White Oaks Elementary School

Excellent school, small, community- oriented, very personal education, did great in the times of COVID in recognizing practicalities of educating young kids on zoom. The teachers can always be hit or miss at any school. But at WO they all have extensive experience. Ms Scholer is a wonderful principal who cares about every child.

White Oaks Elementary is a below average school. My 2 kids attended it for a couple of years while we lived in the area. Given their ages I am able to compare it to the elementary schools they attended before and after we lived in San Carlos. The best thing about White Oaks Elementary was the committment of some of the teachers and staff. Their effforts were undercut by underfunding, lack of leadership from the principal, and poor attitudes from other teachers and staff members. As a parent you want your local school to do well, however on balance this one struggles to provide even an average environment. The high test scores it reports are more a reflection of the well-off neighborhood the school draws from, rather than anything about the education provided. This is particularly true if your child has any issues. During the 1st year at the school one of my kids was beginning to fall behind their peers in some aspects, while exceeding expectations in others. When I brought this up to the White Oaks teachers they repeatedly told me everything was fine. The next year, the bimodal nature of my child's performance was more pronounced with them progressing slowly in some subjects and rapidly in others. After several discussions with the 2nd year teacher and roping in the prinipal and staff I was told that while some students are high-fliers, mine wasn't and I needed to adjust my expectations. Fine if true, however this response was a defensive one from a school under pressure and just ignored the evidence from my child. Out of options with the school my family paid out-of-pocket for testing the school really should have given an year-and-a-half earlier. The testing revealed that my child has a specific, well-known learning issue and that her/his uneven performance was due to balancing that disability against an overall high capability. The testing was extensive and really made sense out of everything I had been seeing. Now that the problem is identified, the path is clear, and I understand what needs to be done to support my child. I also now know that this should have been obvious to the school. On balance, White Oaks Elementary struggles to provide an average learning environment and would not send my kids there again.

Very nice area and a great program for your kids. Great PE and music courses. Fun class projects and end of the year dance.

Excellent staff. My little one enjoys going to this school. I am very satisfied by the curricula and the way my daughter has developed self confidence. She will be well prepared for middle school.