Ulloa Elementary School

I LOVE LOVE LOVE AND MISS THIS ELEMENTARY SOOO MUCHHHHH.)’: this elementary is awesome. Not even kidding. I LOVE ULLOA .(:

Ulloa is a wonderful School and I couldnt have asked for a better school. Mrs. Fong is strict but fair and runs the school like a tight ship. The Star testing scores are really high and the children (including my son) are happy and confident.

This wasn’t our first choice school. However, we consider it a God-​send that our daughter was assigned Ulloa. Carol Fong, the principal, is fantastic. As my husband has stated, «I love Mrs. Fong; she runs a tight ship!» Our daughter loves her kindergarten teacher, whom she talks about all the time. My husband said, «Babe, we totally lucked out with Ulloa.» As a fellow educator, I love how the paraprofessionals are strict with playground rules. I love how the kids have to eat snack inside and lunch in the cafeteria so there won’t be littering and sea gull issues out on the yard. Its PTA is extremely dedicated to raising funds and providing what it can to help. Plus, when Carol took over Ulloa, it was only ranked as a 7; now it’s a 10; only six, public elementary schools out of 70 are ranked a 10 as of last year’s STAR test scores. What a great accomplishment for Ulloa. Go teachers!

They placed me in an ESL — Cantonese kindergarten class in kindergarten, and shit, I don’t even speak Chinese. (Chiu Chow dialect, anyone?) They then deemed me as mentally challenged — until I beasted the hell out of their classwork and tests. They then transferred me into an English speaking class after a few weeks, and from then on, I blossomed into the intellectual I am today. Har. Har.
But seriously, I loved going to this little public school, and am proud to say that I graduated 5^th grade top of my class. Though that’s not saying much, I always felt safe and knew that if I needed help, the faculty would always be there to help me out.

Where it all started for me.
Ulloa apparently is a better school now (academically speaking) than it was when I attended school here in the 80’s. It may not have been academically strong during my time there, but I learned some of the most important lessons of my life here, and yes, it was through my teachers.
Outside of my parents, I was taught love, friendship, trust, and how to deal with adversity. The adversity came when I had to carry around a Girl’s lunch pail from K — 2^nd grade (because I had just arrived in this country so I was poor). Although I was heckled, I learned at such a young age that as long as you stay the course, no one nor anything can knock you off your path.
It was also here where I realized some talents such as being entrusted on becoming a Hall Monitor and eventually getting into the GATE Program.
I came back here recently and had a tear in my eye. You can never get back your childhood, you can only relive it in your dreams. You didn’t worry about your classmates getting pregnant or doing drugs or hurting themselves in other ways. Life was so simple, back then.

Being a product of the San Francisco Unified School District during the 1989 – 1990 school year was pretty damn scary, as it was my very first year in a public school. I went to Ulloa Elementary during 5^th grade, and it was very different from the private school I previously attended.
I remember Ulloa combined some of the 4^th and 5^th grade classes into one class… which I thought was really odd. I guess I felt safe enough there, despite some of the kids being REALLY rowdy (read: scary). I do remember having more fun at this school than I did at private school, but I also recall the education here feeling very remedial.
Things could be very different now though. Either way, I’m glad I had a brief stint there.