprofessional behavior: yelling, berating, inappropriate jokes with underage boys, and deeply personal attacks. I recall a teacher once mocked a student's garage rock band as the reason why he scored a C on a quiz. Such comments upon reflection are incredibly unprofessional and are not befitting of an institution with its hands in your pockets. This culture of teacher worship was perpetuated by students who were afraid of being vindictively graded, and was what allowed controversies like a former English teacher's sexual grooming of female students (visitors from another campus) to be even possible and go unquestioned for years. In summary --- Bellarmine delivers partly on its promises. Does it have a great facility? Yes. Are the teachers good? Most of them. However, it is also a steward of some deeply problematic issues: it is academically punishing and unforgiving, and it screws over your son when it comes to college admissions. A parent who wants to pay 100k tuition for their son to go to this school should understand two things: he will likely give a great talk on food production rights, and he will also attend USF.