Garvanza Elementary School

An amazing amalgam of a small neighborhood school and a globally oriented, French dual language program. We love our principal and teachers, the way families are honored and involved, and how eager our child is to go to school!

This Catholic school provides an exceptional learning environment rooted in strong faith, values, and academic excellence. The teachers are dedicated, compassionate, and truly invested in each student’s growth—academically, spiritually, and personally. The sense of community is welcoming and supportive, making families feel like true partners in their child’s education. The emphasis on character, service, and respect helps students develop a strong moral foundation while still being challenged to succeed. We are grateful to be part of such a nurturing and faith-filled school.”

Things have changed since the new principle took over a few years ago. The website is incredibly misleading, and outdated. There are only 3 teachers employed to teach grades kindergarten-8th. The principle refuses to fill the open teaching positions claiming that there is no room in the budget for the expense due to the schools “tuition-based” funding model. What exactly the tuition is spent on remains unclear.In terms of grade level standards- 6-8th grade science and math is a critical component students should have a solid grasp on / mastery of prior to beginning high school- this is an incredibly undervalued aspect of middle school that Good Shepard overlooks and undervalues failing to invest funding in preparing middle schoolers for high school educational standards or applying to HS with highly competitive science/math programsThere is no technology/STEM learning to supplement the curriculum which is centric on print out worksheets that the students spend the entire school-day working on, the playground equipment hasn’t been updated since installed - there are no afterschool activities/programs (website is outdated) the principle openly complains about the low enrollment numbers and high un-enrollment of students. The only classroom that is growing is preschool with the remaining students steadily decreasing in numbers. The principle fails to recognize that this is due to her lack of investment in school programming, and cutting expenses from teachers payroll and quality of education - the principle has deemed herself qualified to teach math to the upper class students, and has expressed no intent on seeking out qualified teachers to take over the teaching positions she’s employed herself to fill while also employed as the only office administrator/ principle/ math teacher Currently - to accommodate Principle Irma’s poor fiscal management, the entire student body is grouped by convenience, grades are lumped together and classes grew from 5 students to 12/15 and include a wide range of ages and grades. The entire school is structured around the lack of teachers - an issue that the principal has expressed no intent on addressing or improving. The academic curriculum is painfully outdated, Students daily schedule is spent in the classroom doing worksheets (no new textbooks or computers) .