Pinecrest Elementary School

We joined Naval Avenue this year with 2 of our kids and have had a great experience. Teachers who are engaged and love what they do, very good at communicating. They have specialists to assist those who need extra help and have worked really hard at bringing the pandemic kids up to the grade level with small work groups and individual instruction. I think it is important to note that parent involvement is crucial to a better school experience, you get out what you put into it. We collaborate with the teachers to work on each of our kids challenges and opportunities and see vast improvement in their academic and social/emotional skills. As soon as a bully issue arose, we spoke with the teacher who not only dealt with the individual student, but also did an entire unit for the class on standby bullying and how it affects people too. I was impressed and learned the bully apologized to my kid and they have been friends since. We were given an opportunity to move our kids and have decided we like where they are and the support from this school has been great.

If you value academics over social-emotional support, this may be a great fit for you. While View Ridge has helped my child catch up academically, their emotional health has declined significantly. The amount of burnout backlash I receive when they come home is out of control, and this all stems from a student body full of bullies and a staff who have low thresholds for patience and a clear lack of knowledge on child development. The expectations are high for these kids, so if your child is neurodivergent, they will not be met with grace but instead faced with daily punishments and isolation. This is supposed to be an art and music-based school. Where are the fun-loving, light-hearted redirects when these children are having a hard time focusing? How about creating songs that grasp their attention? Where's the creativity? The music teacher herself is extremely rigid and treats the kids like they're trying out for a Broadway play. Beautiful productions, but way too serious. I'm fully aware of how hard it must be to teach a classroom full of young children, but the disconnect and lack of requests for parent volunteers is beyond comprehension. I never receive field trip slips (on the rare occasion they get to go on one) that call for chaperones or any notices calling for parent volunteers to join the classroom for activities. For a school that seems to battle with so many disruptions in its classrooms and assemblies, it's beyond me that there's no call for family involvement. Don't get me wrong, there are some educators and staff at View Ridge who are gems and genuinely care for these kids, but they're far from a dime a dozen. And it feels like, unless your kid is involved with their music clubs or you're on the PTA, you're met with the bare minimum and just another body in the school.

Horrible experience. Awful communication problems. Don’t bring your kids here. Only one of the teachers seemed to put any effort into our kids. Started off the year like you’d expect, then by second day they told us the my had to put our kids on half days. Pressed us into seeking services, then by the time we received them they told us that there was no spots open for them, so had to seek out a new school for my kids. New school has been great with my kids so far, and they’re actually thriving now, just goes to show level of competency at Cottonwood.

There are mean kids they swear and cuss and people ignore it.