Kipp Summit Academy is an amazing school! My son was lucky enough to have been selected in their lottery process for fifth grade. We tried getting my daughter into this school for the past four years without any luck.
This is our son's first year there and he loves it so much. I read the other reviewers on yelp and I am shocked at their comments. I'm pretty sure that if you are unable to afford healthy snacks, and inform your child's teacher and school personnel, they will definitely be happy to accommodate. Advising students to bring healthy snacks has encouraged my son to read food labels and selecting healthier food. He loves learning about healthier choices and even encouraged me to eat healthier. Regarding parent involvement, studies show that children are more successful when parents are involved in the school--volunteer work. The fee for volunteer hours is there to encourage parents to participate and be active. Again, as accommodating as the principal and teachers have been for my family, I am pretty confident that they are understanding and will work with each family individually to help meet their needs.
My son has a speech impediment and receives speech therapy ever since he was 3 years old. Transferring to Kipp Summit, we wanted to continue speech therapy. His speech therapist is Melodi F. She is an angel and very professional. Of all these years, the doctors and other speech pathologists (he has has four--kaiser, private, and school) and no one noticed that my son was challenged with hypo-nasality. However, during several weeks with Melodi, she texted me and called me to share her concerns and asked that I bring my son to see a specialist, which I did immediately. Turns out he also had sleep apnea, severe allergies in addition to his hypo-basaltic. Three surgeries were recommended--all of which we agreed to. My son has just gotten the surgeries about a week ago. The specialist stated that my son will sleep better, have more energy, be more alert, and his speech is highly likely going to improve as well! This is amazing and I'm so grateful that Melodi did her job so well and caught this for my son. Thank you so much, Melodi!
Ms. Bun is my son's teacher. She is young, full of energy, and has a heart for teaching. I love the fact that my son trusts her so much! Teachers here provide parents and students with their work cell. Students can text or call from early in the morning until late evening. Ms. Bun has build such a rapport with my son that once he found out his surgery date, he contacted her via telephone at around 7am to inform her! I didn't even know about it until he advised me that I need not to inform her because he already did. He also disclosed to me that Ms. Bun comforted him and helped decrease his anxiety about the surgery hi sharing her experience of getting the same type of surgery in the past. Here the most touching part of the story, which made me want to cry. After he received the surgery at Kaiser Oakland and he was calm and alert again, he asked me to drive him to the school so he can see Ms. Bun and tell her that he was fine. I took him to the school, but she was teaching a lesson, plus he didn't have enough energy to walk to the class. I texted her instead to inform her about the surgery. She was happy everything went well. Also, my son doesn't like reading so much, but she has helped him find the love of reading by helping him find books that are interesting to him. His writing and reading has improved. He also likes Mr. Ng, his math teacher, very much. His math has also improved. read more