Juana Briones Elementary School

Teachers are enthusiastic and passionate. Especially, the principal, Ms. Hickey and teacher, Ms. Stoneburner are the best! Students enjoy their classes every moments. The PTA members were so good in these semesters. Thanks.

The school has extremely helpful teachers and staff and very nice and friendly families. The children always feel safe playing in the school yard.

For a school in the Palo Alto Unified School District, this one seems to have fallen through the cracks. They are disorganized to such a degree that on four different occasions in a single school year, they have told me "Sorry, we can't locate your child." when I show up to pick her up early for appointments or bring forgotten lunches. On top of that, the front desk staff has a special way of making you feel like the world's worst parent because you child managed to leave the house that morning without everything they needed. The few instances where I've had to deal with the principal have left me feeling inadequate and frustrated. My children also have special needs (IEPs and 504s) and I felt as though I was not welcomed, I was shunned. The principal caters to the parents who can afford to be over-involved and those of us who work 80+ hours a week are looked at as though we don't care about our children. The school counselor seems to be the only one who really cares about special needs students and she's only there twice a week. (She works all the elementary schools in PAUSD) I too wish that I had done more research and found a different school for my children.

This school and its teachers are not well prepared to teach students with learning issues or problems. They teach to the middle to upper eschelon of abilities in most cases while still not providing enough challenging material to exceptional students. I have had two children attend over the past several years and have found several of the teachers to be inflexible, especially the older teachers. I even experience an terrible and derogatory comment made about my child's ability. The teacher who said this is still there. If I were to do it all over again, I would try to find a more caring school whose teacher's are more accepting of learning differences.