Chinook Trail Elementary School

This is a fantastic community school with excellent academic programs and a focus on the development of the kids as whole children. My first and third graders love Chinese lessons, and I'm impressed with the character development they encourage through their GROWL program: the students are set clear expectations, provided feedback, and rewarded for positive behaviors. I'm also impressed by the dedication of the staff: my son has ADHD, and his teacher has provided consistent feedback and gone out of her way to communicate and help us facilitate his success.
—Submitted by a parent

I am a prior teacher (not for Chinook) and now a sub for the school. Chinook has been recently ranked #1 in the entire state of Colorado for Elementary Schools! There is an art program with an art teacher for the prior comment made on this. School focuses on positive reinforcement for their students. As a sub I get around all of the schools in the district and Chinook has one of the smaller classroom sizes when compared to other D20 schools. Very friendly teachers, office staff, etc. I am part of the School Advisory Team and feel that the administration is top notch, very caring and concerned about their students and the school environment. No concerns or complaints so far other than I feel that neighborhood kids should have priority over choice kids. If you are a neighborhood kid and don't register before the summer, there is a great chance there will not be an opening for you.
—Submitted by a parent

Attended the choice night for this school. Very impressive. The number of teachers in attendance, the warmness, organization, and communication! Definitely one of the better elementary school in District 20, and they even offer band in 5th grade!

Good teachers. Great parent involvement. Great academic programs. PTA with too much authority. Weak principal and adminstrative leadership. Caddy and gossipy. Parent cliques use the school lobby, entrance, and interior rotunda as their own personal social hour before and after school like it's a country club. It's a weird environment. Overall, average experience.
—Submitted by a parent

both of our children have been introduced to the school and love it! Hopefully it will be extended to 8 th grade as planned very soon!
—Submitted by a parent

My children have attended several schools, as we have moved around quite a bit. Chinook gets high marks for sure. Teachers are compassionate, nurturing and extremely knowledgeable. The opportunity for my kids to interact with the special needs population is a total bonus as well as they learn to help others, understand different learning needs, etc. The school is very fortunate to be led by a strong PTA that is made of a group of parents that tirelessly give up their free time and efforts to make the school great. It is an open, friendly and amazing group of both men and women!
—Submitted by a parent

We took our daughter out of our district and put her into this school and we LOVE it! We love that they are teaching our daughter Chinese and that they really seem to care about the students. My daughter is thriving w/her teacher and is doing really well academically. We drive a good 20 minutes to bring our daughter to this school and it is well worth the drive! We are thrilled with all that this school has to offer academically and can't wait for our youngest to attend.
—Submitted by a parent

We have loved this school since our son started kindergarten last year. Now that our second child has started as well, we are still very happy with the school. There certainly have been growing pains as the school has added many more classes and the popular ones like all day kindergarten have a waiting list, but I am so happy to have chosen to move to this district 20 school.
—Submitted by a parent

This school is really in a tough position, it "used to be" a small, intimate school but it is not anymore. Classrooms are over-crowded and the funding is not available to hire additional teachers or full-time PERA's, leaving the teachers reliant on parent volunteers. Student enrollment has increased due to students moving into the area as well as the school allowing as many students to choice in as they can (because they receive funding from the state), but the administration doesn't staff accordingly. This school doesn't have an art program unless it's operated by parent volunteers. Very disappointing. The school language Mandarin Chinese, is pre-mature, bordering on irrelevant language for elementary children, much more appropriate for high school & college for areas of international business and finance. The PTA directors are a click of women that gossip about students and parents. Most parents avoid getting involved in the PTA because of that. Administration is trying to become more approachable. The school means well, but misses the mark. It's still a very new school and is probably a few years out from operating in an all-encompassing and established fashion.
—Submitted by a parent

My daughter is a 5th grade student and is very much enjoying her second year at Chinook Trail. She likes learning to speak Chinese and has had a very good overall experience attending her first public school.
—Submitted by a parent

Our daughter is in Kindergarten and having a wonderful experience so far. This is a small school with small class sizes that make for a personal feeling throughout the school. I love the fact that they teach Chinese in all grades, including Kindergarten. Parents are very involved - her teacher has so many volunteers in the classroom she has difficulty scheduling them all.
—Submitted by a parent

Starting our 2nd year at Chinook with our youngest son who has autism, and I couldn't be happier with his progress.... Yvonne Weyand and her whole staff are incredible with my son, and he still continues to LOVE school and is thriving so much!! They are always striving to make our son's educational experience a wonderful experience, and I continue to look forward to his success at the end of the year...
—Submitted by a parent

Small class sizes and an involved community ensure this school's success. Great performance on standardized tests!
—Submitted by a parent