Lake Elementary School

4950 Lake Boulevard

Oceanside, CA 92056

School District

Vista Unified
Grade

K-5
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:21
Type

public

School Map for Vista Unified 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 January 15, 2025

Our family loves Lake! We have two kids that attend here. All of our teachers have been so kind, compassionate and engaged with the kids. They really love their job and are great at it! The school has a ton of awesome clubs and after school activities for the whole family. The music teacher is absolutely amazing! The overall vibe and culture is very friendly and warm. We’ve made so many great friends with both kids and staff. It’s a wonderful school!
Submitted by parent on January 15, 2025

My kids and myself love this school. Amazing teachers & staff. A very friendly environment among children and parents!
Submitted by parent on July 20, 2023

Community friendly environment that is welcoming of all. Large emphasis on mental health and hands on learning experiences for the children. PTA offers a wide range of opportunities for families to engage in, including many fun events, volunteer opportunities, and after-school clubs. Overall great school!
Submitted by parent on September 16, 2022

My children have attended lake elementary for 2 school years. I do Believe that safety could be worked on in regards to releasing the kids at the end of the day. They let them just leave and go to the park without their parents and no teacher supervising. The pick up process is terrible. You have to get to the park to get a parking spot at least an hour before release. There is t any parking at the school for pick up.
Submitted by parent on May 24, 2022

My kid's first year, but he loves it there. From day one his teacher went above and beyond to provide engaging and fun learning environment. He grew a lot in his academics as well.
Submitted by parent on April 29, 2022

My kids were bullied so badly at Lake. The teachers had cliques amongst themselves and were a HUGE part of the issue, when I spoke to the principal Tara, she told me this seems like a teachers issue and that I should sort it out with them. My older daughter was given a letter from another student threatening her and calling her names and Tara did minimal to make my daughter feel safe in the school. I pulled them out 2 months after starting at Lake and moved areas to get away from the assigned school.
Submitted by parent on April 15, 2022

It is a good school so far.
Submitted by parent on February 24, 2022

My child is in her third year at this school al Lake. All of her teachers have been wonderful and attentive. Her current teacher is no exception - she stays up all hours answering emails and promptly addressing messages, comments, concerns. She's been teaching her grade level something like 20+ years and it shows. My daughter comes home gushing about she has the best teacher. I have found the office staff to be attentive and pleasant, and PTA seems to put a lot of effort into getting parents and students together. At this early age, I believe the teachers are shaping the way our children think and see the world, and I have all the confidence Lake is the right place for my child.
Submitted by parent on September 13, 2021

We love Lake elementary and are really happy our son is attending the school. We were unsure what to expect about the school given a few bad reviews we had seen. We had recently bought a home in the area and enrolled our son here. Based on our son’s age he was supposed to go into 1st grade, but in his old district he had just completed TK. We set up a meeting with the school to have our son placed in Kinder instead. We were very pleased with the whole process and after a meeting with the new principal she approved our son’s enrollment into kindergarten instead. Our son absolutely loves his kindergarten class and his teacher. She is sweetest woman, has abundant energy and has been teaching at Lake over 20 years. The teachers, administration and pta have been very communicative and do an excellent job keeping the parents up to date on what’s going on with the school. This year Lake received a new principal and assistant principal and we couldn’t be happier. They are hands on and eager to make Lake the best school for our kids and is clear that they really care. They have been proactive at making improvements in many aspects, including efficient drop offs, increasing extra curricular activities, focusing on best practices for testing and curriculum, educating students on emotional intelligence as well as academics, and most of all keeping the campus a safe place for the students amidst the pandemic so the school can remain safely open. We are very pleased with Lake Elementary school and it has exceeded our expectations (even in comparison to our previous district which was Poway unified last year). We would definitely recommend!
Submitted by parent on August 28, 2018

Terrible. So glad we moved, I would never raise my children in the Vista School District again. My child's new school is so kind and welcoming.
Submitted by other on May 30, 2015

My daughter is a kindergartener as Lake and we have been happy for the most part. Pros: My daughter has been advancing on an academic level. The school seems to really challenge their students, which we like. We love how well-rounded and perfectly diverse the school is - there is an equal amount of demographics. We have also been very impressed with the parent and community support. Parents are very involved with this school and work hard to keep it at an accelerated level. Most of the teachers are wonderful.Cons: school is very overcrowded. They need to find it in the district budget to add on to the school to better accommodate all the students. Also, because of the overcrowding, they don't have room for a T-K program, so T-K students have to go to Breeze Hill Elementary, which is very inconvenient for parents who have older children going to Lake. Also, I wish they had more programs - there is no music or P.E. program. Hopefully with this Blueprint for Educational Excellence, these programs will be eventually implemented back into the elementary schools.
Submitted by parent on January 13, 2015

This school is severely overcrowded. Shadowridge is so densely populated and this is the only elementary school in the area. Pick up and drop off takes FOREVER- at least 30 minutes if not longer. The school sprays herbicides. The school lunches are glorified junk food. The last principal didn't want to do anything to improve the school- she was near retirement. There is a new principal and I'm not sure how she is because we ended up leaving because of all the issues. Same issues all schools have, guess.
Submitted by parent on May 18, 2014

We are fairly new to the area, and one of children has attended Lake this past year. To be honest, it doesn't look so hot from the outside - old facilities, overcrowded, low security, inadequate parking. But the school is actually very good and we had a fabulous teacher. My son's class had 35 kids in it , which is wayyyy too many, and he was in an old modular classroom. Somehow they make it all work. Parking is awful awful but this is due to the larger problem of no school buses and overcrowded schools, so that is not a fault of Lake's per se. Overall, a very good school with the challenges that most CA public schools have.
Submitted by parent on April 09, 2014

We transferred from a small private school, and we were concerned about the size. Our children, both a bit shy, adapted extremely well. The teachers have been superb and the PTA is extremely involved. (A good thing) We love the neighborhood, the community, and the school. We were taken back by the grounds, a bit rough, but the learning and the social skills that my children are absorbing is impressive. It is well represented by many different ethnicities, so our children learn how to deal with all different sub-cultures. It has made our children stronger and more confident by exposing them to different ethnic groups. Every school has challenges, but the staff at Lake have risen to the challenges and have impressed my us.
Submitted by parent on February 20, 2014

Great school! But I believe its understaffed.This school needs more noon duties to see everything that happens with the children during their breaks.Besides that my kid loves this school and so do I.
Submitted by parent on May 19, 2012

Excellent teachers with diverse teaching styles, offer students the opportunity to learn how to adapt to their environment (just like we do as adults with different bosses). We are current parents of students who have attended Lake, Kinder to 5th grade. We ve had a range of teachers from the strict to the easy going, funny loving ones. All teachers have responded to emails & phone calls when we had concerns, and addressed them to our satisfaction. Staff have been consistent with discipline and safety and open to parent envolvement, working well with the PTA. Families are involved at Lake volunteering, freeing teachers from tedious tasks, to focus on students. PTA offered/supplemented educational assemblies, classroom & playground supplies, and family activities like the annual Father/Daughter & Mother/Son events. Our kids have for the most part, scored as Advanced on the CST without any outside tutoring. Lake has offered: leveled reading groups; Universal Access, Renaissance - Accelerated Reader, online library catalog; Destiny, online math lessons for review/practice at home; Pearson Success Net, Garden Club, after school Kids College (additional cost) programs.