18 Empty Saddle Ln
Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274

Like a few others, my criticism of Dapplegray relates only to the drop off/pickup sitiation. (The teachers, admins, families have generally all been fine.) We've had three kids attend DG and I can't wait for my last to finish. We live about 2 miles away and we have to budget 20 min for our drop off and 50 min for pickups. The majority of that time is spent sitting in a car, waiting in a line full of other cars. There simply is no way to avoid it. Look at a map and you'll understand the reason: the road/driveway is like the LAX horseshoe. Because this school appears to be the largest in the district, the administrators appear to have decided to jam the kids in. While the class sizes are large and still manageable, the traffic is not. The district dose not appear to care about the drop off situation jam-packs the school to the max. As a result you'll see the sheriffs allowing two lanes of cars on a single lane on PV Drive North (with one lane running onto the sidewalk). The administrators tolerate chronic tardies (on a daily basis), etc. All this is allowed simply because there is no physical way possible to jam all of the cars of all the families into the horsehoe and surrounding streets.It sucks badly enough to have to do this every single day - but consider those days when you have to pull a kid early: with the all the parents waiting in line, you basically need to arrange to pick up your child about 1 hour before the earliest dismissal times. Otherwise, you'll get stuck in the horsehoe, with no way, literally, to get out. So if you need to pick up your older child (1-5 grades) for an afternoon appointment, and the dismissal time is 3, unless you want to run the risk of getting blocked in, you need to pick them up before 1:40. If you go later than that, you'll run the risk of getting blocked in by the TK and K parents that have earlier dismissals. It is bad enough with appointments and family issues - however you need to also factor in the days where large portions of the school need to get there or leave at the same time. E.g., the first and last days of school, music programs or performances, promotion days, etc. It's a nightmare. With one child it's doable. But i'd strongly encourage familes with more than one to consider going to another school. After 3 kids and the countless hours spent waiting in the horseshoe, i regret not sending my kids to one of the other fine elementary schools in the district.