Papago School

My kids go to papago and I think it's a wonderful school. The principal and teachers are very caring. Everybody complains it's a bad neighborhood where the school is located. That is untrue. The kids are very safe being in the new school. I moved my family from gilbert,az to phoenix,az 3 years ago. I have been very happy with papago. Go Pantthersss!!!!!!!
--Submitted by a parent

If you are in the district and looking for a preschool, this is the place. Mrs. Headley and her staff provide a TOP NOTCH learning environment for educating the preschool and prekindergarten child. My son qualified for developmental preschool because of an expressive speech delay and I was skeptical going into the neighborhood and school. Much to my surprise and delight, he has learned more at this preschool in 3 months than he learned at a close by EXPENsIVE private preschool. Teachers are well educated in dealing with all the developmental areas of the child and Mrs Headley is such a blessing on reiterating that information. I wish all preschool programs followed this guideline and was able to reinforce these educational and developmental skills. I do not know too much about the K-8 program but I can tell you that I am not impressed with the PE program and its coaches. The children have been playing a modification of "flag football" for the past 3 months. Are there no other sports to learn? One staff member blamed it on lack of an indoor gym. BLAH! St Thomas the APostle does not have a gym and neither does Veritas Prep and they have made do. That needs work!
--Submitted by a parent

My children grew up in this difficult area and have attended this great school, remembering their teachers and the best faculty members, who are kind and caring! I have had the pleasure of having parent/teacher conferences where the teachers took their turn visiting the students' homes. We have a student counselor who has been with the school for many years and stayed on to volunteer and continue helping the students. But, our school is an open campus rearing to get ready for a huge remodeling. Outdated and with various add-ons, it is finally being updated to a closed campus school for security reasons. I like most parents am very excited and proud of the exemplary service the directors,teacher, and faculty members have given to our community. I hope we continue to receive your votes as we trust and encourage our school to continue educating our children to the best of their abilities!
--Submitted by a parent

There is a new principal at Papago and he is great. He seems to honestly care about the students. He is trying to change the school into a better learning community. Because of this, there is more structure. Literacy is important at any school but because of the high number of non English speakers, it is very important to concentrate on helping them pass AIMS so that the school will be a higher performing school. Good job, teachers!
--Submitted by a parent

There is a very strong push for literacy in this school and very little else. The school is primarily Hispanic with a large ELL population. Kindergarten program is outstanding with teacher who are very talented and caring. For older students there is limited exposure to physical education, music, art and other extra curriculuar activites. The principal is very good and enthusiastic about ensuring childrens success, especially in literacy.
--Submitted by a teacher

Need to focus on more than just literacy and create a more well rounded program. The focus is on spanish speaking children and literacy.
--Submitted by a parent

Papago school is heading in the right direction, but there is not enough parent involvement. Theres also not much extracurricular activities for the younger kids, just upper class.
--Submitted by a parent

This school has changed over the years as the neighborhood has changed. I think too much time is spent on spanish speaking students.
--Submitted by a parent