G. M. Walters Middle School

The teachers at this elementary school are experienced and run their classes smoothly. The campus has a solid iron gate and clear safety procedures, so it feels secure. Most parents focus on their children getting good grades, creating an environment that supports academic success. The main drawback is that there aren’t many special or unique activities outside the regular lessons.

I have noticed this school has been improved in past couple of years.

My kid has been at this school sine kindgraden now she is in 5th garde she loves this school and she not happy going to middle school

Durham is a good school with good teachers who teaches brilliant students

We had one good year and one horrible year with this school. We learnt a lot in our horrible year. The school does not acknowledge and does not take any actions on bullying incidents, social emotional/sensory needs, supports for kids with disabilities, yard duty does not monitor lunches and incidents occurring during recess, the administration engages in intimidation tactics and child brainwashing. The teachers have no idea what the child is doing in class and on multiple requests they said they don’t have time to observe everyone. The teacher student ratio reported is not true. It’s 28:1. Parent engagement is minimal and more oriented more towards donation. They even ask kids to go home and ask parents for money. I had to tell my kid on a couple occasions that we already donated a lot when he was opening his piggie bank to give his money to donate to the school.

I have had three children attend Our Lady of Guadalupe School (aka :OLG)--one is now in high school, and two are still there. If I had to describe OLG in only one phrase, I would say the it is a special place. In fact, "a special place" is how other current and former students, parents of students, faculty and former faculty have most commonly referred tp the school as well when we've discussed it. The school is small but has energy and a sense of community far beyond its size. It is amazing how much it offers for a small school, including a Chess Club, Choir, school band (and Music and Art classes as part of the curriculum for all students), and a wide variety of extracurricular sports through the CYO. There is even support for students with learning disabilities (although if your child's special needs are more severe, of course, you will need the services of a public school). One nice traditional OLG has is "Faith Families" in which students from different grades meet monthly in small groups so that older students are encouraged to care about younger ones. By the way, another wonderful thing about OLG is that it returned to fill-the, in-person learning a full year before Fremont Unified schools did so! That saved our family's sanity not to mention our children's educational progress. You do not need to be Catholic to atteOLG also offers reasonably-priced before- and after-school care, and even if you pay the full cost of tuition, it is a bargain compared to any other private school, religious or not, in the area. However, if you are worried about the cost, OLG also offers good sibling discounts if you have more than one child enrolled and also offers scholarships and financial aid.I am saddened that the previous principal, who was there for several years, contributed in a major way to the decline of enrollment of the school, which it is still recovering from. She was simply a deeply unpleasant, unkind person, and she turned off a lot of parents. (We loved the teachers and other aspects of the school so much that we kept our children enrolled despite her.) However, the good news is that the current principal is excellent--she has also been a teacher at the school for several years and has her own children enrolled there, so she truly cares about and is passionate about the school and its students. I strongly encourage anyone looking for a safe, caring alternative to public school to check out OLG.