OUSD elementary shout-outs!
If your family is happy with your OUSD school, will you please give it a shout out here? School tours are starting later this month, and I'd love to hear from current families about OUSD schools that have been great for them.
THANK YOU for taking the time!
Oct 15, 2019
Parent Replies
Joaquin Miller is fantastic -- the principal is excellent, teachers are good to great, and it's a wonderful, diverse community, with kids from all over Oakland. Both my daughters have been at JM since kindergarten -- this is our sixth year and counting -- and they have both thrived there. Feel free to reach out if you have any specific questions!
Hi!
I have one child at Chabot and another at Emerson.
Chabot is obviously a very good school academically. Beautiful campus and great teachers. Nice families. Drawbacks are the size of the school makes it hard to connect and since there are 4 classes per grade your kid ends up not having much overlap with friends in the same class as the years progress.
Emerson, a school not as well “rated”, I love so much. The community is very tight knit. There are tons of wonderful events and community building (more than Chabot). The parents are extremely warm and open. My child has only been there one year, but his teacher is beyond excellent. I would recommend both wonderful schools, but especially look into Emerson! Good luck!
There likely isn't space beyond neighborhood kids, but in the spirit of shouting out to OUSD schools: We love love love Hillcrest and its amazing parent community!
We love our elementary school - Kaiser. But OUSD has decide to close it's campus and "merge" it with Sankofa. My advice to you would be to familiarize yourself with the "blueprint for Quality" schools and what is happening in OUSD currently. The school you choose could be closed in a year or two. Good luck.
Cleveland Elementary School! It is a high performing and truly diverse school (both economically, culturally, and racially). Superb leadership among teachers, administrators, and PTA. Unique ecoliteracy program. Fantastic and involved school community without the "Hills" attitude or expectation. The school's core values of Inclusiveness and Respect are very well integrated throughout. It has all the problems that all OUSD schools share, but if you have to choose OUSD, I think this is among the best and authentically represents Oakland's diversity. My kid is doing pretty well and has made some great friends. The school community isn't wealthy, but PTA raises a lot of money to support music, art, and ecoliteracy programs. All kids get free lunch.
We second that L O V E shout-out for Hillcrest! We were generally happy in the K-5 elementary (but there were 2 bumpy years) and we are THRILLED with the incredible 6-8 Middle School - just outstanding and a solid rival to local independent middle schools. Academically, it scores in the top 10% of public MS's in California. It's hard to get in ... and it's a small school ... the MS in particular is about 100 kids and if your child doesn't have a solid friend base, that can rough. But for those who do, the community of friends and parents at Hillcrest is exceptional. And we experience none of the stressful nonsense that our friends are coping with at larger middle schools around the East Bay - violence, drugs/alcohol, sex on campus. Good policies re devices/phones. Children learn and explore, work hard, enjoy health and safety, and thrive. So grateful that we got in - our whole family has benefited so much from this fun, supportive community.