915 Kari Lane
Steilacoom, WA 98388

I am neither a parent nor grandparent to a child at Cherrydale Primary School. I am a retired Middle School teacher from Southern California that volunteers at Cherrydale because I can. For the past two years, I have assisted teachers in multiple Kindergarten through Third grade classes. I am impressed with the classroom management of those teachers I have the privilege to assist, the inclusiveness of all students and their individual learning abilities, as well as the creative teaching methodologies used to promote learning. Student's are encouraged to learn. The support staff/paras are an integral part of the learning process. Students are referred to as "friends" creating a welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment. The students, for the most part, are happy and glad to be at school. Unfortunately all schools (public or private) will have issue; however, I have witnessed positive methods of addressing these issue. If I had a child or grandchild interested in attending Cherrydale Primary, I would not have any reservations.

Being a military family, we have moved a lot and finding a good school in a military town is very difficult. During our time at JBLM, we started in Olympia, which wasn't the right fit. We moved to the base and we were assigned Thomas through Clover Park SD, which was also not the right fit. We were fortunate enough to get approved for a out-of-district transfer for Pioneer and my kid loves it. There has not been an issue with safety or bullying, my child has been challenged academically and has great teachers, and the athletic program offers a lot. Preparing for our next move and having a difficult time finding another gem like Pioneer.

The school has the potential to be great but there are some serious issues. My child was accidentally hit by a chair that another child threw because she was “mad”. Nothing was done. Kids here have behaviour issues & teachers do nothing.

I would not recommend this high school to anyone. The admin, especially the principles suspend students excessively for anything, also they base their disciplinary decisions off what students say as opposed to what really happened with facts and proof to support it. So your student essentially could be suspended because another student makes false claims because they don't like them and admin will suspend them and use poor excuses such as, I have reasons to believe, when it's nothing more than hear say from a student. Worst school I've ever had to deal with, they are unfair and unjust and the student pays the price for an incompetent admin.