West Pittsburg

Our family's experience with the preschool program at this school was exceptional. The preschool teacher and the program coordinator were warm and had a collaborative spirit. Kudos to the preschool program for making our child's early learning experience positive and enriching. We were very pleased with everything!Unfortunately, our experience following preschool did not meet the same standard. We observed a big shift in the approaches the school used. We had concerns about a lack of cultural sensitivity and limited willingness to engage collaboratively with parents. The disciplinary actions seemed developmentally inappropriate and punitive for young children still learning about social-emotional skills and impulsiveness. During meetings, we also encountered interactions with team members that felt dismissive and unpleasant. I lost faith in open, constructive conversations about our child's needs and progress. However, I think their academics were decent and appropriate for my child---my child performed well. Unfortunately, our child's teacher utilizes TikTok to post disparaging comments about parents. It was unprofessional and damaging to the sense of trust between them and us. My child's classroom environment also appeared overly focused on rule enforcement and behavior management through tools like ClassDojo. There was a lack of emphasis on teaching self-regulation or emotional growth.We hope the school will continue to build upon its strong preschool foundation and revisit its approach in kindergarten to support the holistic needs of its students better.