Clifford Elementary School

Posted September 20, 2009

The leadership of this school is very weak, unresponsive to parents and unskilled in communication and relationships. About half the teachers are great but there are many poor performing teachers and nothing is done about it. The administration is not open to change and mediocrity is accepted. My experience here has been nothing but disappointing and sad.
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Posted September 17, 2009

We have awesome teachers and administrative staff who are totally dedicated to our kids. The programs are outstanding and our PTA rocks! The only thing I could possibly say our school needs is more money, but I have no complaints aside from that. Everyone works so hard and I consider it a privilege to take my kids to Clifford. I love to work as a teacher's helper in my children's classes because I get to see how great our school is first hand.
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Posted August 13, 2009

So, the school is not perfect, but I do not think that I would want my child taught in a setting where perfection is expected when they are learning new skills. There is a range in teacher skill level, but that's true in any profession and Clifford's least effective instructors are still pretty good. The support and responsiveness from administration has always been there when we've needed it, in spite of some of the comments posted on the site. The parent volunteer community is great at Clifford - very active and engaged. The few individual parents with the sense of entitlement and anxiety that their children's school does not keep up with the schools in neighboring San Carlos are in the minority - but they sure can make a lot of annoying noise!
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Posted May 7, 2009

I do not understand why so many parents think Clifford is a great school. (I hear this from parents at the school and via websites like this one.) What is this based on? Academically, Clifford falls well below the academics of neighboring San Carlos Schools. While parents happily embrace the ethnic diversity of the school it should also be made clear that, using my child s classroom as an example, more than 50% of the kids come from homes where English is not spoken. This means that these kids require additional help. I m not opposed to additional help for kids who need it but it should not be at the expense of kids who need and want to be challenged academically. As we all know, schools depend on donations from parents to help with extracurricular activities. At Clifford, with such diverse socio-economic backgrounds, the donations per capita do not come close to the per capita donations in neighboring schools. Additionally, there is a significant problem with the school s leadership. The principal lacks any enthusiasm and is absolutely unresponsive to inquiries from parents. When issues arise he shirks all responsibility and deflects things to the teachers who are often powerless to make critical decisions. I for one cannot wait to get my children out of Clifford.
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