Environmental & Adventure School

My 3 kids have been attending this school. The experience was consistently good. Mr Miller, Mrs Pearia, Mrs. Sheldon, Mrs. Cracker, Mrs. Knapp, Mrs. Stewart are always attentive to our kids' academic and emotional needs, encouraging, kind, and respectful. The EAP students do get necessary academic challenge and support. The music teachers are awesome. We are not into arts so we prefer strong academics over arts. I am glad that HiCap kids are clustered together: it's easier for them to find friends with common views. If they brag about being "high cap". I am going to surprise you: kids do brag about whatever they can find suitable to brag about: Adidas shoes, dad's Tesla, summar voyage to Paris or that they can kick their classmate in the face. Maybe, it's better when kids brag about being smart than when they are proud of being rich and shallow.

We have had mixed experiences at Bell. The first few years the school was going through high staff turnover and my child had some very inexperienced and ill-equipped teachers. The classrooms were in constant chaos and minimal learning was happening. It was stressful for my child and efforts to work with the administration to improve things went nowhere. Thankfully, things have improved the past few years. My child has had better, more tenured teachers and as a result has made more progress academically and is happier at school. That being said, even the best teachers can't overcome some of the institutional problems - too many kids per classroom and not enough staff support to offer true differentiation for individual abilities. If you have a child who is above grade level, be prepared that they will spend a lot of time reading silently or using quasi-educational apps on the computer. I believe this is a problem at many LWSD elementary schools and not unique to Bell. They seem to do a better job helping struggling learners rise up than they do helping advanced learners progress. One thing that Bell does well is social/emotional learning. They have a fantastic school counselor and lots of programs to foster overall student well-being. This is so important and very appreciated, especially post-pandemic.Bell also has a strong PTSA and lots of community involvement, which has a positive impact on all of the kids. There are many fun school-wide events and lots of extra-curricular activities to choose from. Overall, I think Bell is a good school that is getting better, but it's hit or miss depending on the teacher, and there is still a lot of room for improvement.

I have had children at Sandburg for the past 11 years. The staff have always been warm and supportive. As the parent of a special needs child, I especially appreciate the amazing teams we have worked with at this school over the years.