Good Shepherd Catholic School

Great school! My daughter has been here since ECE and she is flourishing. A great mix of of kids and community!

My daughter is in third grade and has been at Dora Moore since Kindergarten. She has loved it every single year. Her teachers have been warm and engaging and incredibly competent. The principal, Mr. Janson, is about the best principal you can imagine. He knows everyone's name, kids and parents alike, and he supports the staff and students with everything they need. The school community is probably the best part of the school though. The school puts on awesome events, the kids all get along, and the parents are really supportive of each other.

As parents, we had high hopes when we enrolled our child at MCHD, but unfortunately, our experience has been disappointing on several fronts. My older son attended MCHD 8 years ago and we were thrilled when it came to his experience. He had one teacher, Ms. Itzel, his entire time there. He grew so much educationally and socially. I was excited to send my younger son and enrolled him when he was two. We spent 4 years at MCHD Parkhill and just left mid year because we were beyond disappointed. I am floored when I recall the significant differences from 8 years ago. First and foremost, the teacher retention issue is a serious concern. It feels like every few months, we’re seeing new faces in the classroom, which has created a lack of consistency in our child’s education. It’s difficult to form a relationship with teachers when they’re constantly leaving, and it’s clear that the remaining staff is overburdened. Additionally, communication from the school is abysmal. Important updates and changes are rarely communicated in a timely manner. It’s frustrating to find out about scheduling changes, school events, or policy updates at the last minute or, worse, not at all. As parents, we feel left out of the loop and constantly have to chase down information that should be readily available to us. We’ve also been disappointed by how the school has handled changes. There has been a lack of transparency when it comes to alterations in curriculum, staffing, and even basic facilities. The school doesn’t seem forthcoming with this information, and we’ve been left to figure things out for ourselves, which is not acceptable for the fees we are paying. To add insult to injury, despite paying the same amount as families at the Central Park campus, our child’s campus does not offer the same resources or opportunities. It’s hard to ignore the disparity in facilities, extracurricular programs, and even classroom materials. We understand that different campuses may have different needs, but the quality should not be this uneven when the financial commitment is the same. Overall, we’re incredibly disappointed with MCHD. For the amount of money we’re paying, we expected much better communication, teacher stability, and a more consistent and equitable experience for our child. We hope the school takes these issues seriously and works to address them for the sake of the students.

We have three kids at Graland and could not be happier. What sets this school apart is how genuinely the teachers know each child — not just their academics, but their personalities, their quirks, and what lights them up. The individualized attention here is real, not just a talking point.Graland understands that raising a great kid means so much more than reading and math. Yes, the academics are strong — but the school invests equally in the whole child. Social-emotional learning is woven into daily life, and our kids have grown in empathy, resilience, and self-confidence in ways that no test score could capture.Graland manages to feel like a close-knit community even as it delivers a genuinely rigorous education. The teachers are the heart of it all — passionate, invested, and remarkable. We feel lucky every day.