St Leo The Great School

One of Silicon Valley's best kept secrets for the last 97 years! Seriously I was very happy to find this tightly knit community of parents sending their kids here. The school is 7 blocks from the Caltrain station so I can drop my kids off, watch their morning assembly and catch the train to work. Stanford educated Kindergarten teach Mrs McInnis is top notch. Watching the kids trace their letters on Galaxy tablets and seeing the kids work on their public presentation skills is inspiring. School lunch is actually made on site in their own kitchen which has made life easy. All the grades are posted weekly online in Blackboard so it's easy to track how your kids are doing. Parents are encouraged to volunteer and the community is very supportive of one another. Principal hires great staff and communicates to parents 2x a week via her newsletters.

St Leo the Great is located near downtown San Jose in the Rose Garden area neighborhood. It has one of Silicon Valley's best tech programs. Kindergarteners use android tablets to trace letters. 3rd grade thru 8th grade each have their own Google Chromebooks where each student has their own student email address and can email fellow teachers and students. All their coursework, schedule, homework, etc. Is done using their Chromebook. When your kid comes home they can use any browser to log back into their school and access all the homework they were working on. Google docs is standard and allows the kids to collaborate in realtime.

The sporting program for 5th-8th grades is good. They have an athletic director that is super organized and professional. They had 25 boys turn out for their 5th & 6th grade football team and they win against much bigger schools. They also offer volleyball, basketball, softball and track.

The academic coursework is rigorous. The kids get a balance of daily homework and large monthly projects. Parents can and should check grades daily online. The teachers use the latest tools - Kahn academy math videos, teachers post their own videos online of the lessons, Prezi presentations, 3D modeling, etc. I'm amazed at what Silicon Valley kids at this school are capable of!