35 Prado Ct
Portola Valley, CA 94028

My daughter is a Junior at WHS. She has had wonderful, engaging, well educated teachers thus far. The principal is phenomenal- very communicative with families and has set a positive and supportive tone in the school. There are many built-in supports for struggling students. The school draws from a very diverse socio-economic area, and it does a good job at meeting a variety of needs. The school guidance counselors are amazing---helping students plan their journey through high school and beyond. There are plentiful offerings for elective courses, and many ways to get involved in sports/music/theater/leadership/clubs, etc. Overall, great school!

I can’t say enough good things about Corte Madera. My daughter is in 6th grade and is thriving there. The Portola Valley School District has a new superintendent as of two years ago and she’s dynamite. Corte Madera has a new (old) principal this year (she had been vice principal but got promoted) and she’s right of top of it all. CMS was recently named a California Distinguished School by the state. Most teachers are very good (every school has a few who aren’t stellar). The math program caters to three levels of proficiency and the accelerated class really challenges those who want it. The band teacher is charismatic and inspiring. The art teacher pushes the kids hard to explore all aspects of their creativity. There’s a maker lab for lunch and recess. And the school was among the first to return to in-person learning during the Covid pandemic. It’s a really, really good school.

Well where to begin? Lynette Hoveland is your typical DEI hire principal. She rarely says hi to any parents and can be found pushing off school responsibilities onto tricked parents frequently (she says hi to those ones). This school performs like a private school in that they ride you for funding. Each student is asked to pay $3,000 per year to support the "extra" school classes like music, library, pe, garden, stem, and spanish... which I thought were normal school subjects. The school is heavy into theater where they spend all year singing little mermaid songs and select students to perform a 2 hour long show at the end of the year (some say a bit or way too much)... all that music class consists of. The school doesn't support technology (Hoveland doesn't like) even though situated in the heart of silicon valley but they do have a whole month of rainbow month where they dress kids up in colors and parade them around. The winter show this year consisted of kids singing all the holiday songs except any related to christmas (the principal only allows snowmen and snowflakes, no santa or hallelujah songs and themes) all the parents watched from the standing room only doorway while the principal and superintendent sat front row in the warm gym. Let's you know their priorities. Lynette wants a blue ribbon school so badly ($$$) she rides families for attendance, even putting children at risk by maintaining open door policies when extreme bad air days exist. The 4 teachers we've had at the school all seem to be good educators but how good can a school be with terrible leadership? 2 field trips a year are standard for each grade. This school has no yearbook. No clubs. No after-school sports. The school is very into DEI and will allow costumes to be worn by students who want to express themselves even if it deters from learning. The counselor will make a big deal out of 4 year olds laughing when a male child wears a pink dress to school without telling parents she's giving lessons on DEI... and pulling the child out of class repeatedly to address a simple " we don't make fun of others" lesson. Long story short, if you want to be chased around by a curly haired mother whose a member of the portola valley foundation all year, asking you when you're contributing to the fund, even though you've told her multiple times you can't afford to donate $3,000 per child per year (imagine if you had 4+ kids!) Then this schools for you. PS this is a pk-3rd grade school.