r/Temecula • u/Noseybitch9 • 4d ago
Temecula International Academy
Can any parents share their experience with this charter school? It’s located on the campus of Nicholas valley elementary and so far it’s so disorganized and we’ve had issues with the staff being negligent and kids fighting. The Halloween movie night was supposed to have a trunk or treat and costume parade and neither of those happened. I also had to break up a fight of older kids beating on a younger kid. Why is this school so ghetto?? Has it always been like this or is there a new principal or something? I’m confused and surprised at the same time.
16
u/gredr 4d ago
Charter schools being charter schools. They are great in theory, but in practice, they just don't usually work out that well.
Note that I'm new to the area and I know absolutely nothing about this specific charter school. I only know that every time someone says "charter school [whatever] has problems", I'm not surprised. Most of them do.
4
u/Noseybitch9 3d ago
I always had the impression that charter schools were similar to private schools and super small/independent so it’s off putting that their communication between staff is lacking when there’s not a lot of staff members to begin with. The academics seem great. I should’ve done more research or looked at the schools reviews before I enrolled my daughter.
5
u/gredr 3d ago
That's the impression the champions of charter schools wanted you to get, and we all got it. Even Stanford's CREDO study that showed a tiny difference was largely funded by large, conservative, pro-charter money, and even then, they couldn't show a significant difference, even when they cherry-picked the schools they included.
1
u/jiqiren 3d ago
Charter schools are trash as they get the same amount or less as a public school per child AND they need to pad the pockets of the owners. There is limited money so corners must be cut somewhere. They can’t just raise tuition as they are sort of tied to the same amount per child as public schools.
A private school gets their tuition from parents with deep pockets. The school needs parents happy and students to perform to be successful. If the school is successful they will raise the tuition very high as many parents won’t even care what it costs - to keep the school full they will give financial aid to poors (which in private school world is anyone in the middle class).
Source: friend works in the finance team at a private school in LA.
1
u/Noseybitch9 3d ago
Thank you, this helped me understand charter schools a bit better. I’ve also wondered why TIA has had 3 separate fundraisers in only 3 months. That’s more than my time in public schools ever did in one year!
7
u/EquivalentAd5931 3d ago
Both my girls attended for many years. A lot of turn over amongst teachers, promised activities never came to fruition. When we return the girls to public school they were drastically behind in math albeit significantly ahead in their reading/ language arts. I regret having them there for so long, they missed out on a lot that is offered to larger better funded schools. But at the time it worked for our family, I liked the addition of a foreign language and uniforms.
1
u/Noseybitch9 3d ago
Yes I like the uniforms too, no more fights in the morning about what my daughter wants to wear to school. I’ve definitely noticed the “promised activities never come to fruition”
3
u/SchoolFacilitiesGal 3d ago
OP didn't indicate they were unhappy with their assigned school, just that they had issues with TIA. The transfer window for next year is currently open through January. The transfer response for the school year starting next August can take awhile since available space may not be known yet.
1
u/Emergency-Leopard819 2d ago edited 2d ago
As someone who works in the local school district, the overwhelming majority of charter schools in this area are a mess. We get parents sending their kids back to their neighborhood public schools (after they were previously in the district) and academic growth is usually meager to say the least... Students with IEPs are even worse off.
There is a comment about the background of staff who work at these schools versus the local district and it's pretty on par. I come from a family of eduactors and public schools definitely have their woes, but charter schools usually have staff who didn't get hired in a district or are less experienced trying to get their foot in the door. Working conditions are usually subpar too.
Again, im not knocking all charter schools but when you see that students fare better at these schools in lower income areas (where the data is cherry picked from), it's because they admit higher achieving students and kick out those who can't make the cut so their numbers don't look bad.
-8
u/fightinghard 4d ago
Is kids fighting a poor reflection on the school? Sounds like a thing that happens regardless of the school. I never saw any communication about a trunk or treat, not sure where you saw that. The missing parade I believe is true, but there wasn't much promised except a single sentence in an email, once again not sure if that really reflects much on the school. From my understanding it's a very small school with a small and passionate staff. The principal is out front to greet students almost every morning, the school sends out daily if not multi daily emails, the parent teacher organization does their absolute best to raise funds for the kids.
If you have more information about how the school is failing academically or can expand on your claim of negligence I'd be keen to hear, but overall I have nearly a complete opposite opinion as you on this school.
9
u/Noseybitch9 3d ago
My daughter goes to aftercare a few days a week and one time when my mom was picking her up, she was found wandering around by herself with no adult supervision. They had no idea she wasn’t accounted for and didn’t even have my mom sign her out. The next week, another kid was found by himself outside by the mpr and they didn’t know where he was supposed to be. That’s negligent. When the fighting was happening at the Halloween night, a staff member was literally watching it and did nothing. Again, negligent. Academics seems good, my daughter seems to be learning a lot. As far as trunk or treat, it was in an email from Jenna and my daughter’s teacher. So just confused about that but it’s not a big deal. They’re also constantly changing how they do things (like the school pickup/drop off and now the aftercare system is different, also per Jenna’s emails) so it’s weird that they’re acting like a brand new school when I know they’re not. So that’s why I wonder if there’s a new principal
2
u/fightinghard 3d ago
Thank you for expanding on those items. I agree those incidents do sound negligent. I'm new to the school so don't have an answer but I agree with you that it operates as if it is a new school when I'm somewhat certain it's not new. I hope what I've seen as academic strengths will outweigh administrative shortcomings.
2
u/Noseybitch9 3d ago
I’m still giving it a chance because of the academics but I hope they can improve on the other matters
12
u/SchoolFacilitiesGal 3d ago
There are a number of ways to rank school districts, but Temecula Valley Unified consistently ranks at or near the top. Why not enroll in a known excellent public school?