Kumeyaay Elementary School

I didn't have any negative experiences. All of my child's teachers seemed very dedicated, passionate, and caring toward the students. I might be overthinking it but l did get the sense that children whose parents seemed a bit closer to the teachers were more likely to receive awards. I'm not complaining at all. just something | happened to notice. I do feel that keeping a bit of professional distance, like not connecting with parents on Instagram, can be a good idea. But that's just my personal view.

This school even after new management is a disaster and massively disappointing as a military friendly facility. Even with it being located directly in the military housing community it provides lackluster service for those enrolled. My child is in the special service program, which constantly needs massive amounts of extra support, while they continue to fail to meet IEP recommendations and requirement set between the staff and the parents, they continue to fail my child’s safety concerning other children attacking and harassing him. Please keep your kids away from this school, there’s a reason it has 3/10 stars, I would never recommend this facility to any parent. Keep your kids away and safe.

My daughters have both been at TES since kindergarten. We are in the Spanish immersion program and have found it to be wonderful. My girls could read, write, and understand Spanish out in the community by the 3rd grade. There are different learning styles with teachers, as at any school, and I think this is what makes learning even more powerful. For example your child's Spanish teacher could be a native speaker from Mexico, or a native speaker from Spain, or a Spanish teacher with Spanish as a second language. My girls were exposed to different teaching styles, accents, and cultures. There were a couple of teachers that I wasn't the biggest fan of, however, my girls were always happy and have enjoyed all of their classrooms; As a parent I can manage working with teachers that have different styles of teaching than I prefer. In terms of parent engagement I think there is plenty of opportunity to get involved as little or as much as you want. As for the principal - we have had an amazing experience. In first grade my daughter was struggling at morning drop off, it was chaotic, and at the time my daughter was experiencing a lot of anxiety. She was demanding we go back home and I told her we would have to go see the principal if she couldn't calm down enough to enter the classroom with the other students. To my surprise this was not the threat I thought it would be and she agreed that yes she wanted to speak with Mrs. Viavada. When we got to the office, the principal was about to go into a meeting. She saw my daughter was upset, asked the meeting to start without her and took the time to talk with my daughter. I later found out she was nervous about her Spanish presentation that day, so the principal had her practice the presentation until she felt comfortable and was able to go back to class. I was so impressed that Mrs. Viavada took time out of her very busy day to make sure my daughter felt comfortable at school. In terms of combo classrooms - yes there are combination classes of different grades when necessary. It is my understanding this is because of budget cuts and student enrollment. If there aren't' enough students to fill an entire class, 2 smaller classes may be put together to create the combo class. This is something many public schools need to manage and is not unique to TES. Lastly, yes the school counselor is also a math teacher because she is a credentialed teacher in addition to being a counselor.

I am sad to report as I thought this school would be great fit for my kid but after enrolled, seeing day to day base interaction with teacher(s), stuff members, principal and kids' parents, I had cold feeing toward this school as I could not click with anyone even I participated volunteering weekly.The parts I like was that school provides all kinds of extra program in arts, music, science and lots of events yet I wished this school had more friendly culture and people who care to be connect with each others. Student's parents were keeping themselves without efforts to support each other and mostly what I got bothered by was principal who seems like it takes years to get to know her and I get to be recognized as volunteering stuff. I just felt odd whole year around. I also realized that not so many parents try to participate school events or volunteering and many students are not from actual neighborhood. Their academic scoring seems pretty good and most kids are seems to be well behaved so if your kid is good in academic and parents do not so care about connecting with others, this school might be ok for you.

The kindergarten experience has been like no other! When talking with other parents who have kept their kids enrolled in SDUSD, I consider myself extremely fortunate that my child was able to attend Innovations Academy this year and will be keeping him here until he graduates. Thank you to all the incredible staff at IA!!

This school provides the freedom of private homeschooling with the school experience for kids. The community and socialization for both parents and students has been amazing. The teachers at their Academy are passionate and care so much about the students' success. The school provides mentorship, homeschool training, and all the extras you would find in a traditional school. The friendships both my kids and me have made in the almost three decades we have been here extend far beyond the school years. If you are wanting to privately homeschool your kids with a Christian worldview while giving them the socialization and extracurricular activities they would have in a traditional setting, I highly recommend this place.