St Philip Neri School

We absolutely love, love, love this school. My background is in education. In fact, I have been a teacher for almost 20 years. When it came time for us to choose an elementary school, we contemplated many and did all the tours and open houses. Initially, what drew me to SPN was the curriculum. For the last 5 years, I have been tutoring and I was especially impressed with the work I would see the SPN kids doing. They were challenged as well as supported. Since I was also starting to do my homework on which school to send my daughter, I would also talk the parents of all my students about their experience. It seemed to me that the families that chose SPN were happier overall than the families of the other Alameda schools, both public and private.
My daughter is now a 1^st grader and my husband and I could not be happier with our choice. The school has been very welcoming and warm. The parent community is very involved and inclusive. Athletics are very important to my husband and I and we were thrilled to find out that Kindergartners are welcome to join both the cross country and track and field teams!
Our class is super diverse: ethnically and socially. We love that our daughter will be with her same class all the way through 8^th grade. My classroom teaching background is in middle school and another huge plus to this school is the interaction the little ones have with the big kid and vice versa.
As for the religion component of the school — the kids attend mass weekly, they have regular religion classes in class. From what I have seen, they teach the best of what organized religion has to offer, character and community building.

We moved here for Middle School, and couldn’t be happier. We came from a $$$ private school, and I can tell you the education my daughter is getting here is much, MUCH better than we were getting there. We turned down several other private school options to come here as well. I was sold by the amazing principal, Jessica Murray, and after attending several school meetings by invitation, I was very impressed by the school’s organization, as well as the kindness of the staff and other students. The academics are old school and solid – the curriculum is transparent so you know what your child is learning and how your kid is doing. They have ipads and Macs for each kid in the classroom, but homework includes lots of good old fashioned pen to paper (which is a plus to me). We are not Catholic – actually we are Jewish – and we have been welcomed and included. There is religious education, but honestly, this is the crazy Bay Area, and I don’t mind other adults sharing with my kid that it’s important to be kind and make your community a better place. The religious focus is mostly community and social-​justice oriented, and my child is never made to feel like an outsider. The kids are really, genuinely nice, though many of them are busy, so it can be hard to get playdates and one-​on-​one time. My daughter found a group and was included right away, which was a great sign to me. There are lots of electives, including broadcasting, art, music, and genius hour. Google is coming to visit the school, and several of the teachers have done continuing education with Google. In short, for ¹⁄₃ the price, I feel like I’m getting 2 times the education we were getting before. My daughter’s former school left her with some basic skill deficits, as there were some pretty big holes in their curriculum, which was more go-​with-​the-​flow – and that led to $$$$ in tutoring to get her ready for SPN. St. Joe’s is the feeder high school for SPN (which is where my other kid ended up after graduating from the $$$ private school – and is another great school). SPN is a great place if you love strong education, structure, and a close-​knit community. We love it and are glad we found this hidden gem.

I think the other reviews are old. Principal Jessica Murray is wonderful. The school has a wonderful and strong sense of community among parents, teachers, students and staff. We have three children and each receives the individual support and instruction they need. Our youngest is in the TK program and we are thrilled.

I cannot recommend this school. It is a very small school where the bullies are both student and teacher, with little to no remediation for issues.
There is a clique of parents and staff that make attending school events and meetings more laborious than needed, and the constant notices about Bingo volunteers or paying the fine, is stressful. It is a very close-​knit and closed minded community of parents and staff, where the students are secondary to the school’s agenda.
The number of students per classroom is small, which creates even more competition, teacher favoritism, and silent Bullying. During school field trips teachers actually put students in their own vehicles get behind the wheel, and transport them. The school is constantly struggling with leadership roles and continue to hire principals with no experience.
The teaching staff appear to less inclined to model the values of the Catholic Church as evidenced in their blatant disregard of the teachings through supporting abortion, open marriage, while discriminating against LGBT students and teachers in the classroom. Teachers are also randomly assigned to teach subjects they have little to no expertise or experience with, while also falling into the cliquish category.
There is no lunchroom, and the playground is an unsecured, asphalt parking lot.
The current principal is more reactive than proactive, and is more of a nosy, busy body that a leader or educational facilitator.
For the price of tuition, you are better off going to San Leandro or Oakland for private school.
If you want your child to be a cliquish bully, send them here.

So why the Unilocal??? Tuesday nite bingo PASTA DINNER BABY!
If you get lucky, some Tuesday’s they offer the Godfather of bingo dinners. Made by a true Italiano, the sauce starts from scratch at 6am and is ready around 5pm. Pasta, bagged salad, and a roll $ 4.50. Pasta sauce that gives Rao’s (New York) a run for it’s money. Old world recipe. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, u kno.
MANGIA MANGIA…
P. S. An awesome private, Catholic, elementry and grade school.

Being a very small school, the competition and bullying are too much. One class per grade makes it very difficult for kids that are not cookie cutters to fit on and find friends.
Leadership is militaristic — my school. my way.