Grass Valley Elementary School

Howard school merged with Roses in Concrete and is now called Oakland Academy of Knowledge.

My son and I have both unsuccessfully tried to contact this school for weeks to discuss our family members' (both students) school-related matter. Our email messages were not replied to. We called several times, but their recorded greeting announces that the voice maibox is full, and we could not leave a message. When we pressed "0" to speak with an operator, the phone just rang nonstop, and no one ever answered our calls. I'd advise everyone against enrolling in this school. Terrible communication!

Roosevelt is an excellent school. The parents are very involved, lots of support from the PTA and dad’s club. Teachers and staff are friendly.

I have a first grader here, and will have another coming in to K next year. The people are great, I have a high degree of faith in the principal and ED. This year my first grader's teachers -- she has one "main" teacher who instructs in French on most subjects, and then an English teacher who has her maybe 15-20% of the time -- are really top-notch, like I literally cannot imagine more compassionate, competent teachers. The first time my daughter brought home a French-language reading worksheet in October and just . . . read it aloud . . . I remember staring at her like she was levitating or something, like she can't even read in English yet, how'd they get her to learn that in a month? The math learning curve has been similarly positively surprising, again I'm handing her worksheets with math problems that she does mostly without help, and I'm there like "wow ok they are really teaching you stuff". She adores her English teacher, and is progressing apace at learning reading and writing in English as well. By reputation and some brief interactions, all indications are that both second grade teachers are rock stars as well. Parents are pretty zealously involved. The student body has all the diversity you'd expect from an Oakland public school.The downsides . . . last year our kid's Kindergarten teacher was kind of meh, but she left the school after that one year. Some reports of bullying going unchecked under that teacher, but not to our kid personally, and not this year (and no school is going to have awesome teachers all the time). The lower school facility (St. Jarlath) is kind of an urban jungle concrete wasteland, not a single tree for shade; the playground that has been closed this year for rebuilding, and was partly closed last year because it is designed for older kids. 580 is right there, being all noisy and trafficky. At least classrooms all have air filters due to the pandemic. I don't think you're going to get a better group of people (admins, teachers, parents) at any school at any price. The only reason I could think to pay to go to a private French language school instead would be to get better physical facilities, or to reduce your transit time (if, e.g., you live in SF or Berkeley).