Tule Elk Park Nursery & School-Age Children’s Center

Once we heard first-​hand experiences of how wonderful Tule Elk was, we couldn’t believe our luck when a spot opened up for our son in Spring 2014. Given he was transitioning from a private preschool in the neighborhood, we were eager to see his acclimation into an environment that rounded out play with academics, music, art, a garden program and class-​room structure.
Without going into too much detail, our son blossomed and his new reading, writing and social skills continue to garner the attention and compliments of all our close friends and families. He is happy everyday we pick him up and he looks forward to school every morning.
The teachers here are genuine, intelligent, credible, firm when needed and simply, very kind and loving. It is a tight knit community of effective educators who love the children and the families. The fact that gender and ethnic diversity is native to the student and teacher population opportunistically teaches our son about empathy, acceptance, different cultures, patience and curiosity. After morning dropoff, I head to work knowing that my son is in impeccable care and is learning and thriving in what we believe is a healthy and productive environment.
Thank you Tule Elk for all the invaluable services you offer to our kids each and every day.
If anyone is interested in hearing more about our experience, feel free to contact me and we’ll be happy to help however we can.

I called Tule Elk and requested a school tour. Here are my observations
Pros:
1. Multiple gated entrances, making sure kids stay on campus.
2. TK classrooms looked great: clean, well organized, big, and one had a bunch of a ipads.
3. Outside play areas: There’s one play structure (medium size) with padding and then there’s another area where kids can «do laps» with various tricycles they have on hand.
4. there’s a garden. I saw a lemon tree and a shed area storing garden tools.
5. Ms. Hale — she’s a TK teacher for (30y experience). She was able to answer all my questions, you can tell she loves what she does. Her room is the one with the ipads. Whenever a student would interrupt us (which is fine since they are kids), she quickly turned her attention to the children but of course saying «excuse me» very quickly but politely to me.
6. they made me sign in and put on a badge while I walked around campus.
7. kid size toilets were available.
8. There are special needs kids present at this school.
9. hot lunch served on campus.
Cons:
1. Scarce parking and lots of traffic. There is a loading zone but I feel it’s small given the size of the school.
2. The tour was supposed to start at 930am. I called asking how long the tour will be, a simple question I thought. I was put on hold for a few minutes and the young woman said about 30 – 60 minutes. That’s a pretty big range. (I felt it was a very simple question but couldn’t get a good answer quickly… what if I had a real question about my child?
3. I was the first to arrive at 925. I walk into the office and there are 3 staff there. No one turns to me. After standing around for a long minute I walk up to the blonde lady (I think she’s a pre-​K) teacher and tell her I’m here for a tour. She calls over the Chinese lady (who seems busy) and says oh, ok we are waiting for a few other families. I said fine, can I go walk around the campus? She tells me I have to sign in (which is fine)…however she hands me this big binder and she opens it up to the sfusd admin sign in page and I tell her that’s the wrong one but she just ignores me and tells me to sign in there.
4. After waiting around for 10, 15, 20, 25 mins I grew frustrated. I took time out of my work day to come here ON TIME. They said they are waiting on a few other parents! WTH, it’s not my problem they are late.
5. No one can give us a tour because the site admin is not here. So the Chinese lady (who looks really busy) is told to give us a tour. Finally!
6. As we were given tours of the TK classrooms, little questions were coming up between me and the other parent on the tour and I felt the answers were very vague — «how many English learners do you have here?» — «we have some» «do you have something to ease the kids to pre-​k before they start school» — «…(long pause) no not really» «well what about an orientation» «oh yes we have an orientation.» Anyways, she couldn’t really answer specific questions. Not really her fault because she wasn’t supposed to give us the tour. Again, I felt this Chinese lady was kinda overworked.
7. Bathrooms — There are bathrooms right across from the office that are labeled «children only» and OMG they are disgusting. They are freezing cold (it wasn’t particularly cold today) and they were not kid sized toilets. They were rusty too. But there were kid size toilets upstairs closer to the classrooms.
8. As we ended our tour we saw the site administrator (Mindy Yip) finally arrive (it’s about 1030 now) and she was open to questions. I felt that since this school set up particular day and time to do school tours, the administrator SHOULD HAVE been present. No apologies given on her part.
9. As I was asking MIndy questions I was really turned off by some of her responses. I asked about English Learners. She asked me «why are you concerned about that?» I asked her if we can select our TK teacher and she says «no because the students are divided up. I press her further, how are they divided up. «sex, race, english learners, etc.» she says but what else? She takes a while but then goes on to say «sex, race, gender… ethnicity.» those aren’t really different i thought.
10. Onsite programs (i.e. zoo mobile): Mindy says nope. but the parents are welcome to organize this (ummmm isn’t this your job?)
Bottom line, the classroom and the one teacher i met seemed great. I am definitely not pleased with Mindy. If my kid was there I bet I would be butting heads with her. I hope she’s not there next year (she’s been there since ⁸⁄₁₃).

My son has been attending this school for the past 2 years and it’s amazing. They have a wonderful garden program, provide healthy meals and have a very large outside area for the children to run around. The teachers are caring and creative and very involved in the development of the children. I would highly recommend this preschool to anyone looking!

Our daughter attends transitional kindergarten at Tule Elk and it is amazing! She came from a VERY small preschool that we loved, and we were afraid that the transition to the larger school would be hard on her. NOPE! She loves EVERYTHING about it! Her teacher, the playground, the curriculum… you name it. She is THRIVING here! There is an amazing outdoor space where the kids get to run around and the amount of things she comes home having learned everyday is staggering. The parents group is really involved and you feel like you are making a difference in the lives of your kids.
We are so grateful we found Tule Elk! I would highly recommend it!

We use to love Tule Elk Children’s Center, but for the past 2 years since the new Site Administrator showed up it has taken a dramatic and sadly, negative turn. I used to attend their annual fundraiser, but no more. Much of the lovely staff and teachers have left and even the Special Education component does not receive the support it once did. It’s even a wonder the Garden program still exists as this person wants to phase it out, too. While I’m relieved our family doesn’t have to deal with this site administrator, I’m sad for incoming and new families. Tule Elk was so great when we were there, so full of community with the families and happy staff and teachers — It’s become a ghost of what it use to be!

An excellent, excellent preschool. We were in the fortunate position of being able to send our son to just about any preschool in the city, whether private or public, and our visit to TEP just blew our mind. All of the good preschools have excellent materials and wonderful teachers (and Tule Elk is no exception to this), but how many also have a half-city-block’s worth of outdoor garden complete with all the space for the kids to grow their own plants, learn about the outside world and spend hours digging up mud and running and playing outside? Truly an oasis among the urban grit of the rest of the city. The school also has amazing shared facilities including a massive gross-​motor room, an art room and a great study/​library in addition to the excellent, bright, airy individual classrooms.

Our boys love the preschool and after school program. Lots of outdoor learning and playing!