Hillcrest School

Our child has had a good experience overall at Hillcrest. We've been very happy with the teachers, both here and at other schools in the Peekskill district. This year's teachers (5th grade) are particularly kind and competent, running a well-organized classroom with lots of parent communication. The school administrators clearly love children of all backgrounds and work hard to foster a positive culture at the school. They have been very responsive to concerns that were expressed last year about homework and recess.

There are no in-class tests during the school day. And if there are, parents never receive ANY kind of result. Therefore, you have no idea how your child is doing and how you could supplement the in-class teaching. There is no homework given. No "memorization" or any kind of at-home requirement learning, like math tables, flash cards or spelling. Parents have no knowledge of what, exactly, the children are learning while at school except a pathetic app called Class Dojo---which is useless except for pep talks and the occasional photo of class experiences. There is bullying, name calling and beatings, which extend to afterschool activities outside of the school. The whole situation is more like free daycare with free food. The lunch periods are ridiculous, some at 10:15 a.m. (after having breakfast end at 8:45 a.m.) The Saturday Academy is not about focusing on those who need extra academic help, but a free food for families and free advertising to local youth based businesses. Saddest still is that people seem satisfied with the extremely poor statewide test results as posted here on Great Schools, both for main stream students and special ed students.

There are many extracurricular activities available at Hillcrest. They are a "community school" and as such there are ample after school activities available: Girl and Boy Scouts, STEM, yoga, music. There are great band and chorus opportunities as well as a dual language program.

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