Laurel Elementary School

We love this school! Laurel had a change of leadership last year, and we couldn't be happier with Linda Creighton. She is incredibly involved and passionate. The teachers at Laurel care so much about the kids, and it shows. The school prides itself on differentiated instruction, which means that the teacher tries to make sure each kid is moving at his or her own pace-- giving harder work to those who need it, and more help to those who require it. My son just finished first grade and his teacher was a former reading specialist. He went in just haltingly sounding out words and came out reading chapter books on his own.

In addition to all the basics, there's music twice a week, as well as art. After school enrichment programs include chess, fencing, math, Chinese, Spanish, basketball, golf, and more.

My only wish is that they had a gifted and talented program. They do pull some kids out for extra help with reading or speech, but I wish they pulled some out for more advanced work, as they did when I was a child growing up on the East Coast.

But overall, wow, is all I can say. I wish all schools could be as good as this one.

Alan Miller: Laurel is excellent!  ... I think the one-star rating came from someone who didn't realize the 1 = low and 5 = high   =)

I completely agree with the above reviewer. I have had the most amazing experience with my son who just finished Kindergarten in Ms. Andolina's class. She is amazing and totally dedicated to education.
We get emails from her at 2am on most days...and I have never seen her leave before 7pm!
We love Ms. Andolina!

I couldn't be happier with this school. This is public education at its best. Despite being in cash-strapped CA, in addition to regular classroom instruction, students receive art class, physical education, science enrichment lab, computer lab instruction, and music not just once but twice a week. Maribeth Andolina, who teaches kindergarten, is a total superstar. My son comes home every day laughing about what she does to get them excited about learning. One time she told me, "She was so excited about our reading, she danced on the table!" It's not all fun and games-- my son went in not reading at all and not writing much more than his name and now, 5 months in, he's writing sentences and sounding words out like a champ. I can't help gushing-- I just was so nervous about kindergarten and I couldn't imagine a better outcome.