Ortega (Jose) Elementary School

STM is more than a school, it’s a community. My oldest has attended for the last 3 years, and my youngest will start kindergarten in the fall. The school has proved to be a welcoming and encouraging environment. The friends she has made in her classroom, and the connections we’ve made as parents as been such a gift. The Covid response was something that really stood out to us. Our teacher immediately took on the new ZOOM element seemlessly. The children were still engaged and thriving (which for TK must have been an enormous challenge)! The school went right back to in-person by Oct/2020, and has had very little interruption since. They’ve created a safe environment, and we were so grateful for how well they’ve communicated throughout. The retirement of a longtime principal is a challenge for any school, and as a parent with early elementary children… it gave us a bit of nerves going into this school year. Luckily, the new principal has been energizing and enthusiastic to bring new life to STM. He’s engaging and kind with all of the kids, and the musical element that he is bringing to the school is fantastic! We are so excited to see where the next few years will bring our fabulous school.

We chose this school and we love it because of:1. Small class size: attention and support can be given to all students. Activities are customized based on interest.2. Strong sense of community that supports an anti-bullying culture. Non-Catholic families are welcome and active in this community.3. Teachers applies a strong academic curriculum while keeping things fun to develop well-rounded students. Teachers are very supportive and reports challenging behaviors/incidents to parents right away.4. Facility is secure and locked at all times. A front desk staff unlocks the door and greets adults coming in. It also helps that the school is in a quiet neighborhood and not at a main street.

KZV is a tight-knit, community-based Armenian school that in recent years has invested heavily in delivering academic excellence. The kids almost exclusively graduate to the very best high schools in the bay area, be it public or private, and they, in my experience, also get to benefit from an extended childhood that shields them a bit from some of society's ills during the critical formative PreK through 8th grade years. Teachers are part of the fabric of both the school and the community and garner that increased level of respect, and in exchange, take that deeper level of interest and responsibility in the health and success of their students. Similarly, there are many siblings and family connections, so the 8th graders know the 1st graders names and embrace them as part of an extended family, rather than creating generational gaps or cliques. It really is a wondrous environment we feel lucky and blessed to be a part of. On the constructive feedback side, the school cannot effectively grow children with special needs, who are better served with the significant resources of the public school system, and the Armenian language education is using dated methods that emphasize memorization and excessively complicated language rather than simple practice that makes children proficient in conversational situations.