Goethe International Charter School354

My son has been going here two years now and we really like the school. The teachers are extremely caring and work really hard to teach the children and make their experiences enjoyable. As a parent you are required to volunteer at least 3 hours per month in some capacity at the school (that is written in the charter). So needless to say there is a lot of parent involvement. Positives: caring teachers, involved parents, a community that really strives to make this school great. Possibly preceived negatives : pressure to donate money and time (city funding on provides 70% of the school budget), a newer school so some programs are still limited - art, PE, etc.. The German immersion is fabulous though, and my son can understand so much already. Overall for a public school, you'll have a hard time finding a better school.

As to the super negative review, it seems that the leadership of the school didn't handle that needle incident well (we weren't at the school yet), but that was the schools first year and they were completely green. The leadership has since changed and i couldn't see anything like that happening again.

The leadership at this school handles issues in a hush hush, far from ethical manner (see the negative LA Times article regarding the mishandling of a needle incident). I do not believe they care about the education in a way a charter school ought to (nor the way they claim to). All the focus is on constant fund raising and abstract 'goals' rather than actual fundamentals of learning/teaching. There is not alot of diversity nor is their understanding for the schedules of working parents. A negative article appeared last spring about a controversy regarding the mishandling of an incident by the school in the LA Times. Also, my child was sent home religious based materials around the holiday time that were a far cry from separating church and state. I highly advise against enrolling in the school without doing further research into whether these issues have been sorted out/improved upon. A final note: the after care guys are not teachers and one of them was giving my child such a hard 'sell' that I found him in tears later. I never saw them doing much other than sitting around while the kids ran amuck in the yard.

The leadership at this school handles issues in a hush hush, far from ethical manner (see the LA Times article about the mishandling of a needle incident). I do not believe they care about the education in a way a charter school ought to (nor the way they claim to). All the focus is on constant fund raising and abstract 'goals' rather than actual fundamentals of learning/teaching. There is not alot of diversity nor is their understanding for the schedules of working parents. Also, my child was sent home religious based materials around the holiday time that were a far cry from separating church and state. I highly advise against enrolling in the school without doing further research into whether these issues have been sorted out/improved upon. Also, the after care guys are not teachers and one of them hassled & pressured my kid after school and made him cry because he felt bad he wasn't in after care/camp. Every time I saw them they were sitting around while the kids ran amuck so ummm no thanks.

Our school needs a review... Well, it's pretty darn good -- for a first year school with many challenges. Our principal, teachers, and staff are tremendous. The parents are super-involved. The current facilities have been a challenge, but we have quickly tackled most of those problems. The only big challenge left are those darn port-o-potties. But the kids have gotten used to them, and we have someone helping the younger ones now. (We're not allowed to build permanent bathrooms on the shared LAUSD site.) The after care options are okay, but not great. Again, we are limited by facility -- but the aftercare staff are fabulous. (Several MALE teachers!)

Over all, this school is already good, and I believe it has all the ingredients to quickly become one of the best public schools in L.A.... even with the handicap of the school's name. "How do you pronounce it?"