This school hired unprofessional teachers like Ms Kuo in 4th grade who wasn't a certificated…read moreteacher and was very mean to kids. It is unacceptable that they allow their teachers to use language abuse on our kids! Principal didn't even care about the issue. Very disappointing.

Our son was attending a large public high school when the COVID-19 pandemic started. This highly…read morerated public high school quickly transitioned to an online learning environment, but only provided one synchronous lecture per week for each class. As our son, and many of his classmates, fell further and further behind in their online classes, we repeatedly reached out to the school administration, including the principal, as did the parents of our son's school friends. However, the school's administration was uniformly unresponsive to our concerns. So, we decided to take our son out of the public school system, and place him in a private school. Our son transferred to Pacific Academy during his junior year of high school. I really can't say enough good things about our experience at Pacific Academy over the past almost two years. Everyone from the principal to the teachers and administrative staff have all been amazing. They are all very passionate about their mission to educate their students, as well as to help their students grow and develop into well-rounded young men and women. The small class sizes allow for a very personalized approach to teaching, and both the teachers and the principal are very interactive and collaborative with parents. The quality of teaching in all of our son's classes has been exceptional, and all of his teachers have welcomed engagement with us. (Unlike at the public high school our son previously attended.) I would especially like to recognize the principal at Pacific Academy, Keith Corpus, and the Director of Student Affairs, Jasmine Hsu. Their dedication, compassion, and empathy towards their students, and their families, has been extraordinary. They have both also been tremendously supportive as students, parents, and teachers have all worked together to manage the enormous (and ever-changing) impact of the pandemic. Honestly, we have come to view Mr. Corpus and Ms. Hsu as if they were part of our family, and we are so grateful to them for their dedication and commitment to their students, including our son. My only regret is that we did not transfer our son to Pacific Academy sooner. We love this school, and its faculty and staff, and we are so grateful that our son has been able to attend Pacific Academy!

Wonderful school, wonderful team of teachers and front office very clean and beautiful school…read more Highly recommend.

This place was absolutely horrible when I went. The teachers never taught and only had us do online…read moresources like STmath, khan academy, clever and prodigy. A student was bullied for their ethnicity by other students and when she told the teacher, the teacher didn't do anything about it. The parent had to come after school and talk to the bullies and the teacher wasn't even present. The teacher went by Ms. Reddy and she disregarded what the bully victim said. Later, the student was called into the former principals office and ended up apologizing to the main bully under pressure from the principal. Overall this place was horrible in both education and bringing attention students when they requested help. I'd give 0 stars if I could.

We love our school. My daughter started back here in 4th grad after we attended a private school…read morefor a few years. I am blown away by the attention my child gets and how much the teachers really care for her. We are so happy to be back at Portola and their teachers, Principal and staff are amazing!!!!

The school has been privy to poor leadership and some negligent teachers and the kids are suffering…read moredue to this. Irvine school district has one of the highest paid staffs and our children deserve better than this.  When talking to the principal she simply made a statement that "she must protect her teachers first." As a parent I no longer want to feel helpless please help by filing an official complaint with iusd.org, calling the director Stan Machesky, Executive Director, Elementary Education, (949) 936-5055, stanmachesky@iusd.org, attending the board meeting at 5050 Barrancs pkwy on Sept 11 at 6:30pm

My daughter has been struggling her whole life in school and we finally get her into Mardan School…read moreand she's having an amazing time. She's finally getting the support she needs and the education she deserves thank you to her teachers Mr. John and Mr. Zack thank you so much erin! You are so kind and helpful. Thank you Bonnie for everything thing you do thank you so much

I can't say enough about how amazing Mardan is. This school and the staff forever changed my sons…read morelife. Prior to coming here , he hated school , had a ton of behavioral issues and was so unhappy and school was just awful for him. We have been here for 4 years now. He loves school , he's thriving and it's absolutely remarkable to see how much he's changed and grown. The staff is amazing and I'll forever be grateful to have found this school. They truly do care about our children and they go above and beyond every day to make this environment a positive one for my son. I highly recommend Mardan if you're needing an alternative to public school , especially for children with special needs.

I was at this school for 4 years and the call rooms are very clean. The bad things about…read moremy school is the staff don't care about you when ur hurt or bullied they only care if u bring food on the play ground and there is a massive problem with bullying

An elementary with a mix bag of faculties. While we're glad that the old is out, the a new…read moreprincipal Cory Pace is dodgy when student issues are brought up. Direct traffic when all is fine, tickles his own pickle by standing in front of parking lots to harass parents about parking when everyone is working on tight mornings, hurrying their children to school. It makes you question if the he is the principal or traffic fairy? There are also teachers, who are there to collect a check rather than to truly educate students. A word of advice for all new incoming families, there are, of course, good teachers, but just beware and gauge your own child's development. Good luck! This place will not be missed.

The School is incredible but the front desk receptionists have been rude on multiple occasions…read more Parents should not be shamed for their children being late on occasion, nor should we accept the receptionists/ gatekeepers subjective definition of our rationale for tardiness. My son was more than 30 minutes late due to multiple reasons and she would not excuse it. This was his first tardy! She said it would be marked as an inexcusable absence. Wow! Zero kindness or empathy for daily living. This was his first tardy of the year! She was so rude. What she doesn't know, is that my son has chronic allergies and is embarrassed about it, so I didn't mention that. Just rude.

I specifically came here to go to the skate park. Nothing makes me feel more alive than watching a…read moreskater. It definitely reminds me of the best time in my life. No I was not a skater but I did have a skate shop. The kid walked by and asked me what time it was I told him and I said hey what do you know about the spot. He said it's a skate spot. I said yeah I can see that. Do you like it ? It's gets pretty packed he told me yeah it's cool . In the morning old people come to skate . I said old people how old ? He looked at me up and down and said old like you. Damn!!!!! I wouldn't have it any other way. Little renegade skater. He told me the business ! Ha !

I am a past assistant to a teacher of this Montessori school. As an adult, this training has…read moretaught me more life skills than any other education I have had! If an adult can say this, just think of the benefits the children gain!

We really had a terrible experience at this preschool and I request parents to do their homework…read morebefore enrolling here. Another kid in the class hit our son three times. First time under the eye and he came back with black patch under his eye. He could have lost his eye. When we brought it up to the teacher and the director, they said your son must be irritating other kid. What? Are we living in jungle as primates? Then next time he came back with scratches and third time was it for us. The teachers are totally irresponsible. There are 100 kids at the same time in the playground and no one is really paying attention. Kids are saying bad words, bullying and other behavior that no sane parents will like their kids to expose to. They lack passion and accountability. They have no focus on wellbeing of the kids. They don't seem to really care as there is a long waiting list of parents who work at UCI. We noticed most kids are sad and angry there. If you are parents who really care about well being of your kid, I will avoid this place. Our son earlier went to Verano Preschool and had great experience there. It's a great developmental preschool. We switched because we wanted him to get Montessori experience. There are much better Montessori schools in Irvine. He is in another one now where he is thriving and happy. Best of Luck.

This school has been so great for our 3 year old! We had some reservations because the ratings on…read moreYelp were a bit low, but decided to enroll our son after hearing only great things by word of mouth. The teachers are so caring, super competent, and very communicative. We've seen a positive change in our son since he's started. He listens better, has learned Korean, and always looks forward to going back! You can tell the curriculum is top-notch. They send back what they've worked on during the week, and it's impressive. The kids have fun events at school as well, including a magic show and a snow cone day! Not only this, the food they serve is amazing! Delicious, healthy, and varied. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served, so that helps a working mama like myself. Really recommend this school!

If you want your child to be in an environment where she gets jabbed at with a paper clip bc she…read morecan't stop crying on her first day of school, then this is the place. Today was her first day of school. My daughter is 2 years old. My husband and I dropped her off in her classroom but because she was crying, my husband wanted to look thru the window to make sure she was ok. 5min in, the teacher gets a paper clip straightens it out and pokes her arm and tells her to shush. Im just so glad we got her out immediately.