7098 Phyllis Ave, San Jose, CA 95129

This rating and review is based on multiple years in this school. A comparison to other schools in neighborhood school districts.Where does it shine well:a) It is a relatively safe school, in terms of general safety of the childrenb) Most of the neighborhood families engage actively and enable the kids a lot!c) It has a lot of smart kids, who are well supported at home wrt a continuum of education.Issues:a) The learning experience is well below expectation. There are few resources for children other than a continuum of usage of tech. Make no mistake I work in the tech. sector and love it. Having said that, education needs to be holistic such that the child understand the environment around them both intellectually and socially.b) The school works well for kids who are already very smart, and can do most of their work themselves. An e.g., for kids who have language barriers it is a tall order.c) The previous principal Mr.Steve Kaufman was proactive and easily accessible to all. The current principal is mostly interested in keeping the job, and makes hardly any improvements or does anything beyond the bare min. needed. fwiw: You will hardly ever see her outside of her office. d) There is a massive dearth of fundamental science and understanding. It is not taught to any level.e) Some teachers in this school should really have no place there. There is no way to change the teacher (as is in some schools can't blame them). Given that as an educator the teacher is pivotal to a child's success it is sad. f) This comment is related to school, which post COVID-19 sends notifications that the child should not have more than 7 days of absent. Hypocritically, sends another note that if they have fever to keep them at home. Dr.'s recommend that the kids stay home and have OTC medication, i.e., no direct visit. I say this because the school further adds restrictions addressed from the principal without any thought. Conclusion: As much as this school is near and dear to me. It needs to improve its overall functionality to work upwards, not depend solely on smart kids and an above average IQ neighborhood. Keep in mind all of this might be moot, given that CUSD has so far closed (as general public school) up to 3 elementary schools in the area and might close more schools due to lack of enrollment.