Brookvale Elementary School

Brookvale Elementary is alright. This school has its ups and downs.
The ups are that this school is that it is in a good area where the people there are friendly. My child was an English Language Learner but showed tremendous improvement throughout the year. I am very thankful to the teachers who helped my child prosper. We have now moved to Milpitas where my child goes to Sinnott John Elementary School.
The downs are that the kids there were not awfully nice. Some kids had a really bad attitude. It was not always a healthy environment for my child because Brookvale was back to back with American High School where some high school students decided to jump the fence. Sometimes my child was afraid to go to school because of the the kids that were older then her. The teachers were not a good support system. My child did become shy and lost some confidence but was able to build it.
Adventure Time, was a wonderful experience for my child where she met children that that became her great friends. Really appreciate this program!

It is very true that a teacher can either make a child successful or can break him/​her! At Brookvale elementary they have teachers and a principal who can break your child! I am just amazed that just after my child’s first day at kindergarten they managed to do it with such a ease! Due to financial reasons we decided to pull out my child from a private school to public school. I made mistake by putting faith in public school system and got fooled by ratings! The teachers don’t have time to help your child in the middle of the year to help him settle in the new school even though teacher student ratio was 12:1. I landed him pulling out and he is back in a private school. Public schools like this because of teachers and principal are disgrace to humanity!!!

I am appalled by the low reviews that are complaining about not getting in (especially if you aren’t even a resident) instead of rating the QUALITY of the school. This is not what Unilocal is for. If you have an issue with the district, enrollment and city planning issues, I encourage you to attend the many council meetings that are addressing this horrible issue of developers adding more and more housing for profit without ensuring more schools are built. I encourage you to VOTE and pay attention to city leaders and their policies. Brookvale is a wonderful school and the principal is very engaged. It is safe and there are a ton of activities as well as a very involved PTA and great parent involvement. Some teachers are better than others yes, but compared to other schools there is NO way that this school deserves 1 or 2 star ratings. People who give low ratings out of spite or based on overcrowding issues are immature at best. This is a great school with quality teachers, excellent diversity and reasonable standards of behavior while still allowing kids to be kids. Clean campus, nice library, good after school programs, movie nights, PTA events and great communication via newsletters and email. It’s not perfect and perhaps 4.5 stars is more appropriate, but giving 5 because of the other ridiculous reviews and because my daughter is learning and having fun.

I have mixed feelings about this school. Let me start off with good things first. My son went here for two years. The first year, his kindergarten started off bumpy because he was one of the youngest kids in class and on the quieter side. Although he has been to a private pre-​school – they had never emphasized academics/​writing/​reading and his speech was not
crisp.
Fortunately, the kindergarten teacher Mrs. F was very hands-​on and recommended working with their Speech Language specialist. With the help of SL specialist, my son began blossoming at Brookvale. The rest of the year went beautifully with the support of Mrs. F and of course the Principal was initially very kind and everyone else on the staff was friendly and supportive. I was also impressed by most of the parents and the camaraderie among them. Some children in my son’s class were a bit aggressive and/​distracting but Mrs. F handled it well (I saw it when I volunteered every other Wednesday) and all parents were always supportive of the actions by the teacher. Mrs. F was gentle and firm at the same time but extremely well organized in homework and assignments: a seasoned school teacher who loved «educating» kids. And despite my kid’s sensitive side, she was firm with him and expected higher standards. But she was fair and so he loved her. Unfortunately, Mrs. F has since retired.
Come first grade, all of that changed. It was like my son now went to a completely different school. His shyness, social anxiety, sensitive nature were constantly his «fault» where as the aggressive kids who heckled him (many on the playground and much older than him) were never questioned by the new class teacher or teachers who supervised the play area. As a result, my son kept to himself and stayed away as far as possible.
Then the same things happened in the classroom too –some kids would poke him with pencils or kick him on his back as they sat on the rug behind him, for group activities/​story-​time. The teacher was always overwhelmed and disorganized and she yelled a lot. But she never made any reports or brought the misbehavior to the parents or the Principal’s attention –when we directly approached other parents, they were clueless that their kid had made a poor choice.
Another thing that bothered me was the first grade teacher whined about everything– said she was finding the common-​core changes too difficult to handle and often complained that the district provided no support (which I have to sympathize about but it’s not the fault of little kids). Although a good-​natured person overall, she had no control on her class. Substitute teachers were overwhelmed and often complained about the rowdiness of that class. Unless we went straight to the parents of those children, nothing got resolved but the parents were amazing and supportive and expected proper behavior from their kids. If my kid was a trouble-​maker, I would want the school to proactively discipline him without shaming him –so the parents were right –it was the teacher’s job to control the situation when it happened but the teacher had no bandwidth or desire.
Our kids go to school for a good 6 – 7 hours each day – isn’t it the school’d responsibility to instill proper behavior? Yes, all parents are nice and supportive but so are all kids — the school and teachers have to play an important role in their upbringing too. Ultimately, I found Brookvale as a chaotic school. Many teachers don’t have the band-​width for being involved with the common issues of elementary school kids – attend a first grade class and you will see that the whole class is doing its own stuff while the teacher is in one corner doing her «testing». No kid needs harsh treatment but there should be some expectation of proper behavior. I put my kid in this school because I wanted him to have a normal childhood and I believed in supporting public education. I am an educator myself.
My son now goes to a low-​key private school – no, not one those big brand franchised schools. His new teacher at the private school is an experienced teacher and already he has learned so much more. She has helped him with his shyness in the classroom as well as outside. Bad language, touching/​pushing/​hitting is not tolerated at the new school and kids have to display proper manners at all times but there is lot of freedom for creativity and expression.
I am glad we made that switch but it’s sad that many don’t have the luxury to do so. The status of public education in California is that it’s completely driven by parents – but they are not trained to drive educational institutions and so PTAs work but their is a limit to it – the teachers have to do their job too. Working with kids requires educators to be passionate about it – this is not a «for profit» business. And when that passion is lacking, the most important formative years of your kid’s life have already gone…

I am planning to buy a house here but it’s impossible to find whether the school has space or not. Calling school and School district doesn’t help as they are not ready to reveal this info. They are behaving as if school seats are getting filled like airline tickets and information is changing every 15 minutes even for existing school year. But if you ask them what is the situation as of now, response is we cannot tell you.
School which run using the home-​owners taxes are really ready to help homeowners is pathetic.

Brookvale Elementary is full of teachers that truly care about their students and consistently do their best to make learning interesting and relevant to their students. Parent support at this school is incredible, and the PTA rocks! The principal, Cindy Hicks-​Rodriguez, is not only an advocate for her teachers, but also for students and parents. I currently teach at Brookvale after teaching at another school in Fremont for 8 years, and parents need to know they have a good thing here.
In response to the parent who was understandably upset by their child being overloaded, this event was out of the control of the principal as it’s a district process every year due to there being maximum capacity laws at each school. Every district handles this challenge differently, and I know Fremont’s process in this area can be upsetting when it’s your child that is overloaded.

This school is really great, I like the area that it is in as well. There is just one thing I don’t like, my son’s teacher. There is never, ever a smile on this lady’s face. I thought maybe she might be having a bad day, or maybe I caught her at a bad moment. Nope, that wasn’t the case at all. I have at least half a dozen moments, where I tried to say hello or ask how my son is doing, each time its the same snarl on her face. Never, ever have I seen this lady smile and the school year is almost over.
I must say this, every parent thinks there kid is an angel. Some of us refuse to see the real truth. I will be the first to say that my child is not a angel, nor is he a trouble maker. I will never say that my child or my kids are perfect, because I know deep in my heart that they are kids, and kids act up, so I know they are not perfect, but I do believe my kids are good kids. So when I see kids act up in his class, I know my kid is not the trouble maker. So when I got a letter sent home, saying that they are having a problem with him, I couldn’t believe it. I even spoke with some of the volunteer parents that help out, they have even stated that my son is no where near what his teacher has made him out to be.
I’m going to go with this lady has a problem, and I’m not sure what it is? I just hope that my son is not her problem. I would hate to have that be the truth, and again, I hope its not.
I have another daughter who will be joining this school in the next year or so, I’m going to have to make sure that her teacher is not this lady. I don’t think I can deal with this one again.