Lakewood School

My children attended this school 2012-2015. The GOOD : Principal Almodovar was new in 2014, and has some great ideas for school improvement in many areas. He is visible, communicative, accessible, and the students love him. Mrs. Mejia, the school liaison, is consistently above and beyond. I admire the amount of dedication and passion the bilingual teachers display. I have heard special education teachers are excellent. Coach B stands out as a positive, influential, strong male role model, the students love. The teachers & staff are caring & positive, overall. Parkview is working hard on increasing their standards to align with the common core, & (I believe) is doing better at it than many schools that started in the same place (several years ago, they were rated a 6). The few parents who regularly volunteer are passionate & dedicated. Children who are below or at academic standards are going to get a good education here. The BAD : Parent involvement is lacking. I strongly believe the PTC needs to pay more attention to understanding the differences in family dynamics, cultural differences & income levels; in order to help bring more parent volunteers to their meetings & the school. More parents need to step up and help the PTC, to achieve this. Although, Parkview does its best to provide enrichment events throughout the year, innovation & creativity in learning could be stepped up a notch (art, science/social projects, field trips, etc.). I feel accelerated students do not get enough attention to continue in their growth pattern. The PBIS in place is good, but not necessarily followed through (for entire year) with consistency. OVERALL : I would have rated this school as average, but when you consider that this school is a Title 1 school, that has a lot of barriers to overcome (and is doing a good job of it), I think it deserves a rating of Good. The staff works hard to increase academic performance, the 2nd steps program and PBIS target behaviors, this school is safe, and clean. Again, the only real frustration I have had, is a desire to see MORE enrichment, MORE parental involvement, and MORE for accelerated students. Obviously, my personal frustrations are not the most important. Parkview is addressing the most important issues, (as they should) and I have no doubt that in time, they will continue addressing other issues & improving.

We are a new family at Immanuel Lutheran school this year - and we are SO happy with it, and would absolutely recommend it. Our children spent 3 years at a different private school, and I can honestly say they learned more in a few months at Immanuel then a few years at their old school. We are SO happy to have made the switch. The staff is phenomenal - we love everybody. The church and school are so welcoming- there is no pressure to join.. but the environment is so great that you actually WANT to be apart of it. We dealt with bullying at our old school that went on all year unreported- and that would never happen at Immanuel. ILS is truly a hidden gem in the community- we are so happy we found it and plan on keeping our children there until 8th grade. The curriculum is great and they even offer some special needs resources through their public school system servicing the area. I am not gaining anything from this review- I simply want everyone to know how great Immanuel has treated our family ! After having a negative experience at a more expensive school where my children didn't learn anything - I have to let other parents know about ILS. Its apparently been around for over 150 years- and thats probably because it WORKS!! Would definitely recommend Immanuel Lutheran East Dundee!!!!!

Worst experience I’ve had from any school, both public and private. The administration cares nothing about the student or their needs. They emphasized their strong support and community values during the open house, none of that is accurate. Save yourself the headache and go elsewhere.