Cherokee Elementary School

We have had our children at Cherokee for 2 years now and have been very happy with our selected move to this school. The principal is new to the school this year and we've had very positive first hand interactions with him this year. He has been very quick to find the facts and fix situations that have occurred. He listens to parents concerns and acts fairly to resolve the situation. So far I am impressed with the new leadership. The class sizes are growing like all public schools in this state, unfortunately. But, overall we have had good, caring teachers who have been able to challenge our kids to reach their potential and continue to enjoy learning. With open enrollment we were able to research a wide variety of potential schools and are very satisfied with our decision after two years now.
--Submitted by a parent

I found the teachers 1 step short of a total disaster. In particular the helpers/assistants. Ours was just down right terrible. Here is an assistant teacher that would send home notes with spelling mistakes! What? And this is a person I want to teach my child? This happened more than once. We also found the teachers inexperienced and uncaring when dealing with any issues beyond the academics.
--Submitted by a parent

My three children have attended Cherokee tha past few years. Two of my children have continued to middle school and are excelling in all of their classes and are at the top of their peers. I feel that the teachers, faculty, and staff of Cherokee have prepared my children academically and emotionally for this experience. The leadership has been more than welcoming and accommodating for a typically difficulty population, and I have been incredibly impressed with Cherokee's principal. However, this year the principal has changed and I have not been happy with his inconsistency and lack of leadership. He leaves Cherokee early and does not care about his faculty or parents. I fear the future for my youngest child who has a few more years left at Cherokee.
--Submitted by a parent

Cherokee is a good public school! Leadership is however lacking but this will be resolved from the 2010-2011 school year. Class sizes are on the large size. There are some very good teachers, others are just OK. Parents are very involved in this school and fund many extras i.e. classroom aides, supplies for classrooms, technology for the classrooms etc. There are also a lot of fun family events planned by the PTA during the school year.
--Submitted by a parent

I've moved one of my children from Cherokee and will consider moving the other two. Leadership is seriously lacking, student to teacher ratio is very high, no Spanish and no desire to have it, PE only one day a week if your child does band. Teachers are ok but languish without direction. There is a lot of parental involvement but they have lost many many families over the past couple of years.
--Submitted by a parent

This school has great parent involvement,agreat energy and a great principal,not to mention great techers and curriculim. Coming from MI we had high expectations to be met and cherokee is at the top of the list-great computer lab,love this school
--Submitted by Mindy, a parent

I believe the school has some great individual teachers. Coming from out-of-state, we were a bit surprised with the academic level. If this is the 'best of the best' that Arizona has to offer (as test scores have shown), we need to look into private schools.
--Submitted by an administrator

Great quality of academic programs always offering variety of extracurricular activities parent involvement is extremely high
--Submitted by a parent

Level of Parent-involvement-high P.E.-1 day/week hit and miss on teachers
--Submitted by a parent

A top-rated school with consistently high test scores. Some very good teachers here, although class sizes are high as they are throughout the district. Extrcurricular activities are present, but primarily outsourced to private companies.Parent group is ambitious and fairly homogenous in their outlook. School has recently taken a more proactive stance towards bullying.
--Submitted by a parent