Merry Hill School

Both my kids attend Noble Elementary and belong in the Parent Participation Program. We feel incredibly blessed to belong a part of the PPP program. The kids, parents, teacher and school create an amazing community through this program. We have gotten to know all the other families well, have active engagement and involvement with teachers and the classroom and the principal, Ms Ortiz is always available. There are so many opportunities to get involved and explore. Noble also participates in Science Olympiad and learn to compete with other nearby schools.

A great school for children. They teach anti bullying and there's a lot of parent involvement.

There might have been potential improvements over the past 15 years, However my experience at Vinci Park was a terrible one. My time as a gifted student in the GATE program during 4th and 5th grade at this school was highly disappointing. The GATE section, intended to focus on enhancing "IQ," veered into random subjects in 5th grade, during 4th grade it was more appealing as the club involves puzzles and projects with fellow gifted students. However, 5th grade took an unexpected turn with activities like dancing. My experience included a 5th-grade teacher abandoning our class and a overly strict 4th-grade teacher, leaving me feeling unprepared for middle school.I hope future students won't experience the dissatisfaction I did.

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.