Bethune Elementary School

No cultural diversity at this school at all. It’s 90% Filipino. The parking is atrocious. Admin staff is super rude. There’s one big African American lady in the office, I forgot her name, really mean and rude with the students. She was also very rude to the parents. One of the principals, the asst I believe, she was really rude too. Whenever I’d ask a question she’d really get annoyed. Teachers were nice but the parking, rude office staff and lack of cultural diversity wasn’t to my liking. I think all the Filipinos in this part of town love this school because they’re in their element here. Lots of Tagalog and lumpia at the potlucks… lol. Not kidding. Not that it’s bad but if you’re not of this culture your child will really be sticking out like a sore thumb at Bethune.

Be careful now they have police waiting
In parking
Lot for you to park in teachers spots or park in red zones, they ticket you !!
If the principal or any of school board members read this, you have a absolutely HUGE school yard in back of school that is unused wouldn’t it be logical to have teachers park there and let parents and office staff park in front LIKE they do in paradise valley middle school!!!

Attended here from 1987 – 1991. This school is so good, I went to Kindergarten TWICE lol. Do they still flunk kids nowadays? I lived in a nearby neighborhood (Jouglard Street) and used to walk on that cement sidewalk path that went over the hill. In Kindergarten, the tricycles were the most popular thing on the playground. I used to laugh at the end of recess when kids would ram the tricycles as hard as they can into the storage room. Bethune was the only place where I saw a particular lunch item: The Meal Pocket. I have not seen it in any other elementary school that I attended since. I was a decent and behaved student here, but it was here where I was sent to the Principal’s Office the only time ever. In first grade, for some weird reason I was compelled to scratch the alphabet onto the new paint of the wall ball courts lol. Mr. Morgenstien busted me hahaha. At the time, I didn’t realize that the curriculum here was advanced in comparison to other elementary schools. I only figured it out once I moved in the middle of 2^nd grade to another elementary school. My new school seemed so behind and the teacher was amazed about some of the subjects I was already knowledgeable in. I knew the difference between there/their/they’re for a couple of years whereas my new classmates had yet to learn the difference. Not bad for someone who got held back :) I’m sure my old teachers are probably retired: Mrs. Harrington, Mrs. Sullivan, Mr and Mrs. Loopa, Mrs. Carlson, and Mrs. Castile. I never had Mr. Chung RIP, but I’m sure my older brother has some great memories of his sixth grade class (1990 – 91).

my mom is a teacher here!

I went here K — 5^th grade
This school has changed. They went from Kindergarten — 5^th grade to K — 8^th grade. WTH??? I thought this was an elementary school not a elemiddle (I made that up). I wish I still had recess when I was in middle school =(
I’m sure some of my teachers are long gone, but from what I can remember they were all great!
That is all.

Holy crap. I feel old…
I went to this school in its inaugural year. Prior to that, I was attending Perry. But once this school opened, Bethune it was.
It was nice, and clean and just beautiful. Those glory days are probably far gone now, but I like to keep the memories alive. I miss the Wallball, 4 Square and Hopscotch thingies. I miss «freezing» when the bell rang.
Special shoutout to my 6^th grade teacher — Mr. John Chung. RIP Mr. Chung. You’ll always be one of my favorite teachers — ever.

I have attended three elementary schools, two in San Diego and Bethune is my favorite of all. I spent the 2^nd half of 1^st grade through 5^th grade here. Not only did I have great memories with this school, the teachers were excellent.
On my first day at Bethune, my new classmates were already learning 2-​digit addition, when 1^st grade me was still reviewing 1-​digit addition and subtraction at Boone Elementary. I wasn’t slow, and in fact math is my strongest subject. No offense to Booners, but it’s obvious which school had the better curriculum.
Bethune was a Magnet school from the day the doors opened in 1986 till the 1993 – 94 school year. During those days, the teachers excelled in their jobs.
Fast forward to 4^th and 5^th grade, when I had the best elementary school teacher ever, Mr. Chung. He knew how to balance work and play in the classroom very well. Mr. Chung assigned his students a ridiculous amount of homework on every single subject and assigned a ridiculous amount of standards/​lines for the misbehaving kids. One time, when most of the class was slacking off, he made the class march around the field during recess time for the other kids to watch! Believe it or not, this same teacher would allow his students to hang out in his classroom before school started and during lunchtime! He allowed us to bring cup of noodles to class, while he boiled the water in the classroom. When we were finished with our soup, we were allowed to play games on the Macs, including the old school Apple IIe computers. Best of all, Mr. Chung was compassionate about his students and profession. Unfortunately, he had to retire 5 years ago after 35 years of teaching due to the school district’s budget cuts.
Once again, the district is going through more budget cuts. It’s been 12 years since I graduated from this school, so I hope Bethune still provides quality education to its students as it did in the 1990’s.