College Park Elementary School

School is absolutely horrible! They did not give my sons needs. The administration Is unde dictated as I asked them twice to make sure of my sons allergies, Three times already they have not listened. I gave the school a check for lunch money. They took the money but did not put it in my child’s lunch account. The staff are all very disrespectful and racist. My son has told me of lunch line serving the Chinese kids first, their Chinese emersion has caused my son to fall behind in English as you only get half the day. The staff can be very neglective as they do not listen to my son when he is teased by other children. When I was picking up my child I saw other children bullying him next to the staff. Who was not doing anything. When I tried to get him a staff member rudely told me to stay outside of the gates even though I was only trying to help him. After consideration. I am glad to say me and my wife are not going to send our other children to this school. We have found a better school somewhere else.

I have a child in the GATE program at College Park and this has been a very positive experience for us. It is a self contained group of 30 students who were chosen based on their STAR test scores and GATE assessment. The class is geared toward accelerated learning. Students come to the College Park campus for the 4^th and 5^th grade and are taught by GATE certified teachers. Both teachers are excellent and they co teach both the 4^th and 5^th grades. They share a campus with the Mandarin Immersion Program and GATE students will take PE and share recess/​lunch with the MI students.
The GATE students tend to stay together at lunch and recess so it does at times feel like the students are in a bubble and not part of the larger MI student body. The PTA is working to help bridge the gap between the two groups and I have found the PTA to be very welcoming to GATE parents.
Principal Hallock has a good handle on the budget and enough money to support both GATE and MI programs so you need not be concerned about funds. She has also put in place a new program called Play Works which educates playground volunteers to help organize structured games for the kids. This helps reel in some of the chaos of having so many children on the playground. I haven’t heard of any bullying at the school and have found most students to be very good kids. Hopefully they’ll incorporate a pull-​out program to reduce the number of students on the playground at the same time.
API scores are continuing to go up because the school is no longer a neighborhood school and the demographics are changing.
The Latino ESL students face the biggest hurdles with the MI program. When a student speaks primarily Spanish at home and has to learn both English and Mandarin simultaneously, they have a long hard road ahead of them. CP is located in a neighborhood that has it’s share of criminal activity. The school has high walls and locked gates so I feel the children are safe. The school is under renovation and there is the inconvenience of students having noisy drilling going on during the school day but it should be completed before fall of 2013.
Overall, a good experience.

I have a Pre-​K and 2^nd grader at College Park, and we are happy that our children are able to attend this school.
Positives I’ve seen:
1) We have hardworking teachers and staff who are responsive to communications about our child, and are very committed to the success of the school. Sure there are issues along the way, but at every level (from the principal to school administrator to teacher to the aides), I’ve felt that everyone at the school really wants to do their best to support our children and our school as a whole. The teachers and after-​school staff are responsive to questions and readily discuss ways that we can support our children at home and in the classroom with regards to behavior, academics, or anything else that comes up. The result is that my children are meeting or exceeding all their grade level standards and enjoy learning.
2) We have amazing parents who have done wonders with the Art in Action, Music for Minors, and Garden Science programs at the school, and we are blessed with an incredible parent who joined the staff and really put a great technology program in place at the school. There are so many other great families that are a part of the school and who contribute in many other ways to the PTA, FMS, and other special events. We’ve really enjoyed being a part of the community of families at the school.
3) The Kuai Le after school program provides wonderful support to students regarding their Mandarin homework and we are grateful to the teachers and staff there for providing a safe and welcoming environment for all the kids to study and play. It’s especially helpful that the students are able to get an extra boost of Mandarin exposure to help them with their homework and overall Mandarin education since the staff is are primarily bilingual Mandarin speakers. Wish there was an after-​school program for the pre-​K, but we’ve fortunately been able to make things work out with another after-​school provider.
Challenges I’ve seen:
1) Construction at the school has been a real challenge on multiple levels — we are looking forward to being able to enjoy the beautiful new buildings and spaces that are being created and being able to focus just on the needs of the school itself, instead of the constant distractions and logistical challenges created by the construction going on across the campus.
2) Playground supervision has been a challenge — the school has been making strides to address this by introducing the Playworks program at the school, engaging parent volunteers to support the staff assigned to playground supervision, and outlining more expectations and procedures to support this effort.
3) The GATE program is for grades 4 – 5, and the majority of these students come from other schools in the district. Finding ways to support the GATE program and integrate it into the rest of the school is an ongoing challenge that the parents, teachers, and administration are continuing to work on together.
A note about funding:
College Park is the only public school offering Mandarin immersion education in San Mateo County. The school benefited from Magnet, Foreign Language Assistance Program, and Title I funds in the past, but is no longer eligible for these programs because funding is no longer available and the demographics of the school have changed. The PTA and Friends of Mandarin Scholars organizations are volunteer-​driven and doing their best to help raise funds to support the programs and needs of the school and looking for outside sources of funding as well. Mandarin and other language immersion programs always have an extra burden of fundraising required to support the additional curriculum, training, and teaching support they need to provide more than the English education and other basic fundamentals required of all public schools. Without the support of the federal programs that the school has benefited from in the past, this burden is falling on parents and community members. Keep in mind that meeting the fundraising goals of the PTA and FMS to support the key programs and positions already in place at the school means asking families to contribute about $ 600/​student. Quite a deal compared to the $ 15K-​$ 20K tuition required at local private Mandarin immersion schools, but still a significant amount.

College Park Elementary School gives my son the gift of Mandarin language in a fun, educational, and creative environment. The continuous blend of Mandarin and English throughout the school day connects languages and cultures. The school is so amazing because of Mrs. Hallock. She encourages a strong, supportive environment where teachers and parents work together to provide holistic and global approach to education.

Our daughter has been at College Park since she was 3 in preschool, now she is in First Grade, we are really happy at this school and she is thriving!
Key point to remember it’s a Public Magnet Program, not a private funded school, and it is ROCKIN! Our API scores rising steadily. Last year: 854!
It is a new program, it did loose some funding, but we are in the school and we see the new classrooms, the teachers are awesome, the families at the school etc. I think CP is addressing issues as it comes up, they are proactive here and a lot of this is due to the amount of parent participation at this school.
Their is a new lunch and recess program that really helps keep the kids more engaged. My concern at lunch though is they don’t get enough time to eat, well that’s what my daughter says, she is probably too busy chatting to finish!
We like College Park, the teachers, the admin, the other families, the neighborhood, it’s a great school for our child. Other wise we would send her to our neighborhood school which is in walking distance or find a private Mandarin Immersion program.
Go see for yourself!

I’m sad to report that College Park hit the wall this past year. In terms of it being a school with qualities our family supports, it’s no longer a fit for us.
Be aware: API results blend gifted (self contained) classes with the general school population. To analyze test scores for non-​GATE Mandarin-​track kids, you’ll have to dig hard. It’s a mixed picture. Sadly, most parents don’t know how tough it is to staff Mandarin schools well (I’ve been involved with Mandarin immersion schooling for 25 years). CP is now bleeding experienced staff who feel the program under-​serves kids who can’t deal with immersion. They’re 100% right btw.
To evaluate this school accurately, ask tough questions about budget, and visit more than one Mandarin program. This one’s budget is threadbare and nearly entirely reliant on volunteers to supplement teaching. If your child is a VERY adept speaker of English (i.e. will not require any help ever supplementing his reading or writing in English) an un-​funded Mandarin public school education probably won’t do much damage.
Our story… In 2011-​12, a bullying problem flared up. A core of tough boys were leading teachers around by the nose, disrupting class, and taunting kids. Ours got it often, others had it worse. There was a lot of boy-​on-​girl bullying. We and my daughter asked for help, but teachers were intimidated by the boys and ineffectual in handling them. We asked about a bullying policy and were told there wasn’t one.
Some teachers were turning a blind eye out of misplaced empathy for boys who needed to be removed from class, educated separately, or punished. I was told — after witnessing a very public humiliation of my daughter by 5 boys — that «these kids have trouble at home.» It was my 9 year old’s job to suck it up and tolerate it apparently.
The air at College Park is thick with racial politics, and it has repeatedly affected the daily lives of some children (granted some kids feel none of this and to them I say: mazel tov, you’ve been lucky). The principal rejects the concept that there are discipline problems, or indeed ANY serious problems with the program. Her own staff roll their eyeballs when the subject of Mrs. H «listening» is mentioned. Nothing derails her constant, tedious boosterism.
Imposing Mandarin immersion on a student body whose parents are perhaps 10% functionally illiterate or 40% poor English speakers is just bad policy. It’s true that a few English-​learners excel, but they are a tiny minority. Most struggle. Many fail. These kids need a strong traditional English program.
Teaching quality is all across the board. Many long-​time teachers of English at CP have been wonderful. Some of them are leaving. And frankly, their efforts are being undermined by this now unfunded, experimental Mandarin program. Given the extreme needs among the local kids for outstanding English teaching, I’m truly confused about why the district would continue Mandarin at College Park. You’re lifting API at the expense of kids who need the 3 Rs.
Budget decimation.
In December 2011, the federal government pulled the grant program that funded the $ 300,000/year Mandarin immersion program at College Park. To be clear: THE FEDERAL MONEY IS GONE. We all knew it was coming. I asked if they wanted help raising serious foundation money but was told they didn’t understand the questions I was asking («What is your budget and where is it written down?).
The level of naïveté around how to manage the loss of funds by raising other funds was startling — really startling. You do NOT find $ 100k+ at a bake sale or a single Chinese meal for PTA members. Heavy fundraising requires professional expertise and a budget. They have no expertise and demonstrated confusion when asked for a budget.
A nice, totally inexperienced group of parents was assembled to raise money to replace some of the funds. They had raised, by June 2012, about $ 20,000. So, from $ 300,000 to, less than 1% of that. The principal doesn’t dig outside expertise. Big mistake. She needs heavy help fund raising and she’s not asking for it. The lady shows all the signs of having a thin skin and refusing help she can’t control.
3^rd and 4^th grades were combined. There is no more differentiated instruction in Mandarin. New parents rarely understand how badly CP’s immersion compares to those in other districts. Their kids may end up doing ok, but only if they have plenty of outside tutors in Mandarin.
We were sad to leave that community of friendly people. PTA folks are super. But we felt that under present leadership, CP would never fix its troubles. There are some super smart parents trying to make it work at CP. I earnestly wish them luck. But it’s unlikely the program will thrive without leadership change.

We’ve been sending our son to CP for kindergarten for almost a year now. We live in Burlingame, a couple of blocks from Washington Elementary, and most of our neighbors are bewildered that we would send our child out of the city to an a school without the pedigree that some of the ones in Burlingame have.
My wife and I spent a lot of time researching schools before deciding on CP, and the school has lived up to our high expectations. Our son loves it – he even asks that we not pick him up «early» (before 4:00) so that he can spend more time with his friends in the after-​school Mandarin program.
The classes aren’t too large; the teachers and admin seem committed, hard-​working, and genuinely caring about the students there. Schools in California are having budget problems, and CP is no exception, but I am very impressed by what the school is able to do and their ability to prioritize. Parents get involved, teachers and admin go the extra mile, and there is a good sense of community and involvement at the school.
Our child is doing quite well at CP. He is picking up a passion for learning, and is encouraged to let his curiosity roam — he reads a lot, does a lot of art and crafts, and comfortably moves from English to Chinese.
I give CP five stars not based entirely on their output, but on the quality of the input (the dedicated staff, the parents and the enthusiastic kids) and the fact that they are able to offer a great program in the face of considerable challenges.

Admin is awful– they lost my check, sent me the wrong scedule and always forgot to tell me about important scheduled events. Teacher Jenny is great, but the admin is lacking– we had to find another alternative. Also, if you as a parent dont speak Mandarin, it’s not very user freindly.