St. Francis De Sales School

This school changed a lot in recent years. I know that the pandemic affected many schools. I heard that after schools reopened this school lost almost 40% of their student body. Before the pandemic there were a lot of community activities (after school classes, Friday events that included parents, and musical performances). Those have all stopped during the past few years (2021-2023). I understand it is hard to ramp those things back up. More concerning to me is that my child’s classroom this past year seemed pretty out of control. She would tell me stories about kids who were acting out, cursing out the principal and things like that. Again, I realize that some of these might be global problems due to schools closing and causing developmental problems for kids. But overall, it seems like a different school than it was 5 years ago.

If you are worried About bullying at the school then you should be. Bullying is an issue not only from kids but also from staff. If you can afford to pay for afterschool care for your child that would be your best bet. I would avoid the hearts program. My child went from loving this program to begging me to pick her up early daily. When I tried to discuss the issue I was gaslighted. I then contacted the office concerning the issue and I was told I could just remove my child from the program. I was told that my child did nothing wrong but she was being punished and made to feel uncomfortable and I could not figure out why. They truly need to do better. I now try to pick my child up early as much as possible which is difficult because I am a working parent. I am concerned about her well-being. I must say her teacher was great.

My daughter is special needs and attended this school for summer exploration. There were days she wouldn’t return home with their backpack and the staff couldn’t find it until days later. For there to be such a small student to teacher ratio, her belongings shouldn’t have been that hard to find with as many teachers there were. The staff knew my daughter was non verbal but still issues like this were happening and she would come home with injuries and the school would sometimes not have any clue how some of the injuries happened when I would ask about them. When I alerted the principal about this, she was very rude and seemed to instead prioritize defending herself and staff and showed little to no emotion for my concerns that I had about my daughter during this program which is an awful feeling as a parent. I think this school could benefit from much better communication between parents and staff and more training with special needs children and their behaviors. Hoping this school improves in the future.

I would rate this school a 4 out of 5. The school has great educated teachers who push the boundaries of learning.

My son has special needs and this school severely failed him. They switched his class 3 times, multiple teachers treated him badly, they allowed him to elope off campus then suspended him for it when he was in Kindergarten. They left him out of classroom activities, the Halloween parade and refused to allow me to volunteer even though I had clearance through the district and took their kindergarten volunteer class. They said me being there would affect their special education testing. They assessed him for special education for months & didn’t finish before I pulled him out because I was terrified for his safety.

Unfortunately, this school has been closed permanently. My child attended before we moved and loved this school. Unfortunately, it was attempted to expand this school too fast without sufficient and steady levels of enrollment and finances. It makes me sad that this school is no more, it was a little gem among many mediocre schools in Riverside.

The Kindergarten teacher at St. Pauls has been amazing for my son. She is patient, kind and commands respect from her young students. I was very impressed with Miss Miller's use of technology to further the students interest in learning. She encourages creativity while following a rigorous lesson plan that has allowed my son to learn to read and write, complete math problems and explore the world around him using knowledge from her lectures. She is always expanding her knowledge with continuing education bringing the latest resources to our children. The homework that my son completes has allowed him to expand his vocabulary, reading skills and other studies that are part of the needed curriculum for a Kindergarten student. As an adjunct faculty member at university level I understand how difficult teaching can be. She makes it look effortless. Kindergarten is the first step into learning outside the home, where social skills, discipline and listening are just as important as reading, writing and math. Miss Miller combines learning with fun in a safe, Christian based classroom. She is the best!

It's unfortunate that the school rating isn't higher. I have been attending RVS since the beginning of middle school, and will now be graduating in 2017. This program has provided me with new and different opportunities to expand my knowledge. All of my teachers put in effort to aid me in achieving my educational and personal goals. With the help of AVID, I have build new skills and got accepted to my #1 choice university. I'm proud to be a student at RVS.