717 Sea Cottage Way
Oceanside, CA 92054

This is my second year as Principal at Laurel Elementary. From the moment I interviewed on, I have been highly impressed by the sense of community at Laurel. Staff are deeply committed and invested in students success, including students progress in academics and their social-emotional growth. In a recent staff meeting, a new staff member commented about how friendly our student community is, saying they greet her when she walks by even though they have not met her yet. We honor families as their children's first teachers and are always looking for new ways to deepen our collaboration and partnership with them. Many of our families have lived in our community for several generations, while others are new to the area. All are welcome at Laurel and we'd love the opportunity to meet you or speak to you more about our beloved school.

The school does a great job with our children. Some teachers are more involved than others, but that’s to be expected in every school. The communication at the school and with the teachers is pretty good. The programs that the kids are allowed to be involved in are decent. I also believe that if parents would put more time into their children, their children would turn out better. The school is often blamed for a lot of family and or parenting issues that go unaddressed at home. The board members of the Oceanside School School District aren’t the greatest, This leads to a lot of the problems with the school leadership and things that do need to be fixed, but aren’t. When leader ship does nothing at the school district level, the teachers hands are tied. Some of the teachers with tenure, often get away with doing nothing. This is often very deflating for the students and ruins the motivation to learn.

Classes are not engaging for my child. This school is not safe. Teachers and staff give preferential treatment to athletes. It borders high crime rate neighborhoods and has had multiple incidences resulting in victims receiving serious injuries. Discipline is not consistent for students who have weapons on campus. I was told that these students "need to have knives on them for their own protection on their way home." This statement is unacceptable. School should be a safe place for all students.