San Juan Elementary School

Posted: June 6, 2025

this school food is nasty the lunch taste like rotten chicken 100% do not recommend sending your kids to this school at all these teachers yell too much and the classrooms terrible after lunch the guidance counselor doesn’t know when to be quiet DO NOT SEND YOUR KIDS HERE PLEASE!

Posted: June 6, 2025

Posted: June 6, 2025

Posted: June 6, 2025

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Posted: June 6, 2025

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Posted: January 16, 2025

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Posted: January 16, 2025

San Juan Elementary is a Spanish immersion school. The school teaches 80% in Spanish, 20% in English, starting in Kindergarten. The program is rigorous for native and non-native speakers alike. For children who are not native Spanish speakers, this is absolutely the best way to learn a second language. It becomes innate at this age.

The school is predominantly hispanic and low income. This adds significant value to the immersion program. Parents are very engaged with the school, and the faculty is very responsive to teacher concerns. The school has a strict uniform policy which is very beneficial.

While test scores might be lower, it is largely a result of learning math, science, and reading in two languages at once.

Posted: December 3, 2021

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Posted: December 3, 2021

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Posted: December 3, 2021

I love the diversity and that cultural education is provided. The staff seem nice however the woman that works the front desk (Sochie) is very rude, which is surprising because she is the one interacting with the parents via phone and in person. She never smiles (I know this because she never seems to be wearing her mask), she doesn’t greet people as they enter and seems to be in a permanent bad mood. This is unfortunate since it reflects poorly on this great school. It’s apparent she never been addressed about this issue because she’s worked at that school for years and continues to have the same bad attitude.

Posted: May 1, 2018

Posted: May 1, 2018

Posted: May 1, 2018

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Posted: May 1, 2018

I have 4 children at this school. One of which has some special needs. I have had a very hard time getting her the help she needed. As my first child in school, and with a health condition I never in a million years thought she would get, I tried to figure out how to help her as best I could. I feel like teachers and staff should have given me more information and tools to do that when I expressed concern over and over. Instead I was treated like I never did enough volunteering, my kids are not getting the help they need at home with homework and my daughter is not doing well in school because of me. What happened to teachers and parents working together for the best interest of the child? Do they not realize I am single parent trying to take care of 4 kids, work and take my daughter to a million appointments to try and get her better? They dont seem to care. Front office manager and principal are the most condescending, rude people. I dont understand how they have gotten away with it for so long. My daughter is done at this school in one month, I am strongly considering moving all my boys to Las Palmas next year so I dont have to deal with this anymore but this is very inconvenient to my job and routine. I really wish the school were supervised more closely by the district. I am one of MANY parents who feel this way, however they bully parents and people are scared to speak up. Very very sad, I love SJC and now we have to leave our town to find courteous, helpful educators.

Posted: February 21, 2018

Posted: February 21, 2018

Posted: February 21, 2018

Great Spanish immersion program. My kindergartener is reading and writing in two languages.

Posted: February 21, 2018

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Posted: February 15, 2017

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Posted: February 15, 2017

I love this school and the staff

Posted: January 20, 2017

I love this school. My daughter is currently in 1st grade. The level of academics is very impressive ALL the teachers have a real vested interest in all of the students. My daughter walked in knowing NO Spanish. She now can read, write, and speak in Spanish. They call the students scholars instead of kids or students. My daughter loves being called this, also it is very "cool" to be smart. The kids want to get better at their academics and improve themselves. I love the uniforms they wear, there is no hassle in the morning.
There are a lot of opportunities to get involved in the community. They have a garden and have "scholars" come to school on the weekend to help out. SJE also has many wonderful traditions like the night of sharing and the jog-a-thon. I am so happy and impressed with what my daughter has learned and will learn.
Her group of friends are all wonderful and come from wonderful families. I feel so very lucky that she got into the school and is growing up not just as a US "scholar" but a "scholar" of the global world.

Posted: January 20, 2017

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Posted: December 10, 2016

My son it's been attending SJE since kinder, now he's in 5th grade and we are proud of him and all he has accomplish in this educational establishment.

Our experience as parents is been pretty good as well as for my son. He is happy to share with everybody of any background at any time.
Every year my son's class has had 50% full Spanish speaker students and 50%English Chinese, Italian, Nigerian, German, Swedish and many many other backgrounds, most of them been already bilingual in Spanish or their respective background.

The facilities meet the standards. Once a mom told me her Dauther told her the bathrooms weren't clean, they were disgusting, poop everywhere, etc. As parents we are not allow in the students bathrooms, so I asked my son about it and he said the bathroom smells, the floors are wet and kids don't flush, but nothing else. My son attended Montessori for preschool and I recall that even though the bathrooms there were properly clean they always smelled like a bathroom...

The students have access to a huge football field which is use for activities, jogathon, PE, etc.
All the teachers that have been directly involved in my son's education have been good.
They've been always ready to comend him or help him to improve. At the parents conference they seem very professional the way they interact with us and with our Son. Miss Pule is the principal and she is always seen around taking personal interest.

My son is happy to go to SJE everyday and he wishes it was until 6th grade not 5th.

Posted: September 7, 2014

SJE. My Son Attended for 5 yrs. 1st thru 4th grade teachers were awesome. 5th graders have 2 teachers over the day. One of which would not stop bulling my son, in spite of many meetings with her. I know of 2 other children who experienced the same. My child is quiet studious and well liked! .She also bullied the, "slow learner". The principal is apathetic. I believe everything "drama Mom" (July 2013) said is true. I regret not pulling my son out. My daughter's experience good until 4th. 4th grade students rotate round 3 teachers. My daughter witnessed one teacher bullying a child who had supposedly stolen some library books.He was humiliated about this almost EVERY DAY. This has to be against district policies! I know of another little girl who was harshly treated by this teacher. Lots of parents pulled out after fourth grade!!! The school bathrooms are also filthy. It's sad, for the really amazing teachers at SJE who are in a negative environment with a disengaged principal.My daughter is now at Las Palmas. Wow, what a difference. You feel the friendliness of the staff and it filters down to the children, who are all friendly so far. Bathrooms are nice and clean, too!

Posted: May 30, 2013

SJE is a wonderful School. I read the "drama queen" review and felt it was completely wrong, thus my follow up post. To explain, SJE is a split community school. Half of the kids are locals and the other half are all around the district. It is a Dual Immersion School, for Spanish Speakers to learn English and English Learners to learn Spanish. The Principle, Silvia Pule is awesome! Each teacher we have had has been exceptional. The program is more challenging because its mainly Spanish for my kids all day long. Math is in Spanish, History, etc - all in Spanish. They have a great music program and active parents who want to be involved. I've found it amazing that each teacher has been such a great fit for each of our children. I wouldn't change it. This school is not for everyone, only those who want a challenging and stimulating education environment. If your child has dissolute issues and doesn't do homework or the parents are too busy to get involved with the school/child, then this is not for them. A Dad with 4 kids who have gone to SJE.

Posted: March 18, 2013

My Daughter goes to this school. She is the only white child out of 34 kids in a fifth grade class. Wh had been to another school in the district and had gone throught a pretty bad bullying incident with 12 girls. I thought that San Juan would be a caring and nice, safe place for my daughter. It turned out to be the worst decision of my life. All of the hispanic children are truly horrible to my daughter, they tease her, yell obsenities in Spanish to her, they shout: " We hate Germans", to her, they refuse to sit with her at lunch, they come up to her and say you have NO friends, then they whisper to her "We are gonna tell on you" and they say this over and over. This has gone on everyday all day for six months. When after six months I did finally complain, the teacher whose name I will not mention told my daughter your Mother is a " Drama Queen". I fear everyday my daughter will be hurt by the 34 kids in her class. I have no support by the teacher, principal or the administration in general. This is the public school system. The principal, teachers and people in the office all gain up on the parents if they complaim. So basically I have no where to turn.

Posted: December 11, 2012

My daughter is in 1st grade at SJES and we love it. The API scores are above the state mandated 800, and growing. My daughter also did two years of preschool on this site as well in a bilingual setting. I think she would be bored in an English only school. She loves her teachers and is one of the top in her class. Her math skills are great! Love it here!

Posted: May 18, 2011

This school is truly amazing. Traditionally, children involved in dual immersion will tend to have lower test scores in the beginning years, but by high school they end up far more advanced (on average) than their peers. My husband was involved in Spanish immersion when he was young, and every single person from his class went on to gain professional degrees (doctor's, dentists, lawyers, etc). Learning a second language is very beneficial, and will give your student an advantage when applying to colleges. With regards to San Juan, my husband initially had to talk me into going with this alternative education route, but I could not be happier. Senora Pule is outstanding. She is always out on the campus speaking with parents and children. The students love her, and she very strongly emphasizes building good character, integrity, community involvement, and every other good characteristic you would hope your child could develop. The teachers are highly qualified and provide challenging curriculum. Parents are very friendly and work hard to help the school in every way they can. I love that my children can still experience culture and diversity on a daily basis.

Posted: May 18, 2011

Teachers at San Juan are wonderful. The bilingual experience is so unique. In Kinder., they speak only Spanish to the students (except for the one hour a day they go to another teacher for English class). Each year, they increase the amount of English spoken and decrease Spanish until they are getting about 50/50 (correct me if I am wrong on this). We worried about sending our son to Kindergarten in general, because he could already read, write, add, subtract, etc. We thought he would be bored and act out as a result of this. Fortunately, we found San Juan, which challenges him on a daily basis because he is learning a new language in addition to being taught the Kindergarten basics. Curriculum is amazing -- within the first 3 months he could read and write in Spanish, understand almost everything the teacher said, and could speak using small phrases. These little children pick up the Spanish so quickly! And their accents sound authentic, because they are learning at such a young age. I love running into people who speak Spanish and watching my young son speak with them. They look so surprised every time. San Juan is a great school. You won't be disappointed.

Posted: November 5, 2010

To the reviewer from August 4, 2010: First of all, why bother rating a school if your kids don't go there?? You sound like a pretty vicious person. Second, I don't know where you get your information but SJE increased 66 POINTS in its API score this past year alone. Not only is that increase huge but it's the HIGHEST in all of Orange County. If you look at the school's scores over the last 5 years, it has been increasing year after year. So the school is making great strides and very close to achieving the state mandate of 800 points. Focus on your own kids' school and leave us alone.

Posted: August 3, 2010

San Juan Elementary received an API Score of a 2 on the State Standadized Test. It surprises me to read parents saying they are happy that their children attend San Juan! So the children are getting below average education but hey, they love the school spirit, parent involvement (sounds like parents socializing) and the teachers. Hurray!! This is why my child is not attending San Juan.

Posted: May 20, 2009