Edna Maguire Elementary School

This is our first year at Edna - we transferred from another public school in the Bay Area. As far as public schools go, I’m not sure it gets any better than Edna! Super active community that creates lots of opportunities for interaction between parents, kids, and parents / kids. Great school-wide events like Garden Faire, talent show, Maker Night, Mustang stampede. Parties and outings for parents. Dance, chorus, orchestra, art, field trips — not all schools get such a wide range of offerings. The campus is big and updated, with a great garden with animals. My kid’s teacher is excellent, both nurturing and in control. Class size is about 24 kids, despite how big the school is. We get a lot of support here. It’s progressive in its approach to teaching with later start times, homework policy, social emotional education, technology, and safety measures. Highly recommend.

I caution any single parents raising children alone not to move to the Mill Valley School District.You will be bullied by Moms and Staff. This is a very high income area with a lot of wannabees. There is a horrible gossip network with a lot of sensationalism, teachers and particularly the principal get involved. Small town so if they start, it goes everywhere. Really bad experience as a middle class working Mom raising kids alone.

We just got back from 1st grade Back to school night. I feel so lucky to be part of this school. Our teachers are warm, caring, and wonderfully professional. It's clear that they take pride in what they do and spend a lot of energy being the best they can be. Plus, it is a child focused environment. KG was equally great. We love this school.

This school only works if your kid fits in "the box". Children that learn differently or ask a lot of questions are marginalized. There is also a big push to get 'out of the box' kids into Special Education so that they are not considered when the STAR test results are tabulated. This results in an artificially high test result for the school. Some teachers are highly committed and amazing and some are not. If you get a great one, you have a great year, if not then you definitely suffer. Added minus: recess is a school wide, barely supervised,free for all.