Gaarde Christian School

If your child is a person of color or special needs do not send them to this school. A kid broke my child’s arm and even made a special needs student with Down syndrome have to transfer due to extreme bullying. After several times of reporting to the staff what is going on, the staff and teachers always pick the side of white people. They do not care about the well-being or education of your child. Despite the child bullying my son has a bad reputation at school, the school decided to not do anything, nor contact the child’s parents. The majority of the teachers do not care about the students education but rather just want them to get to next grade level. The teachers also do not care about building a welcoming education for students of color (black and Hispanic). Most of the teachers will turn a blind eye if they see an injustice happening between a person of color and a white person. The only good teacher my son has had was Mrs. Davidson, who always cared about my sons education and well-being and didn’t fail to contact me about the concerns she had about my child wether that was educational/mental health. She always made sure to include me in my child’s education and didn’t turn a blind eye when injustice was happening.

A few years in, and I say this is a very bad school for my kid. Maybe others have had better experiences. My kid came into this school at kindergarten knowing how to read quite well. Recently, they tested at reading levels two grades lower. This whole process has been discouraging and my kid hates it here, but at home nothing has changed. They are a curious learner in all things and a voracious reader of grade-level books. There is constant reading, learning games, and fun educational stuff at my house. My child is well-behaved and respectful. In my opinion, Templeton has some questionable metrics and teaching programs. I call it Checklist Teaching. As others have experienced, students are not challenged and pre-assessed enough to ever move on. My kid should have been out of lower learning groups a long time ago. And don't get me started on Math. In 2nd grade, the teacher got sick and missed a whole state-required unit, so I had to pick that up at home. The principal seems to try, but he and all the teachers seem vastly overwhelmed even for their tiny classes. Despite plenty of parental volunteering, it's still not enough. Experienced teachers appear to have the same low standards and do not seem passionate about their work. The pattern I observed is a general attitude about education. Only one teacher really connected with my kid, but they left the next year. We were all so bummed when she left. It was clear she didn't like teaching in this new facility. Even in tiny classes, my kid said they were often overlooked despite having a true zeal for learning. Other teachers cultivate wonderment: Templeton destroys it. Maybe there is a reason why on ALL the review sites, this is the worst elementary in the district and not even in the top 300 in the state. The numbers and consensus don't appear to lie. Don't take my word for it. Talk to parents in the area. Side note: this school is a rebuild. They had a chance to make the drop-off easy and a straight loop directly from the street, but decided to put a huge stone slab sign where that could have happened. The school is flanked by two big parking lots, never full, and a huge area behind the school. Instead, it's a nightmare zig-zagging through this line just to pick up or drop off your kids. And parents forget how to drive. It's pretty time-consuming and ridiculous. For only moving a short distance, it takes 30+ minutes to get through.

This is our second year at St. Anthony's after transferring from another school out of state, and have had nothing but a wonderful experience for our student. The teaching staff is extremely tuned into student needs and building the support mechanisms to ensure students can thrive. The family engagement opportunities are endless. From volunteer opportunities to activities throughout the week, they do a phenomenal job ensuring the community stays connected. The school is also updating/building to modernize key spaces across its campus, which is an exciting opportunity to support. We would highly recommend St. Anthony's to any family considering a small, Catholic/private school education that lives by its values to Love, Learn and Serve.