I disagree with L.S. assessment of the school , 2/12/2015. I wish she had reviewed the school her children are currently enrolled in so I could see what her barometer for a quality education might be. Our child entered kindergarten this year. Mrs. Johnson, as a first year principal has exceeded my expectations. She is very accessible and responsive and not by any means an elitist. This school is very diverse as evident when roll call starts in the morning. Our child has learned about STEM subjects and has learned about different cultures extensively. To say that Mrs. Johnson will strip this school of its ethnicity , culture and financial diversity is hard to believe possible. We were asked and reminded nicely about the suggested donation, we gave it and have given more when asked. I believe this happens at most schools and districts. Our child gets music , art , science lab , computer lab , PE and all of the things I remember getting at Irvine Unified. With the funds raised and given to the school, a curriculum writer was hired to establish a STEM education. There seems to be a solid vision for this school , which is backed by LMU and LAUSD. If you want a high academic expectation from the teachers for your children ,a safe environment, knowledgable and caring staff , then this is a great school read more

this school is absolutely horrible. i went here for 6 years and all i've ever gotten was bullied with no one to address the situation. as a middle schooler i see how this really effected my life which is why i hate this stupid school and everyone in it read more

I have some serious concerns about this school. There seems to be a lot of bullying of students and a "My dad's richer than your dad" attitude. Although academically the school is sound, I worry about students who are marginalized when their parents can't afford certain activities. On one such occasion, children who did not pay a $40.00 fee were sent back to class to watch as other children were splattered with Diwali colors as they ran around the field. As we look for inclusion of all children, why are poorer children of color being obstracized from these fun events? On another note I've heard that parents who contribute the most to the school are guaranteed their choice of teacher in the Fall. This is just yet another example of "Pay to play" in our stratified, divided world. Schools are supposed to be the great equalizer but apparently not at Playa Vista Elementary School. read more

Good news: dedicated teachers and an intellectually challenging environment. Bad news: Politics. You'd think parents would have enough to do raising children, balancing work, etc. If we'd known the us/them attitudes of PV residents... Were told America is a classless society but this school proves otherwise. Peasants beware. read more

I disagree with the posting of 6/13/2013. Playa Vista is a great school. As an educator and parent, I can honestly say Playa Vista is as good as it gets. We truly feel like we hit the "jackpot" with this LAUSD school. The education the students are receiving is top notch and very comparable to LA area private schools. The students, teachers, and parents make this school the hidden gem that it is. Playa Vista has struck us by its magical quality - making it intimate and hugely wondrous simultaneously ... truly a living, breathing, growing garden of learning. (The 900+ API Score speaks for itself!) read more

Playa Vista Elementary School - Playa Vista Elementary - Elementary Schools Near Me - Playa Vista, California

If I can give this a negative 5 star rating I will. Where do I start. This school is ran by a Prinicple (Ms. Johnson) who doesn't take accountability for anything that goes on wrong at this school. My child has been attending this school from Kinder to third grade. During his time there he has experienced teachers who careless about his well being, learning and developing and putting the time needed to understand individuality of every student. This is a text book ran school with no sense of passion or true care about the lives of the kids. My child has also experienced bullying throughout second and third grade. As a parent you want whats best for your child and you trust the school as a whole to nurture, provide and protect. PVES has dropped the ball on so many levels. If the school put more time and energy in developing the needs of each individual students and teachers spent their time getting to know each of their students while having a Principle who held teachers, faculty, and after school programs accountable I would not be writing this message. There has been numerous of times where my child has cried begging me not to take him to this school due to of some of the things I mentioned earlier. I have lived in PV since 2006. I love the neghborhood the school however is far from being decent. Yes it is in a great neighborhood, yes the school is new and has access to cutting edge technology but the individuals we trust in making sure our children our developing in a way to where they feel empowered is lacking. I have had several meetings with the principle and teachers and neither have the will or compassion to put the work in and provide to these students what they really need. If you also have a child who needs special attention and care they do not have a system in lace for that. They are also not interested in coming up with a plan and will try and convince you that your child doesn't need any special attention to help them develope and grow. I refuse to continue to send my child to the wolves after what I have experienced as of late with my own eyes. A lot of these teachers are breaking kids spirits and confidence at an early age at this school. There was one teacher who goes far beyond and gets to know each student on an individual basis giving students the attention they need and that was Mrs. Rich (1st grade). My child had an amazing 1st grade year and did extremely well and was happy and looking forward to going to school because he had a teacher who took the time to get to know him and get the best out of him. There is so much more I would like to say with detail but I will save it for LAUSD. Parents do your research don't assume a school is good because it is in a great neighborhood. Speak with other families and faculty before deciding to enroll your child into any school. There were just way more lows than highs and I am determined to have my child especially at a young age attend a school that is nurturing, passionate about teaching and individual development and gets the best out of my kids. Unfortuantely this school has failed on several extremely vital levels/occassions. read more

I have been a teacher at PVES for the past 1.5 years and have been extremely happy. While there are always positive and negative points to anything, the positives outweigh the negatives by leaps and bounds. The People at PVES Each year hundreds of teacher applicants apply to PVES and therefore PVES is blessed with having the best of the LAUSD teachers on board. In addition, the rest of the staff at the school are fabulous too. Many of the teacher assistants are LMU students. Parents are mostly either PVES residents or LMU staff and faculty. Diversity is very high. Most parents are fabulous and extremely helpful and very involved. The weekly Osprey Cafe is the highlight of my week and it has really turned into a community event which we all love to go to. Our LMU partners are fabulous too. It is very exciting to be affiliated with a university and some teachers even teach courses at LMU. I was fortunate enough to go to a science conference in Portland with my LMU colleagues. The Campus We are an award winning LEED school with solar panels, recycled water usage, and much much more. We have a beautiful lab with a number of animals and we even have a chicken coop with chicks we hatched ourselves. And we have enough technology to support our curriculum. Are we a demo school yet? No we are not but we will be soon. Our school has grown in all facets in the year and half since it has been opened. Well established schools have taken years to become what they are yet we were a 900 API in our first year! We still have a long road ahead of us but with the dedication of all stakeholders we will reach that place very soon. And best of all is that I can walk to school! read more

Great school. We love all of our teachers. Mrs. Kilacky is a sweetheart. She is a mom herself and is the sweetest and smartest teacher my son has ever had. Other teachers just as amazing and sensitive to the great diversity we have at this school. read more

We feel fortunate to have been at PVES for the last five years. With one son entering 4th grade in the Fall, and another moving on to 1st, we have been extremely pleased each of the teachers they have had and continue to be impressed by the education they are receiving. The integrated STEM curriculum and project-based learning, provide a hands-on, wholistic approach that students can apply to their everyday lives. The curriculum, however, would not be effective without the guidance of PVES's qualified teachers. This year, our youngest was in a kindergarten class team-taught by Ms. Killacky and Ms. Ahn. He developed socially, excelled academically, and gained independence. He was in a class comprised of students from various backgrounds and ethnicities (I don't think any one race was the majority), but the students didn't seem to notice- my son certainly didn't. I had the opportunity to see the students and teachers interacting inside the classroom and out and on every occasion I witnessed, students were treated equally and respectfully. Both Ms. Killacky and Ms. Ahn made extra efforts to bring parents into the classroom to participate in the students' learning. Pictures were regularly posted that showed students working and playing together and featured some of their assignments. Newsletters were send out weekly to keep parents in tune with current lessons. Both teachers were accessible before/after school and by email. I cannot recommend both teachers highly enough! My son is leaving kindergarten with a solid foundation to further his learning and a strong character that demonstrates respect, compassion and kindness. read more

The school is good until third grade kids say whatever they want often times being very inappropriate even skipping class at time there has been multiple incidents of bullying and isolation send your kid through kindergarten to second grade after that get out read more

Bottom line, PVES is a fantastic public school. The Principal, Mrs Johnson, is beyond gracious, accountable and always makes herself reachable and available. My daughter, now in 2nd grade, is thriving with an incredible teacher, Ms Q (even during a pandemic and distance learning). We're grateful for PVES as our neighborhood school and would highly recommend. read more

Great school in term of well round curriculum, wonderful teachers. Too many parents want to be educators, forgetting that they some time overtaking the mission of what a Principal is there to do which is carrying out LAUSD vision. The Principal has rules and regulations where she must follows by LAUSD standards. I don't fault the Principal, I can see parents here are eager to carrying out their own agenda. Teachers are wonderful, attentive and trying their best. What I don't like is that the fund raising money is focusing on too much fun enrichments like PE, choir,orchestra, arts, gardening etc. taking away precious time for teachers needing to teach more math/english. Kids get so little time in learning math/english, little homeworks to practice ( remember practice makes perfect!), lack having solid learning of math/english and at an age so critical for them to build foundation and move forward. More than half of my kid's class is not going to pass common core testing, instead of more time learning how to solve problems and using critical thinking, more time for gardening, field trips, things that yes so fun, lots of fun but master of none. While I want my child to have fun at school, needs academic to be strong also. No wonder foreign students are so advance than our kids here, at this level, our kids will suffer in competing later on. Overall, I think PVES has a great campus, great teachers but lack in academic department, may be in a few more years when they iron out all the issues? Can't blame teachers when some classrooms have so many disruption kids that take away learning time also, LAUSD can't do anything about these kids, some parents just want to dump their children disciplinarian issues on school to take care, as they, themselves are exhausting in finding solutions to assist school in educating their kids. Due to these disruptions, teachers are exhausting to have energy to teach and control the classroom. Imagine, 24+ kids with you 8 hours a day! PTA lacks focusing in providing a full-time teacher's assistant rather than pushing more funding for fun classes. PTA group so hungry for money,pressuring and pounding raising money for these extra classes weekly, even voted to get their hand into Osprey Cafe funding where it used to be 100% for classroom teacher/parents to decide what to do with it. Its get tiring of these raising funds! What's worse, PTA posted a tree showing branches with name who donates money in their classroom, this is so uncalled for to shame those who don't. PTA group is lacking focus going down to LAUSD board and fight for more money to allocate to this school, better use of their time than hounding on parents for more money, especially paying our dues with hefty property tax, retro & forward 7 yrs of prop 30 tax etc. Unfortunately, going to take my little one out of here, need more academic, less on enrichments which I can always get as extra-curricular afterschool/wkds. Private is not the answer either. I wish I have a magic wand to make the best of all worlds where enrichment fun classes and academic fit all in a school day evenly. I don't have all the answers, but I do know it's not academic enough. read more

I couldn't be happier the the first year of education my son received at PVES. Today marks his kindergarten graduation and the progress he has made is nothing short of remarkable due to the diligent care of the teachers and administration of this wonderful school. read more

Great school with amazing teachers and principal. LMU and parent involvement adds a lot of value as well. I highly recommend it.

This is my son's 2nd year at PVES and our experience has been nothing short of amazing! He is thriving academically, socially and emotionally! The teachers, parents and LMU staff go above and beyond to support students. PVES is a high performing, neighborhood school with a 900 API and enrollment increase by 100 students every year - a rarity in LAUSD! Teachers are kind, engaged, experienced and work tirelessly to integrate an innovative STEM curriculum. They attend professional developments throughout the year and national STEM conferences and integrate those innovative techniques in their teaching. LMU student teachers rotate throughout the year, parents volunteer in class and the parent group funds teacher's aides to support the children in the classroom. PVES has a computer lab, science lab, frequently visits the Discovery Park for science exploration and the sports park for P.E. Yes, the parents have an agenda...it's to ADVOCATE FOR THEIR CHILDREN! The parents fundraise and we are PROUD of it! We do not get enough funding from the district. Through fundraising we are able to fund academic and enrichment programs for ALL PVES STUDENTS: technology classes, librarian, field trips and teacher s and supervision aides, Kinder music teacher, 1st-5th grade ORFF music teacher and P.E. coaches just to name a few. We also have fun community building events like our back to school picnic, BOO Fest (Halloween event), parent child dance and movie night. It's a true community with strong friendships. The principal is reassigned to another school for the 2014-2015 school year. We expect those issues in previous reviews to resolved when the school community selects the new principal. So GRATEFUL to those that GIVE their time and financially so PVES kids get a top notch education! No one school is the perfect fit for every child. It's important that parents do their research...visit the schools, talk to parents with enrolled children and select the school that is the right fit, not only for your child but the entire family. read more

Playa Vista has gotten off to a fantastic start over the last couple years and I know it will only get better from here! This school opened with the help of a very passionate and dedicated parent Booster Club who fund-raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure a well-rounded curriculum for our children. While the first year was a bit shaky in terms of the administration, who was not committed to collaborating with the community, that issue will be addressed soon as the search for a new principal begins. My daughter is thriving at this school, learning so much from both her K and 1st grade teachers while living in a very unique community within LAUSD. This is a true neighborhood school that brings the community together with lots of fun and engaging events. The next level will be when we have an administrator in place who can also actively engage the amazing corporate neighbors we have in Playa Vista. Google, Belkin, ad agencies and more - our children can learn so much by having these companies as partners with the school. Yes, there is a lot of fundraising, but that is necessary due to the lack of funds provided by the government these days. School has never been only about Math and English - children need to be well-rounded! Learning about the arts and being physically active, among other things, will help our children to learn even more. I am excited to see how the next year goes when we hopefully have a more collaborative, savvy leader in place to continue the development of this school as a STE(A)M leader. If you live in Playa Vista, there is no question that your local neighborhood school is the way to go! read more

My son has been going to PVES for 2 years- Kinder and First- and we are extremely happy! More important than how much he has learned ( which is a lot ) is that I see so much growth in his love for learning! I attribute this to the amazing, nurturing teachers that we have been lucky enough to have and all of the awesome programs this school offers- due primarily to the incredible fundraising efforts of the parent group. I love the STEM focus, dedicated teachers, and LMU partnership that I have actually seen first hand and think that these areas will only flourish with great leadership! As my younger son enters TK next year I'm excited to see what's ahead for my boys and this great school. read more

Amazing LAUSD school! Outstanding teachers! Great community and parent support! LMU collaboration and support! Wonderful programs - PE, Planet Bravo, Music! Staff support - campus and student aides! Very close to giving this school 5 stars, but there is an area for improvement. Hopefully with the right leadership, this school will become a top-notched STEM school!!! read more

My son attends this school and is thriving. Great teachers, location and after-school programs. Highly recommended.

It's really saddening that at this time in age we are still experiencing discrimination. Called this school to ask about enrollment everything seemed fine. Once I actually went to the school to inquire about enrollment they simply cut me off and told me that school was just for people of the community and advised they were completely full for kinder enrollment. It's really unfortunate that discrimination still occurs especially in the education community. read more

We have had a fantastic experience at this new neighborhood public school. I have kids in two different grades here, and have been very impressed with both of their exceptional teachers. The school's partnership with Loyola Marymount University has provided invaluable guidance and resources. The facility itself is a true (LEED certified) gem in a city filled with aging school campuses. The science and computer labs and the school library are like nothing I've ever seen at any other public elementary school! Our parents are passionate, invested, and proactive. Their fundraising efforts have resulted in an array of enrichment programs and educational field trips for all grade levels. The lack of administrative strength has been uniformly acknowledged and is being addressed, so I have complete confidence in the fact that this school will shine even brighter once we find the right leadership. read more

Playa Vista Elementary is a brand new elementary school that has been a wonderful school with incredibly strong teachers the past couple of years. With the new leadership that is coming our way, I feel confident this is going to be a superior STEM school that it was meant to be. We have outstanding teachers in every grade, a committed partnership with LMU, and a very dedicated and involved parent group. When you combine this strong foundation with a visionary leader, the possibilities are endless. I think PVES has a bright future ahead. Lastly, we have such a special community where all the families walk to school and look after one another. This is such a gem of a neighborhood- we are so lucky to have PVES. read more

Playa Vista Elementary has a dedicated staff and extremely involved parent community. It is a tight knit community with a diverse student body that is like nothing on the westside. The school is LEED platinum with the ability to use it in educating our students with the importance of being environment conscious. It is STEM focused with the partnership of the LMU. In my honest opinion it is the closest thing to a private education on the westside without paying private school costs. The school is a hidden gem! It is new which means we are still growing and learning but I have no doubt my children are thrilling In their early education. read more

My children attend Playa Vista Elementary and I know that this is THE BEST elementary school in LAUSD. The teachers, the principal, the parents, the LMU partnership, the STEM program, and the building itself - all top notch! If only it were K-8 and not just K-5. read more

We were really torn about enrolling our son into this school in 2012 and being guinea pigs to a brand new LAUSD school. Especially when there were so many good private schools in the area. We had 4 families move because they didn't want to take the chance. We did. And we're so glad we did. This is our 2nd year at PVES and I have to say that we're pretty happy. No school is perfect. The first year was a nightmare just because there's nothing established and the teachers and principal were hired just before it opened and no one knew where anything was and the assistants weren't hired yet. But it all worked out because of the enthusiasm of the parents and the kids! It was an amazing first year. Yes, there's a ton of fundraising and that's a real pain, but a neighbor said it's the same at the private schools. I disagree with one of the reviews because my 1st grader gets plenty of homework and it's amazing how much reading and math he's learned within this year. The teachers are amazing. The campus is fantastic. The sports park next for is awesome. The LMU involvement is what sold me and I'm hoping they'll get more and more involved each day. I also disagree with that one review about needing less PE/Arts activities. I believe education needs to be well-rounded and you can't have kids that can read and count but not know anything about music, science, arts, or the environment. The parents are so involved, which can bring a lot of drama, but amazing results come out of this. I'd rather be in a school where the parents care then at a school that's just an LAUSD day care. There's a reason why there's more charter schools on the Westside then the rest of the entire country. Parent involvement is a good thing. The last thing I love about this school is it's diversity. There's such an amazing balance of all races that I love my son being exposed to this environment. I feel that is really unique that a lot of other schools lack. I didn't give it 5 stars because I think there needs to be more unified leadership which I heard they are working on. Congrats to PVES and FPVES on creating an amazing new school that i know will only get better and better! read more

This review is solely based on the treatment of a child with a learning disorder and an active IEP. In my experience dealing with LAUSD, finding a teacher that will honor and respect a child with a special learning disorder is hit or miss. At Playa Vista, it's definitely a miss. The resource teacher does not spend adequate time or put in any effort to help my child reach his IEP goals. Even worse, his fifth grade teacher is inexperienced and indifferent to teaching my child. She does not honor any classroom and teaching accommodations dictated in the IEP. It's clear that she treats him like a normal child, lacks any effort in helping him learn, and as a result he's had a rough year in this new school. The principal is a figure head who goes out of her way to protect the teacher and ignore what's best for the child. She only seems to care about PR than anything else. In my opinion, the school is there for the children and the teachers are there to do everything they can to help their students succeed. This is not the case here. From the staff in the after school program, I heard similar problems with other students and believe it or not, the staff in the after school program seem to care more because they take the time to help my child with his work. read more