Allen at Steinbeck School

I would not recommend any parent to enroll their child here. I came to them to enroll my child in the middle school and fulfilled all their requirements. At the last minute they pulled the rug from under our feet and put us on a waitlist. They kept on leading us to believe that our child's admission was pretty much done. I interacted with multiple folks in their office but later realized they enrolled more number of students than what they can actually intake and then they put you on a waitlist. They do a decent job of selling their institution. Well it was an unpleasant learning experience for us as they did not make it transparent! Anyways we were unceremoniously added to a waitlist. After a few weeks they emailed us that a spot had opened up. I enrolled my child as I was still interested.Within 2 weeks of enrolling we found that their after school person does not work collaboratively with parents or maybe works selectively with some parents based on her liking them or not. We requested a couple of small requests related to how much time she shows movies for kids in the aftercare. She works with an attitude of "my way or the highway!" In other words large part of the after school care is spent every day in movies - maybe 60 mins or maybe 90 mins! We do not know why the school does not hire a more energetic person to lead the after care program who is interested in providing kids more activities and NOT JUST MOVIES! If you want an environment that does NOT support your child's growth through the day in the school where they spend most of their day then this is the place for you! We withdrew our child and went elsewhere.The principal who joined in 2025 summer, is very approachable/ pleasant/ positive person and a solution finder but in this case she was not able to help us either!

One thing that really helped our family a lot was the small classroom sizes, giving more teacher-student interaction and support.The staff is extremely caring and professional, and helped the children improve their knowledge and skills greatly.