these 2 stars are specifically 1 for the physical facility & 1 for coach emma, who was the only reason that my child continued to attend SGA burien for about a year, or it would have been 2 months max. the reason for this are plentiful so i'll keep them brief. firstly, the administration desk clerks were always rude; asking any questions only resulted in a look of confusion & a response that was passively aggressive & sometimes mocking. it was actually weird. but as i said, coach emma was amazing & going above & beyond for her students. however SGA did not set up for success. she was giving out stickers after class as part of her positive reinforcement,style of coaching that she purchased out of her own pocket & it wasnt until after i told admin that i was going to bring her a giant bag that they started supplying stickers but only because 'it wasnt fair to the other classes'. & when coach emma was on sick leave/vaca, the substitute was consistently unprofessional, starting with her attire. i am very much body positive & a feminist but there are also times & places. the place to be wearing booty shorts that in fact showcase your entire rear when teaching a class for 5 year olds that does not require any actual physical activity on the part of the coach is entirely avoidable. I honestly would understand if this were in an actual Olympic approved suit and you're training more advanced athletes but if you are inside of an air conditioned building simply standing next to a balance beam and helping kids jump down as the extent of your physical exertion, there really is no need to be wearing shorts that could honestly qualify as underwear. I never even mentioned that before though because her coaching was so terrible that I wanted administration to really hear me when I explained the following things and not have it tainted with the idea that maybe I was just mad about the shorts because that was literally at the bottom of my list of grievances. Unfortunately, I can't remember her name, but that's probably for the best haha. the biggest problem was that this substitute (who taught regular classes of her own) was very hands off + unhelpful (my kid asked for chalk per usual & she was refused, without explanation. she was lacking in leadership, empathy & patience- unlike emma who was excellent about providing personal direction & making a concerted effort to help & understand what each kid needed. that is until SGA switched everything up. see, when we enrolled (fall '23) we were told that the class size maxed out at 5, & my child was taking the last spot. before our second month even ended, the class size had nearly doubled, with 9 students total. when we left there were 11. the final straw was when they raised their tuition rates by almost 15%. getting less & paying more is crazy work. we did find a better fit to fill our gymnastics void tho; you can find that review on my profile. :)
(not attaching any photos to protect the privacy of the kids in them but the facility really is beautiful with great props, clean bathrooms & a fresh water refill station. i hope they restructure things to do it justice!) read more
