El Camino Real Senior High School

I heard ECR was a good school to send my daughter because it was the school in my community. But come to find out they go out of their way to lottery others students in from all over the SFV. Which mean these students and their parents doesn’t live in our community. So they could careless about the School or our Community. A lot of these parents are just happy that they don’t have to send their children to their low rated schools from their areas that they live in. This is where the problem lies. Back in the day if you we’re lucky enough to have gotten into a School out of your School district that was a honor and privilege but not today. These kids and parents don’t see it that way. This is why people from our community is sending their kids to private schools. I would love to send my daughter to a private school but she doesn’t want to go because a few of her friends from our community goes to ECR. She has known her friends since elementary school. High School is hard enough and for her to start all over trying to make new friends that wouldn’t be fair to her. The sports programs are also going down hill you have some coaches that thinks the sports programs are all about them and not the students. The Volleyball coach is the worst she picks players that comes from her club team which lives outside of ECR district to play on the team and the kicker is these kids don’t have the basic fundamentals of the game. This leaves the kids that lives in our community no chance of making the team and if they do make the team they get little or no time because she has her favorites fromher club team. Trust me when I say it doesn’t matter how good the kids are from our community. I guess this is why she has close door tryouts. So no one can see what’s really happening doing the tryouts. It breaks my heart to see a school that was once great going down like the Titanic. Tragic

This school keeps getting worse each year. I feel faculty is too focused on intimidation, power and their personal escapades. Most kids who want to do well, are stifled under the enormous amount of kids who do not. It is very sad. The teaching is lackluster at most. The few counselors who were good, have left, replacing them with counselors that have no idea what they are doing. I went to this school and thought it would be a great school for my children but it was proved otherwise. It is no longer a wonder why district kids are leaving the school in droves.

When I was freshman, I thought elco was a pretty good school. But I feel that things have gone downhill fast. Elco is not a bad school, but not as good as it used to be. As an AP student, I have been lucky to get mostly good teachers during my time here, but I haven’t heard the same for regular class teachers. As for the infamous staff complaint letter that students heard about, I don’t think everything in the letter is necessarily true. It seems very exaggerated, but it hints at some concerning internal drama between staff members.The school seems to care more about looking good than students doing well. Elco announced a remodeling plan that seemed exciting, but I doubt I’ll see much real progress before I graduate. Our hallway ceilings still have holes, our football field still has melting turf, and the library is still lacking a librarian. I understand that it takes time to make these changes so perhaps it will improve soon. The students’ behavior seems to be going downhill fast as well. We had to be called to anderson hall to listen to a talk about how there was a record number of fights in the first few months of school. The bathrooms often smell like weed and almost every stall has vandalism. So the school decided to deal with it by closing down restrooms often and hiring a ridiculous amount of security guards that make school feel too much like prison. Overall, I think elco could be a very good school as it has in the past, but there are many problems that need to be addressed. In its current state, I’ve given it a 3/5, but it has the potential to get worse or better pretty quickly.

This school is not what it used to be. School as a whole and class sizes are outrageously large but they keep trying to attract students from all over the valley to attend. If they put that effort into the current student body it would be a very different school. But every head is money. Runs as a mill rather than a thriving school. Kids are not taught during class. Most teachers do not teach. They assign work without instruction and then are told to search the internet for help. There are wonderful teachers here but they are few and far between. There are several assistant principals who are rarely available for student walk ins nor will return messages or even entertain any complaint or concern. Several students have left the school recently for others local schools and well as good teachers/coaching staff. A positive is the weekly COVID testing. Seems mostly efficient and very organized.

I am a retired teacher/ mentor. My grandson attends El Camino and has enjoyed and benefited from all that the school offers. I am so pleased with his education there.Dianne Cowan