Creative Arts Charter School

1601 Turk Street

School District

San Francisco Unified
Grade

K-8
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:16
Type

charter

School Map for San Francisco 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 February 21, 2025

Nightmare school. They have trouble keeping lower-grade teachers and staff in general. Disorganized and chaotic learning environment. I very much regret having anything to do with this place. Look elsewhere.
Submitted by parent on January 23, 2025

This is our 8th year at the school, and we have three kids enrolled. We have always been pleased with the level of education they have received, even when they were learning remotely through the pandemic. The staff are friendly and caring, and my kids feel supported by their current teachers, as well as their previous teachers. Being a small school, they still see their old teachers and feel connected to them. My children are thriving academically and have always felt well prepared for state testing, but there is not a big emphasis on homework (recognizing that kids need downtime after school for rest and play), which is huge plus for us. As well as strong academics, I appreciate that my children are being taught about social justice and equity, and the values that are being instilled in them go beyond just academic success. As parents we have always felt included and involved in what is happening at the school, and have loved the welcoming and inclusive school community. We have had good communication with teachers and other staff, and never feel like we are left in the dark when it comes to our own children.
Submitted by parent on January 23, 2025

CACS has been an amazing school for our family and our (very different from one another) children. Having been at the school for over 10 years, we have seen incredible growth and improvement of programs, enriched academics and arts, and the dedication to the student as a whole person (social emotional, creativity, learning differences). Our oldest child was prepared for a very rigorous academic high school after completing 9 years at CACS, and especially to the care and commitment of the middle school teachers. We are grateful to be a part of this community.
Submitted by parent on January 22, 2025

We have been parents at Creative Arts Charter School for 5 years and cannot recommend it more highly. We have found the educational approach to be both effective in teaching concrete methods and skills and that it inspires a love of learning. The elementary school uses a project-based, emergent curriculum (emergent curriculum is creating learning experiences based on the children's interests and needs) and integrates arts into learning where possible. For instant, in first grade, my child learned about ocean habitats. They made puppets of animals in the ocean, wrote plays for the puppets and then performed the plays. It was truly amazing. We have had multiple teachers at CACS who are incredible. We have one very sensitive child and the teacher's socio-emotional support and strategies effectively helped them navigate their conflicts with other children and their own emotions. The administrative also is creative and works hard to solve problems. For instance, we have a permanent floating substitute teacher on staff currently. There is a shortage of substitutes in SFUSD, so this addition is very helpful. The cherry on top is that every week the children have music, dance and visual arts. We love the CACS community and are so lucky to have found this school!
Submitted by parent on September 10, 2024

This is our 6th year at Creative Arts. We have been at the school since Kinder, when we got into the school through the lottery. We even experienced Zoom school for the year (our kiddo was in first grade!!) during the Covid lockdown in SF. Our experience has been that there is an amazing community of loving caretakers, a very hard-working and dedicated admin team, and a group of cool, smart, engaged and inspiring teachers. They try to keep two-year loops for the classes, but it hasn't always been possible given that teachers are struggling in this expensive city. The school is dedicated to cultivating responsible, caring and capable humans who make good community members. It's an arts-integrated school, so they do lots of cool projects. One project in second grade was learning about the local food system. The class took a field trip to a local Farmer's Market, each group of 4 kids had a different farm stand. Then they returned to the classroom distilling their experience with writing, and making artwork, games, brochures. logos, and exhibited this info with the school community. During the exhibit they raised some $ with a raffle during the event. Then they went back to the same Farmer's Market, donated the money to the Market, and then showed their work to the farmers they interviewed, sharing the brochures and logos (which are cute 2nd grade drawings) to the farmers. There are thoughtful and fun projects like that in all the grades, and there are school-wide Exhibition of Learning evenings twice a year where the classrooms become "exhibits" of what they have learned, and all students and families can see what each grade has worked on for the semester. It's messy and beautiful, and very Creative. This school is an amazing gem. Apply ASAP!!!
Submitted by parent on October 25, 2021

I had a friend with older kids who left the school and warned me about continuing through middle school. I’m so glad I didn’t listen. Each year of middle school has been, even in the midst of the pandemic, the most rewarding of years at Creative Arts since kindergarten/grade 1. Every one of the middle school teachers has exceeded expectations and really gotten to know my kid and recognized her strengths, encouraged her to grow, and made her feel a sense of belonging and worth. The administration apparently has a bad rap on here, but I find them to be responsive, respectful, resourceful, fair-minded, and incredibly devoted and hardworking. Creative Arts is dedicated to pursuing anti-racism and equity for BIPOC and IEP students and encouraging the community to do the work it takes to be anti-racist. That pursuit has been incredibly rewarding for me as a white parent of a white child. Very involved parent community provides volunteer opportunities for all families to plug in wherever they can, at whatever level is right for them with a focus on community building. I love Creative Arts and we’ve been here K-8. I’m very sad to leave such a fantastic community for high school. If we can find a high school we like as much as we love Creative Arts, we’ll be incredibly fortunate.
Submitted by parent on October 25, 2021

My daughter attended Creative Arts from Kinder to 8th grade, and she is now in her sophomore year of college. All of the creativity, deep thinking, and social justice learning she did at CACS has supported her development as an active, caring member of her communities. I know that CACS helped build and nurture the open-minded, accepting, and thoughtful person she is. During the time that I was a parent as CACS I saw the school go through many challenges and the admin and teachers do all that they can to support and care for the student and their community.
Submitted by parent on October 25, 2021

I sent both my boys to Creative Arts and am thankful for the education they received. They both emerged as thoughtful, confident, and independent thinkers. The project-based learning kept them very engaged. As high-school students, I see their ability to think abstractly and holistically about a situation, problem, or challenge — which they gained from their time at Creative Arts Charter School. The community that we experienced as a family is very involved and welcoming. And we appreciate the school's approach to inclusion and diversity. My only critique is I see some inconsistency with how teachers are held accountable to uphold the standard of education compared to some others.I would most certainly recommend considering CACS, especially if you feel your child would benefit from a project-based learning environment.
Submitted by parent on June 18, 2021

The administration is scattered, inconsistent, and ineffective. The school director is an outright bully to students and staff, thereby contributing to the high turnover rate of teachers. The middle school environment and leadership is especially toxic. Rampant bullying and undesired behaviors run abound, with poor and inconsistent discipline to address these concerns. Poor support for teachers combined with a toxic administration have resulted in high turnover rates in the last five years. The environment, design, and vision of the school is beautiful, but is very unaccommodating for students with learning differences.
Submitted by parent on June 26, 2019

The administration is incompetent, disorganized, and failing to support their teaching staff or the students. If by some miracle you get a string of teachers who haven’t quit yet, you will be fine. But for the most part parents have to supplement their child’s education through hiring tutors, and keeping an eye on the teacher to make sure they are getting the correct support.
Submitted by parent on April 18, 2018

Fantastic. My son is in 3rd grade and the experience has been amazing! School is supportive to all needs and the academics are great with all of the graduating kids going on to their High Schools of choice.
Submitted by parent on April 12, 2018

In our experience our child's class was out of control. Very little learning taking place even though the class was taught by a veteran teacher. Perhaps it was the cohort but students seems to have too much free reign in the classroom. Students were literally rolling on the floor not doing what their supposed to be and no interventions were taken to redirect the behavior. In the year we attended we also saw a high turnover rate among staff. It seemed that someone was leaving/resigning every month. In theory, this school sounds good but in reality it seems to be struggling to find it's way.
Submitted by parent on June 05, 2017

Our daughter's experience has been excellent. She's engaged academically and encouraged artistically. We have found the school community to be warm and welcoming.
Submitted by parent on June 01, 2017

Great experience here. I have 2 kids who have attended and the community is amazing. Caring & invested staff, very involved parent community, and the students are really encouraged to be their best selves, take risks, and learn outside the box. Great arts integration in a wide variety of mediums. Highly recommend CACS!
Submitted by parent on May 29, 2017

The idea of an arts-integrated public charter school is SO great. The school could be a model for other schools. Instead, they think if someone isn't learning or if teachers are unhappy, that is must be there fault and they should leave. Huh. Too bad for everyone. Especially too bad for arts integrated learning. The school has a reputation for being an all white snob club. I wonder how the kids are doing in high school and beyond...
Submitted by parent on May 09, 2017

The principal Fernando harasses my son and other children for minor things. DO NOT SEND YOUR KIDS HERE!!! I made this mistake and my middle schooler is on a 4th grade math level.
Submitted by other on April 25, 2017

Our niece goes to school here, and I am appalled. Low expectations, not much teacher experience, and way too much pressure for fundraising constantly.
Submitted by parent on April 19, 2017

My son is in 5th grade and transferred here in 2nd. He is artistic, so the arts programs are great for him. He had awesome teachers for 2nd, 3rd, and 5th grades. He struggles with some behavioral issues, but discipline has been fair and administration and teachers have been willing to work with us. He enjoys going to school and has made many good friends.Parental involvement is pretty good, although it generally seems to be the same few parents who do most of the work (each family is supposed to volunteer 40 hours per school year). Fundraising has gone up significantly in the past few years, which always helps, but they are sensitive to varying economic situations, so it's never too pushy.I don't know how the middle school experience will be - will find out next year.
Submitted by student on April 07, 2017

it is bad and people are mean here
Submitted by parent on December 29, 2016

Students in the middle school are not engaged or challenged. My child feels she is being treated unfairly based on her mixed race background. My concerns were dismissed by the leadership, and there seems to be nowhere else to turn. The vision of the school is so attractive; if only they could live up to the design of their charter. Parents raise lots and lots of money, but the campus is terribly overcrowded because they packed in the kids to get more per pupil funding.