Oakland Beach

Oakland beach elementary has not only provided my children a safe environment to learn but the teachers genuinely care about the success of the students and the growth of community support.

This school derives it’s legitimacy from the few students that are actually smart. The grades of students whose parents are on the board of trustees or are donors are inflated by threatening to fire teachers that do not give them grades they do not deserve. There are good teachers there, but the best are pressured to give better grades to the select few for no reason. Those with the best grades rarely have the highest grades in an objective environment such as the SAT or ACT. There are plenty of students who were kicked out of multiple private schools and this was their only option. Because the school is small their athletics teams are never able to compete so another segment is students enrolled simply because they are good at sports. Unless you are extremely wealthy it is not worth it. If you can actually afford tuition, buy your kid a house instead.

This school is genuinely disgusting. My child went here and they offered no mental support when dealing with a mass bullying issue (that gave my child years of trauma) and chose to ignore it despite their "no tolerance" policy. The education is good, but all of the teachers besides one simply did not acknowledge that my kid has ADHD and were not respectful AT ALL. The principal was extremely unprofessional and unsupportive. Please do not send your kids here if you value their mental health.

I am extremely disappointed with our experience at St. Rose of Lima this past school year. I made the difficult decision to withdraw both of my children after ongoing concerns, particularly regarding how my 5th grade son was treated. It became clear that his teacher was targeting him unfairly—to the point that it felt like she was bullying him. This teacher was over the top and would even "adjust" grades, dropping scores from the 90s down to the 70s with little to no clear explanation. This kind of inconsistency made it difficult to understand how my son was truly performing and undermined his confidence. He had consistently earned A's in previous years, yet there was no back-to-school night or clear communication about grading expectations or assignments. I regret not removing my son from this toxic environment at the beginning of the school year, when the red flags first became apparent.Communication from the school was also poor. Important emails were sent late at night—often after 9 PM on a Friday—about issues that allegedly happened earlier that day or earlier in the week. If something truly required parental attention, it should have been addressed promptly.My daughter, who was in 1st grade, struggled with reading throughout the year. Despite this, no evaluations or extra support services were ever offered to her, which was very disappointing.Additionally, the school community felt extremely cliquey. Many of the parents behaved more like high school students than adults, creating an unwelcoming and judgmental environment.Overall, I expected much better communication, support, and professionalism from the school—both in the classroom and within the larger school culture.