James Lick High School

My son has had a fantastic experience at the school, and the arts programs have been fantastic. He started off in TK hating to color and draw and now in first grade he loves making books in his spare time and he always comes home with wonderful and thoughtful freehand seasonal art projects. He's singing and dancing all of the time and sharing things he's learned in musical theater class. He has grown so much academically and he looks forward to school on a regular basis. All of his teachers have been so supportive of his growth and are always available whenever I reach out with questions or concerns.

Poor communication between parents and principal/teachers. Not all equal the same meaning the principal respects who she wants and parents are spoken to like children.

Mr. Fienne was laid off prior to the start of the 2025–2006 school year, which was a significant loss for the school community. He was known for his dedication and was often the last to leave campus each day. Since then, under the leadership of Principal Linda Diaz, several changes have taken place.Some of these changes have raised concerns among parents. Families are no longer able to request class placements for their children, and budget cuts have reduced opportunities such as student field trips.Additionally, the current reward system appears to prioritize lower-performing students for program selection—such as spring and summer activities—while higher-achieving students are given later access and may miss out due to limited availability. This has been a source of frustration for some families.Overall, there is a growing sense among parts of the parent community that the school is heading in the wrong direction. McCollam was once considered one of the top elementary schools in the Alum Rock Union School District, but it now appears to be losing that distinction.

My daughter was enrolled into transitional kindergarten under Mrs. Deshpande. At the start of class, my daughter could barely write and was unable to read at all. By the end of class she writes very well, reads way beyond her current level, and has a strong grasp of foundational mathematics. I was immediately skeptical of certain web/online elements integrated into the class. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see how these resources were able to engage the kids in learning far beyond anything I experienced at my daughter's age. My daughter also had issues associated with selective mutism that she was able to overcome under Mrs. Deshpande's tutelage. Mrs. Deshpande is an exemplary educator and would wholeheartedly recommend her to any child embarking on their learning journey at Ben Painter Elementary.

While teachers were as effective as they could be, administrator, safety, and protocol are severely lacking. There is no security and people can come and go as they please. The administrator is focused on scores rather that social emotional well-being of student which also includes instruction. Taking things personally means there is no equity or fair contribution to the students. Without having a background in actual classroom management, both principal and coordinator are ill-equipped to run a school. In fact, coordinator with no credentials or teaching certificate which was in classrooms unsupervised without a Certificate of Clearance (COC) for over a year was with students without teacher supervision. In fact, they only have a certificate of clearance and should not be in a coordinator position to begin with and sometimes acts as acting administrator without any certifiable credentials. Unsafe on many levels.