BUSD Southeast Zone Elementary School Feedback
Hello parents/caregivers!
We are parents to a 4.5 year old that will be enrolling in BUSD for kinder this Fall. We've done the virtual information zoom sessions online and have limited feedback from friends who have children attending in our zone. The reviews have been mixed for each school. We are wondering if anyone who is a parent to a child in attendance at John Muir, Emerson, Malcolm X, and Sylvia Mendez can share their perspective on how their experience has been overall with their respective schools, as well as how their child(ren) have been supported while in distance learning. Based on what I know from OUSD and BUSD, it doesn't seem likely that our kiddos will return in person (maybe hybrid) by the fall, so any feedback on your experience pre-and during COVID would be great. It looks like each school has its unique strengths. We have an idea of what to rank for the lottery and have also heard that the rankings don't mean anything and that schools will be filled to satisfy different demographic quotas. Not sure if this is a common experience for lots of folks? Would love to hear anything that could help us with this decision-making process! Thanks!!
Parent Replies
I’m a John Muir parent and we love the school. The teachers we’ve had have been excellent, including this year during distance learning. I will temper that by saying my child is typical and doesn’t have a need for additional academic or other support, which I imagine and have heard has made distance learning very hard for families whose kids do have those needs (but that’s not unique to John Muir). In addition to the excellent teaching staff, we also love that it’s a small school and the beautiful campus and building. I’ve also heard great things about Emerson and MX - don’t think you can go wrong.
We have a child at JM and have by and large had a positive experience. Distance learning has not been successful, but I think that's a function of individual teachers and students rather than specific schools. We chose JM for its diversity (socio-economic as well as racial), size and late start time. The teachers have all been wonderful and class sizes have been small enough for each child to feel supported. I know this should be true across the district, but we've consistently had class sizes in the 17-19 region. Also, the campus is beautiful-- it houses a a creek and allows kids plenty of space to roam.