The positives of the school are the small class sizes and the feeling that your child is being nurtured. The bad? The students are repressed-they're so scared of disciplinary action against them that they are timid and withdrawn in the classroom, for fear of lunch detention, suspension, or expulsion. In our case, we experienced all three...can you imagine sending your child to a school that expels children on a regular basis?? It happens here. Every year. In the grade we were in, we knew of three children that were expelled in that year... When there are 40 kids in that grade, and three are expelled, that is a serious and crazy rate. It really hurts the kids, their self-esteem, to think that they're not worthy of being there. There is definitely racism, bias, and preferential treatment. If you do get into trouble, there is no room for talking through said things- they decide and that's it. As an aside, the uniforms are awfully ugly. The principal is extremely strict. If you like a school ruled by authoritarianism and emotion (vice principal's mode of action) then this is the school for your child. read more

St Anthony's School - Portland, Oregon

Unfortunately, we had a really negative experience that we were not anticipating. We enrolled our three year-old with excitement after a positive tour and a few positive reviews from families who have older kids at this school. Then, we began to inquire further around preschool policies, such as discipline and toilet independence. In retrospect, we should have dug deeper much earlier on in the process. The director of the preschool explained the toilet independence expectation, and here is a direct quote from the email we received: "Potty Training, We are completely hands off for any potty training assistance. I would take time before fall to work on wiping to grow this skill as we at school are unable to help. Regarding potty accidents that happen when asleep, we encourage working on this over summer. We do a potty break right before nap to ensure we do not have potty accidents when sleeping, however other than the occasional accident, students should be able to sleep without an accident. With that said if he does have an accident he will need to change his clothes 100% on his own." This policy is rigid and developmentally inappropriate for the age of three. Anyone with an early childhood background would immediately agree. Perhaps there was an incident that occurred at the school that caused them to become so rigid with this policy? It is not a common policy across programs in this area for this age. Before you enroll, make sure to ask about this and their discipline policy, to ensure your toddler is safe and supported both academically and psychologically at this tender age. read more

The school does NOT demonstrate what they claim in their mission statement and philosophy. My son attended SA since kindergarten (now 6th grade) until he was just expelled from the school after being falsely accused of doing something he did NOT do. They gave 3 hours to make such a big harsh decision without any facts nor witnesses. Everything was based on assumptions and the principal/vice principal informal handwriting analysis (I have sent the samples off to a handwriting analysis expert who reports the writing is not from my son). The teacher(s) that reported this incident never contacted us to inform us of such accusations.......nothing. My son does not have a record of trouble at the school, just accused him and left him wondering why they don't want him anymore. We were given ten minutes to hear any details, when I asked for more time, I was denied. It took a week to get a formal sit down meeting to learn how they came to this decision. The pastor (Pastor John) never returned my call nor attended the meeting as I requested in my voicemail. The DOE is unable to step in because private schools do not receive federal or state funding. The Archdiocese said I would have to contact the pastor which I tried but never received any communication. If you choose a private school, be sure to ask to see their disciplinary plan. If they do not have one, it is a red flag. The word "n***er" is running rampant through the school. This is the word my son is being accused of writing on a caucasian girls calculator. But two other kids who called a person of color that name to their face, only got suspension. Lots of inconsistencies in what is right or wrong and consequences. If you wanna confuse your kid, then this is the place. Hypocrites for sure. read more

Great School for small class sizes. Our little boy has been seeing the OT for a sensory disorder and has had an amazing teacher this year that has done an amazing job working with him. Unfortunately, his teacher last year was not trained well enough to be able to help him work through his challenges and his after school teacher is a college student with little or no skills in classroom management and child interaction. My daughter did great this year, but last year was a disaster. She had a new teacher with no classroom management skills and no skills in dealing with kids who have Attention Deficit Disorder. It was kind of hard to complain about either teacher last year since they are the daughters of the Vice Principal. The Principal is awesome, but I think needs to be more involved in driving success in the classroom for his teachers. Give them more training and skills to grow as a teacher. Sure it cost money, but the school raises 200k per year on the auction. Put 20k back into your teaching staff. Invest in them. Get parents to chip in for "Teacher Success". If you invest in staff, they will invest in you! My daughter had an amazing teacher for first grade. Highly skilled and worked in public school for many years; well trained and a lot of professional development hours when she was in public school. She was paid well and was top notch. She was not offered a contract this year. My take on it was that the school could hire someone out of university for a little less than half the cost. So what you are saying to parents is that there is no value in having seasoned teachers. My wife was a teacher in a Private Catholic School for three years. She will tell you that you get teachers who are really good at working with kids who have some extra needs and some who are not effective at all. This could be true anywhere, but in private school they are not required by law to do any kind of interventions or plans for kids. The only real training they get is "faith" based training. While I think faith is important in life, faith training doesn't make teachers better classroom managers or give them the skills they need to keep up with technology, curriculum, and teaching methods of today. So unfortunately, you have some teachers who are still teaching like it is 1972. As for after school care, what a rat race. No structure, snacks that are not healthy and no classroom management. Again, how are we striving to make kids successful?? While the grass is not always greener on the other side, if you are thinking of St Antony's, make sure you interview the principal and vice principal and ask them those deep questions that make them squirm to get the answers you need to make your child successful. read more