Experience with Piedmont Ave Elementary (OUSD)?

Hi! We live in the Piedmont Ave neighborhood, and my son is finishing 1st grade at PAES.  We LOVE it!  The school is fairly small (about 300 kids total), which is nice, because all of the teachers/staff know and recognize the kids.  Class sizes tend to be a bit under OUSD maximums.  There is very low staff turnover - many of the staff were students at the school themselves.  The teachers/staff are very invested in the school as a community.  This was really important to me as a parent, because studies show teacher experience/turnover is one of the most important aspects of a "good" school.  There is a dedicated science teacher - which is huge!! She is truly amazing, and leads the kids through hands-on science experiments/projects and science notebook activities rather than just having kids watch a film or read a book.  One downside is that the PAES PTA raises less money than other "hills" schools in OUSD - often, PTA money is used to fund student "specials," which may include music, STEM activities, etc.  - so PAES has less money for that sort of thing . But, PAES PTA has a highly involved and dedicated PTA that works really hard.  I've been really, really impressed by PAES, and I encourage you to take a look!  Feel free to reach out to me if you want to talk more.

We’ve been at PAES for just 2 years (started during covid, so only 1 year in person) so I don’t have a ton of experience to share, but we’ve had a positive experience so far. My kid transferred in in 3rd grade, and his teacher that year was really wonderful; very warm and established a strong rapport in spite of the fact that my kid was attending school 100% virtually. My kid also ended up really bonding with his 4th grade teacher; both 4th grades this year were taught by men, and it was the first time my kid has had a male teacher! Also lots of staff are POC, including the longtime principal (African American woman); I like that my kid is seeing POC and women in leadership positions. My kid was nervous to start 4th grade, given that he hadn’t had the chance to meet any classmates in person before then, but he really became a part of his classroom community and made good friends. The school is very culturally diverse, and my kid has learned a lot about different cultures, traditions, religions etc from his classmates. As another poster mentioned there is a dedicated science teacher; also a wonderful African American Male Achievement program (and I think a corresponding program for girls). My kid has learning disabilities and the resource team has also been very helpful. Test scores are lower than the wealthier schools, but of course that only captures part of the story. Only other significant negative was my kid reported lots of kids using gay as an insult, which he spoke out about, but not sure if that was formally addressed by staff (my kid said it happened on the playground so staff weren’t necessarily hearing it.)

Hi! We are zoned for PAES and I recently got the chance to spend several Thursday mornings there, as my kiddo started receiving speech services at the school. I was one of those parents to hadn’t really considered the school very much because of test scores, but honestly I was really impressed. Everyone was really welcoming and friendly — multiple people saw me sitting in the hallway and asked if I wanted a chair or a glass of water etc. It turned out I was across the hallway from the kindergarten and so I asked her if I could do anything to help, and she warmly invited me in to sit with the kids as they were working on their appreciation project. They had come from PE and they were each drawing a picture and writing a sentence about something they enjoyed doing in PE. The class size was very reasonable and the teacher was thoughtful, smart, and attentive. I had a chance to meet a couple of the other teachers and to shadow another class, and I was impressed. I then joined several PTA meetings on Zoom and got to hear the principal in action, as well as teachers and parents. I was also really happy about those. Happy that it turns out my neighborhood school could be a great match!