Jefferson Elementary School

Fantastic school that cares about every child and makes my child feel like she is successful no matter what.
—Submitted by a parent

I can see from the last report that how things work around Jefferson hope thing will change next year, miss lopes gone needed , the librarian gone after 18 years sorry to here that she was great ..... but nobody said anything about Ms.Dauterive she has been there 23 years and leaving going to other school big lose she was great.

I don't believe that the 'no child left behind' scoring truly depicts the success of a school, but I will be taking advantage of the opportunity to transfer my (current) kindergartner and 4th grader. The principal is unavailable, I feel my kids are not supervised well when outside the classroom, one of the teacher's has a negative approach to teaching which I feel impacts self-esteem and there is a consistent gross lack of organization. Also - I was excited for my kids to experience some cultural/race diversity. But the older one has unfortunately had a bad experience which I hope will not affect her views. The school has a strong policy on racial slurs and harrasment - but it seems only if it's aimed at non-white kids. All that said - I recognize that the teachers/staff are incredibly overburdened and can't say I could do any better in their position.
—Submitted by a parent

Jefferson is a great school. All 3 of my kids attended it. They have intelligent teachers, and it is built in an excellent neighborhood.
—Submitted by a parent

Jefferson Elementary School is an excellent school. It is full of great teachers with terrific teaching methods.
—Submitted by a student

Jefferson is located in a safe, and wonderful neighborhood. The teachers are very well-educated which make them great teachers.
—Submitted by a parent

Jefferson is a great little neighborhood school. The campus is clean and inviting. The staff is wonderful and take the child's best interest to heart. My favorite place to be on a beautiful day is at Jefferson!
—Submitted by a teacher

Although the school year has just begun, I really love my daughter's kindergarten teacher and she thinks she as well as the afternoon teacher do a good job. I was very impressed with the teachers as well as the classroom and overall school.
—Submitted by a parent

I had major issues with teacher and principal. Poor communication. Not willing to help, and puts low self-esteem in children. When my child left she did so much better and she was now happy to go to school. Even got top award in her class. I would never tell any parent to take there child there. By far the worst experiance ever. This has made me scared to put her in public schools.
—Submitted by a parent

My son is in 5th grade and still has not been taught cursive writing? Was told he won't need it by Vice Principal. Also we have a contract that was done in November and the school has not done any of what is on the contract to date. I am still trying to get them to hold there part. My son and I are doing are part.
—Submitted by a parent

In my experience with Jefferson they take action only when it will directly affect their own budget or you threaten to go above their heads. Although my kids like their teachers, communication is horrible.
—Submitted by a parent

I am not very happy with this school. Some of the teachers use reward systems to get the children to fall in line. Not good.
—Submitted by a parent

Great teacher and parent involvement. Need more computers in classrooms.
—Submitted by a parent

I believe that Jefferson needs to improve on their classes and their level of sympathy and encouragement towards students with disabilities.
—Submitted by Shauntae Haskins-Thomas, a parent

The school was OK for the most part the one problem I had that I complained in writing about was the lack of communication when my children first begun school there. I had no idea about uniforms, or about pick up locations, lunch info. etc.
—Submitted by a parent

I would not recommend this school if your child is african american. The kids never seem to have enough work and the teachers are forgetful.None of the fifth grades classes were working ont he same subject, which means some of the kids may have left the school knowing more or less then other.
—Submitted by a parent

I currently have three children attending Jefferson Elementary in Natomas. Prior to this school year they had been attending year round school. Jefferson follows the traditional school year schedule. As of now my boys really enjoy the school,; however, there have been a few actions on the behalf of yard-duty or recess monitors that I do not agree with. Getting to the bottom of these issues have not been the most pleasant of experiances. But under the circumstances, they are trying to monitor how many children? When speaking to adults I honestly feel they forget how to communicate on a level other than what they are use to with the children.
—Submitted by a parent

As parents and volunteers since school yr 1998-99, we have struggled to get a good education for our three children. Since 1998 our children have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. We tried again and again to get the school administration to understand that the children had special needs. It took us almost two years to get the school to properly address our oldest childs needs with an IEP, and over a year for the youngest. Our kids were treated like disciplinary problems instead of children who needed some special consideration. It got to the point that we had to take the district to task in order to get the problems properly addressed. Unless the school district reevaluates its policies in relating to the needs of special needs children and stop treating them as disciplinary problems, we fear our children will not receive a fair chance.
—Submitted by a parent

I'm not a parent at Jefferson, I'm actually a teacher but I wanted to let people know that there is a great staff at Jefferson and many wonderful parents that volunteer regularly. There is a very warm feeling on campus and I am really, really glad to be a part of the community at Jefferson!
—Submitted by a teacher