TK at Melrose Leadership Academy
Hi all - I'm currently in the process of applying for TK in the OUSD for our 4 year old. She's bilingual (Spanish/English) having attended a bilingual preschool from age 2 to 4 and speaking Spanish and English at home. We'd like to keep her in a bilingual program, but options for TK are fairly limited.
We've heard good things about peoples' experience with Melrose, and I'm hoping anyone with a child in attendance could speak to a few questions I have:
- General experience with the program? Both lingual and more generally academic
- After-school care experience? We both work full time, so after-care is a must.
- Experience with the educators?
- Drop off and pick up ease/difficulty?
- Did you stick with it after TK?
Our neighborhood Elementary would be Montclair FWIW, and the rest of our list of TK schools are not bilingual (Sequoia, Glenview, Thornhill, Hillcrest). So if anyone has any experience with any of these would also be very helpful. Unfortunately we've been out of town and tour dates have been very difficult, so we're relying on virtual tours and parent recommendations.
Thanks so much!
Parent Replies
I'm afraid I don't have experience at MLA but my second kid is in TK at Greenleaf right now. While their Spanish immersion program doesn't technically start till K, since the majority of students are Spanish speaking much of his classroom time has a Spanish component. The main teacher only speaks English but teaching aid is bilingual and does at least 30 minutes of Spanish instruction a day. My child had also been in a Spanish immersion preschool and he has continued to increase the letters and sounds he knows in Spanish along with his English pre-literacy skills. And if your kid is there for TK, you've automatically got a spot there for K. My oldest is in second grade there now and we've been very pleased with the school and the education they've both gotten. Would recommend to other families looking for bilingual education in OUSD. Happy to chat more about the details.
(I believe that Manzanita SEED also has TK but I'm not sure how their program is set up and don't have personal experience with it.)