Empire Oaks Elementary School

This is a great school, hampered by the things that traditionally hamper great schools.On the positive side, kids' progress is independently tracked and they are matched in teaching groups with other kids at the same level. Technology gives parents and teachers direct access to one another. The PTA is both strongly led and engaged. You will find parent volunteers active everyday, everywhere at the school. If you want to do something other than just go to school, there are a variety of after-school activities to engage in, as well as independent groups like the scouts that are active.On the negative side, schools like this attract social and financial status-conscious families, and you won't have to look far to find someone trying to impress upon everyone how important and rich they are. And there are FAR FAR too many of these.Still, your child will be effectively taught, and will have their ability to learn both catered to and challenged. Just teach them how to spot and avoid the passive-aggressive status displays going on. There are plenty of families around who are "normal".

My children have been at this school for 5 years from Kinder through 5th grade. This is an excellent school with great teachers who keep the kids on task (rated at 10). It is a nice blend of academics and fun stuff as well. Educational/fun field trips and Meet the Masters art is offered throughout the year. After school activities are also offered (fee)... Early Engineers, Firefly Art, Spanish class, Cooking class, Musical Theatre, Sing with Ping (free), and many more. Throughout the school year the PTA holds fun family events such as Royal Gathering of the Nuts, Snowflake Festival, and Donuts with Dad, Muffins with Mom, etc. They also raise money for much needed school supplies like Google Tablets for the kids. From what I've learned throughout all these years is... the more you put into your school, the more you get out of it. Most teachers really value parent volunteers and welcome you in the class. One thing I wish would change is the fact this school does not currently do overnight trips with the 4th/5th grade kids like other neighboring schools do (Coloma/Sailing) only 1 day trips. I hope this will someday change. Other than that, this is an excellent school.

Empire Oaks Elementary School is wonderful school in a wonderful community! The teachers truly care about the children and are helping them succeed in academics and life skills. They encourage well roundedness in the children by suppporting extra curricular activities such as science, choir, drama and atletics. The PTA is doing a great job with fund raisers and is using the money to fund key programs on campus such as the computer lab and library. The children have access to computer programs that are individually talored to help each child learn at their own pace and to help teachers note problem areas and strenghs of each child. Parents involvement in the classroom helps make the high student to teacher ratio manageable.

One of my children goes to this school and another goes to another one nearby. To use an analogy, this school feels like the Sales and Marketing department of a company while the other school feels like the Science and Engineering department. They're both very good but have a different culture. Hope this helps. : )