2816 Ruff Ave
Pinole, CA 94564

The school has much improved in recent years. The change in the principal has been a very positive change. Principal Mapes cares about the the students and wears it on his sleeve. Teachers and staff have done a much better job of building a positive environment for students, so there has been an increase in student learning and a decrease in fights and behavior problems. The school is very diverse, and they offer a great selection of elective classes, including tech, music, culinary arts, two languages, and leadership. The quality of teachers has also improved in recent years. It is definitely a school making a big turnaround.

This school was doomed from the beginning. The teachers don't know how to teach and can't canter to students needs. The kids there are horrible and the school is disgusting. Always having a rat or bug infestation. There's also mold growing inside the walls that you can sometimes smell. None of the staff take anything seriously and should not have a job in administration.

Whew, where do I start?! Stewart School has so much potential. When they launched their Dual Immersion program I felt that it was a GREAT move so long as the school had the resources to go along with it. Fast forward years later, handfuls of students are ending up YEARS behind their peers academically due to this program and it isn’t being communicated that the child is behind until years down in their educational journey. They are not following the 50/50 model presented years ago, instead the just have gone full throttle with incorporating Spanish language and culture heavily into the school as a whole. The principal seems unhinged likely due to lack of resources, teachers, subs, etc. The middle school kids have been screamed at so loudly by him, that “his voice was cracking” is what was described by some of the students. Inexcusable behavior coming from a principal. They are throwing out more 0 tolerance policies and fundraisers to find the teachers classrooms (which I understand to an extent) rather than redirection when there’s over stimulation, and a sign up sheet for parent volunteers. The teachers are too busy to confirm volunteer emails, I’ve experienced this first hand. If your child so much as speed walks through the halls, it will grant them a call home and detention. All the way down to our TK & K littles. Post-pandemic, all elementary school teachers no matter the ratio, should either have an aide or volunteer present. Especially dual language teachers. They’ve incorporated a ton of new curriculum likely to raise these test scores, but if the kids are unhappy with the environment the scores will suffer either way. I hope that things shape up with the administration soon because Stewart itself is such an amazing, family oriented place to be if it’s led by the right person.