Esencia Middle

Posted: May 3, 2024

I have two students at this school and I volunteer with various aspects of the school to do what I can. The teachers are all wonderful, hard working, and engaged, however, the main problem with this school is that it is too small for the massive development of Rancho Mission Viejo. This was poor planning on behalf of the Capistrano Unified School district and RMV.

Students from Sendero, Escencia, and the newer village of Rienda all are funneled into this school, which is too small even for the Escencia development. The school itself has no baseball or soccer field (there is one adjacent but it is outside of the school's boundary and is not used by students), and the school being impacted is having all of it's green space usurped by portables. There is a YMCA/court on the corner of the school, but students do not use the facility for recess and are confined to the upper basketball courts and the lower grass field (when staffing permits). This school has virtually no shade except a small shade over the common outside eating area so it gets extremely hot in the early summer and especially in the fall with the Santa Ana winds. This also means that when it rains the students have to stay inside their classrooms and watch TV during recess.

Next year another 7 portables are being planned, taking away the lower basketball area, and class sizes are increasing again by 2 students. This school does not have a gymnasium, performance center, or common "assembly room" like most schools. Instead if has a small "multi-purpose center", which serves as a library one minute and a music practice room the next. A new school was planned for some years in the future, but it was delayed indefinitely by Capistrano Unified School district, which does not want to spend the money.

I would love to rate this school higher because I'm invested in the community but it simply does not have the resources it needs. Drop off is also crazy by CUSD does not provide a bus service, even to Sendero or Rienda which are a couple of miles away.

To end on a positive note, there is a lot of parental engagement and the parents value education. I grew up in a school where most parents were absent so this is refreshing to see!

Posted: May 3, 2024

Posted: May 3, 2024

Posted: May 3, 2024

Posted: May 3, 2024

Posted: May 3, 2024

Posted: May 3, 2024

Posted: November 17, 2021

This school is lacking in many ways. It's a fairly new school, but it was poorly designed and it's already over crowded. They don't have common things found at other schools like a proper stage for performances. Although, this school also lacks the amount of art/music found in others school so performances are rare. They don't have an area for kids to practice their music so kids often have to sit outside on the ground to play their instruments. They have a small area that's supposed to serve as a library but they lease part of it to the YMCA and kids often have no access to the "library". Other times, they re-purpose it for other things like music class, performances, etc., again this is because of the poor design and lack of space at the school. The principal is usually pretty useless whenever there are any issues. If  you address your concerns he typically just gives you a vague answer and sends you on your way without actually taking care of the issues. He just hopes that you'll just move on and forget. The classrooms are very unbalanced with some classes having 22 students to others having double the amount or more. They also lack the amount of teachers needed and often times if a teacher calls in sick, they poor kids have to go without a teacher at all as they don't have a substitute in place. This has happen several times to my kids over the years.

Posted: November 17, 2021

Posted: November 17, 2021

Posted: November 17, 2021

Posted: November 17, 2021

Posted: November 17, 2021

Posted: November 17, 2021

Posted: November 17, 2021