The principal spoke at the open house about finding more ways to integrate the students, for instance over lunchtime. Perhaps this will make it seem less like a school within a school once the kids have a chance to meet others outside the program

Anonymous wrote:Its a weird CES. Many parents and students complain about the amount of work but from what I can tell the workload is on par or even less than other CES programs in other clusters. The kids don't all seem CES material and I'm not talking about poor AA or hispanic families but the run of the mill type white families. I get the impression that kids in other CES programs are better because they are much more competitive with so many high fliers in the areas and are better fits for an actual high flier. Oak View has more basic above average type kids but not really the gifted type students. There seem to be plenty of kids at Oak View whose parents don't want them with the general population at their school. These kids don't really want to do the work.

Anonymous wrote:Its a weird CES. Many parents and students complain about the amount of work but from what I can tell the workload is on par or even less than other CES programs in other clusters. The kids don't all seem CES material and I'm not talking about poor AA or hispanic families but the run of the mill type white families. I get the impression that kids in other CES programs are better because they are much more competitive with so many high fliers in the areas and are better fits for an actual high flier. Oak View has more basic above average type kids but not really the gifted type students. There seem to be plenty of kids at Oak View whose parents don't want them with the general population at their school. These kids don't really want to do the work.

Anonymous wrote:Its a weird CES. Many parents and students complain about the amount of work but from what I can tell the workload is on par or even less than other CES programs in other clusters. The kids don't all seem CES material and I'm not talking about poor AA or hispanic families but the run of the mill type white families. I get the impression that kids in other CES programs are better because they are much more competitive with so many high fliers in the areas and are better fits for an actual high flier. Oak View has more basic above average type kids but not really the gifted type students. There seem to be plenty of kids at Oak View whose parents don't want them with the general population at their school. These kids don't really want to do the work.

Anonymous wrote:What did you think of the open house today? I’m out of town and wasn’t able to attend, so I’d love to hear feedback.

Anonymous wrote:Just to respond to several misunderstandings I've seen in this post, as well as answer some other questions. And full disclosure, I'm a staff member at the school:

- There has been some turnover since Mr. Cline took over; if you look at any school that gets a new principal, that is not unusual as a new principal means new policies and ways of running the school. Mr. Cline is a good leader and has HIGH expectations for staff and students. Mrs. Salazar was much more lax. So some teachers who got used to not being as accountable left.
- The 4th grade center teachers are both amazing! They understand the gifted population, and are both working together in the same Master's program for Gifted and Talented certification. They have different styles that compliment each other, and they build in a lot of work time in class, as well as strategies to further support students organization and executive functioning needs as they adjust to the increased workload.
- Regarding math, the center students are all in the compacted 4/5 math, with a few in 5/6 math. There are also some non-CES students in the compacted math, including an additional compacted math class for non-center students.
- The health staff are excellent, and have experience with diabetic students. There are also some staff members with diabetes (Type 1) who have been trained to support students if the health tech or nurse happened to be out and the substitute tech was not as experienced.
- As another poster mentioned, the St. Mary's trip was due to the cost of it. The PTA is amazing and words hard for our students, but they are very small and limited funds are available. The funds they have are used to help supplement field trip costs for students, put on assemblies at both schools (The PTA is a joint PTA between Oak View and our K-2 sister school New Hampshire Estates ES), and provide after-school club stipends.
- Clubs were available in the fall to students, and they serve a mixed group of students, but there is no transportation for the CES kids to Pinecrest or any of their other homeschools. The bus only goes along the neighborhood routes, and many CES parents were unable to pick them up.
- Mr. Cline is working on integrating the CES students with the rest of the school, but it is challenging as the only times are lunch and recess. They are mixed in more during some of the PBIS (Positive Behavior management system) rewards. Also, the 4th grade teachers (center and non-center) were working on a way to integrate students for some activities and team-building.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the administration like? Are they easy to work with? What about non-CES classes? Are they engaging? Do the kids participate in programs like Odessy of the Mind?

The principal is very friendly and down-to-earth. We had a principal intern as AP this year, who'll be leaving this summer to become principal at Farmland, so there'll be a new AP at Oak View.

The principal has caused pretty much all of the teachers to leave since he took over. He may seem friendly but is obviously not a good leader.

This is not accurate at all. There are many long-term teachers at Oak View.

Actually, it is completely accurate. But believe whatever you want to believe.

~Mom to three, has seen Oak View turnover since Mr. C. took over and who misses the excellent previous principal

Anonymous wrote:My child went through Oak View CES. Had a mixed experience. The 4th grade teachers were great. The 5th grade teacher was also really good and we had some issues with the teacher that left, although he was a good teacher he was very sarcastic and not a great fit for my kid but he's gone anyway.

Admin was not great in my experience. The old VP was not good, but he is gone. The current principal is responsive to parents, in my experience. He is very strict. The school is not run like your average middle class school and we came from a focus school but one that had a more diverse make-up then Oak View. Outside the center Oak View is not diverse (mostly Hispanic). That's okay, but the center kids are generally not well-integrated into the rest of the school and there are a lot of behavior problems in the rest of the student body.

The PTA is small. This influences the outside opportunities. There was no St. Mary's trip the year my child was in 4th grade. There were free after school clubs led by teachers. Sometimes the two center classes get very small socially for the kids because there is limited social interaction outside the center. My child became friends with a few kids outside the center but there was resentment from kids outside the program on the playground and in the lunchroom. The paras are not friendly to the kids and the whole system of discipline is not what you'd expect at a school with fewer discipline issues. If you are coming from Flora Singer or Woodlin or the like this school is different in those ways. The IM teacher was only there once a week and that impacted his ability to help run any extra help for instrumental music and there was only one concert a school year.