Horseshoe Trails Elementary School

Horseshoe Trails was once an excellent school. The teachers went above and beyond. They offered a top notch education, which I was proud of. There were cracks in the school that needed to be fixed, but not every school is perfect.

We decided not to return for many reasons. The problems my child had with being bullied and excluded at school were not effectively dealt with. We met with the current principal multiple times, but nothing changed. My child also had an IEP that was not being followed. It caused a lot of stress and anxiety for my kid to be there because of this. Lastly, the Chinese immersion program has been reduced to an extracurricular activity offered at the school. It is a misfortune as the mandarin teachers were amazing.

There appears to be a lack of follow through from leaders and a lack of willingness to work with the school’s families.
The community at the school was strong, but many feel shunned by their leaders. For these reasons, and more, many have decided to move on.

No confidence in Principal Pettinato! He eliminated Immersion stating he needed to kill the program to be fair to ALL students, declared immersion not equitable due to varying class sizes, which COVID upset. He became less visible & harder to reach. He seemed to frown upon extra work of leading an immersion school & shared he felt like he had to run two schools. He rejected donations, grants, etc. as not sustainable. He stated he was nervous over hiring Mandarin speaking teachers when two retired & two(or three) planned to reject their contracts. If immersion was already killed, he had no need to hire, if not, why did these teachers feel the need to reject their contracts under Mr.P’s leadership? He stated he did not want to RIF an English-speaking teacher. An anti-Mandarin immersion attitude grew among some non-immersion parents & took root in the entering PTO. So unfortunate for a school with such low diversity. The Horseshoe Trails community needed a strong leader. Mr.P let us down!

COMPARABLE TO A PRIVATE SCHOOL:
As a previous private school parent in another city, I was wary of sending my children to a public school. However, when I visited this school, I found the Principal is very engaged in each aspect of the schools inner workings. Principal Marlowe is in each classroom everyday, leading tours through the school, and even directing afterschool traffic. She is also very accessible and the front office staff is very pleasant and informed.

Pros - the school has smart boards in every classroom, a well-rounded gifted program (my daughter is not "gifted" but is learning multiplication at second grade), Mandarin, and an equine program. Caveats: small minority population and the learnyes.org campaigns towards the first half of the year.