Rooftop Elementary School

Parent of two children at Alvarado, GE track. Our experience started out really positive but it’s taken a turn for the worse this year. Mainly bullying. We also have not been impressed with the academics although it is improving a little bit with the change from the terrible prior curriculum. It’s still way behind other public schools in other states that have gifted programs, etc. This school and the district does not have a good anti-bullying policies. The perpetrators are not punished in the name of restorative justice so the targeted kids are the ones that suffer. One of my daughters have suffered from this, this year and was for a while under suicide watch. There has been an increase of physical fights happening at school. I keep being told this is normal behavior but I just don’t believe this is normal for elementary school. I’m not alone here. I’ve had several other parents (including on the Spanish track) share similar stories with me this year. I can’t even imagine what public middle school will be like since these kids receive no consequences for bad behavior.

We’re so thankful we found McKinley. We considered both public and private and we feel the difference between our experience and that of our friends at private school aren’t dramatically different. Many of the classrooms are well supported with assistant teachers.The teacher and staff retention is excellent and teachers are passionate and engaged. The principal (a different one than referenced in previous reviews) has done amazing work and the few new teachers we’ve had have been excellent.The parents and PTA are well organized and offer many opportunities from Halloween celebrations to STEM events to soccer teams.The early start time allows for an enriching, affordable after school experience with language programs, sports and electives like cooking.The few short comings are because of SFUSD policies. SFUSD limits the PTA from hiring additional staff. Also, the feeder middle school is undesirable.

Unfortunately, the San Francisco campus has significant management issues. This review is specifically about the Kibili program and does not reflect the elementary grades.In our experience, teachers are not well supported and often don’t have the training, resources, or bandwidth to meet children’s needs—especially when behavior is challenging. Challenging behavior tends to be met with strong consequences, but without enough coaching or skill-building to help children learn better tools. Over time, this can create shame and escalation, resulting in a negative cycle in the classroom. I don’t believe the teachers are the problem; they seemed stressed and stretched thin, and the program appears to struggle with retention as teachers burn out and leave. We also found the academic and enrichment offerings limited. For children who are advanced or highly curious, the program may feel unchallenging. There were few engaging projects—very little art, no science projects, and no music or dance. It often felt more like a large play space, and German immersion did not feel consistent (closer to partial immersion than full). The school does offer optional afternoon activities for an additional cost, but these also felt geared toward younger children (roughly ages 3–5) and weren’t especially engaging for older kids or kids who need more challenge. They are cancelled as well if enrollment minimums are not met, which did happen to us a few times. A new Head of School has been brought in, and the school’s public communications have become more polished. However, the internal management issues we experienced did not seem substantially improved during our time there.