Encinal Elementary School

195 Encinal Avenue

School District

Menlo Park City Elementary
Grade

K-5
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:17
Type

public

School Map for Menlo Park City Elementary School District

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on August 10, 2024

We absolutely love Encinal! My son is in the Spanish Immersion program and it has been an incredible experience: he started kindergarten in an English class, but got off the waitlist for SI and transferred at Thanksgiving. We weren’t sure how it would go since we speak no Spanish at home, but he was determined. He had the best year in Kindergarten, but it was admittedly a little hard as parents to see his reading/writing stall as he immersed himself in a new language. Then first grade came and it all clicked into place and by the end of another great year in SI he reads and writes fluently in BOTH Spanish and English. Truly mind blowing. Seeing the books he brings home that he has written entirely in Spanish astound me. Doing his math homework with him and listening to him read all the word problems aloud in Spanish and then solve them all is equally impressive to me. The biggest thing, though, is how much he just loves going to school every day and how much we love the community. Combine that with truly superb teachers and we couldn’t be happier. We’re very excited for his younger brother to start TK this fall!
Submitted by parent on September 02, 2022

It's our 3rd year in Encinal and we couldn't be happier. Lots of attention to kids and great atmosphere in general.
Submitted by parent on July 20, 2022

Pros : 1. Transparency in assessments & grading in terms of sharing rubrics how the child is graded on various parameters & improves & finally scores for same questions when introduced initially & later after improvement. 2. Teaching is reasonably good but no special efforts made to give more challenging work to students ahead of their grade.Cons : 1. Discipline is very low. Kids openly call names & shame other kids, can get physical & still can easily get away without disciplinary action. Kids new to school really suffer. My child said he felt insulted the whole year & he just had to live with it. 2. Discrimination based on race, culture, food habits, income etc by authorities, staff & students was experienced. 3. Kids not allowed to keep water bottles at their desk even during hot summer (could be specific teachers) & even when drinking water faucets not operational because of covid. 4. Student bathrooms are never clean. 5. Quality of cafetaria food in the last trimester of the year was horrible & my child preferred to starve till he comes home rather than eat there. 6. Plans for students with special needs were delayed, postponed for several reasons & were not accomodative & staff involved hardly have patience to add parent's choice of interventions to support the child's needs. Plan was not even put in the system as was informed for the next school to refer. 7. Funds are collected or pledged from parents in beginning of school year but no information of how they are going to be utilised or were applied was ever shared. 8. If child has tested negative on covid test & is just having common cold/cough, child is still asked to stay at home for no reason. There is so much loss of his school days without a plan how to cover for loss of his studies. 9. All assignments are typed on chrome book & no writing on paper/book has led to my child not able to write witg hand even a paragraph after 1-2 hours with no improvement in capitalisation, punctuation, spelling, grammar, handwriting etc as usually Grammarly does this for the kids on systems. How would the child learn if system does everything for him?
Submitted by parent on June 18, 2019

Our two children love Encinal. The teachers and faculty are amazing, special needs support is outstanding, and the mix of fun activities and learning is perfect.
Submitted by parent on October 19, 2018

Love this school! My child comes home excited about learning.
Submitted by parent on November 03, 2017

Our experience at Encinal with our two children has been extremely positive. We've loved all our teachers, and the principal and vice-principal are extremely involved in the welfare of both students and faculty.
Submitted by parent on June 09, 2017

Great school. Excellent programs. The debate program for all 3rd graders is amazing and very innovative. The only knock is to improve performance for low income students to close the achievement gap. But overall my kids love Encinal and are thriving.
Submitted by other on May 05, 2016

Our experience has been great, we hoped that we had asked more questions at the beginning of our experience at Encinal but we have learned over the years. They are amazing!
Submitted by parent on June 04, 2013

Excellent school, excellent teachers, and great programs. Could not have asked for a better first year of school for my child. Only issue was the classes are overcrowded and the teachers are stretched thin. There is a ton of parent involvement which helps a lot and good communication between teachers/parents, at least in our case.
Submitted by other on October 09, 2012

I loved Encinal! I went here for third and fourth grade about eight years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the after school activities offered and loved all of my teachers! I moved after fourth grade, but Encinal gave me a great foundation for my education later on.