Research Kyrene Del Cielo School public Schools in Tempe, Arizona

“The new administration and front office is a great change for Cielo. Change can sometimes be difficult, but this new team made the switch seamless!”

“Great Teachers and Fantastic System”

“The administration looks like all is well until there is a problem. Question even their processes and they are on the attack mode. All communications, the teachers, the administration through the PTO are poor. Out of district children are courted by the district, but definitely outsiders at this school. Three years here -- wish CUS were beter.”

“My daughter has been at Cielo for a year and a half now and her teachers and aides for the most part are pretty good. The principal is standoffish ...other than that, I think the school is pretty good.”

“This is our third year at Cielo. The teachers are typically outstanding, but I'm still highly unimpressed with the administration. Worse still, the district office staff show a level of intelligence up there with individuals filpping burgers. Additionally, their sensitivity to non-normal circumstances is nil.”

“Cielo is a great school with caring, dedicated teachers who go out of their way to help ensure that each student maximizes ther learning potential. The school has great music and PE programs and hoses the cstate certified Kids Club program both before and after school. This program allows kids to remain at school and take part in numerous extra curricular activites. The program is also coordinated with the schools academic program and helps kids get homework done and work on areas in which they need aditional help. The school has had a long term principal who is extremely focused on the success of each child. She has instituted a character education program and has helped foster it so the the school has an extremely caring and family oriented feel. The school has strong test scores and I hardily recommend it to parents seeking a great school.”

“Our child is just beginning his second year at Cielo. We have been very happy with the curriculum and teachers at the school. I was amazed to see that our opinion of the administation was shared with other parents. I went so far last year as to comment that the administration was out of touch with children of this day. We will continue to keep our son at Cielo through 5th grade if he is challenged by the curriculum and the teachers continue to show an interest in him. I did not feel, last year, that there was sufficient and timely communications about activities and PTO. We often knew about things the day of or the day after... I also didn't feel there was sufficient opportunities or sensitivity for working parents.”

“It seems that art education is still honored at this school. The halls are adorned with student art work that is absolutely stunning! The library is welcoming and well stocked. Science and history projects abound.”

“Excellent school with a very good curriculum.”

“I chose this school as a boundary exception because of quality reputation, direct positiven and in-depth feedback from other parents and teachers, and receptiveness of administrative staff. I have been most impressed with the high level of expectations of students including academics and behavior.The student population has changed to include a more diverse group, and the administration has been working toward increasing staff and student awareness of and sensitivity to each other. Professionalism and dedication to students is apparent every day as staff are easily accessible to parents/students. The gifted program provides excellent challenge for language arts and needs more 'out of the box' thinking for math (at the 3rd grade level). Administrative staff are strong and willing to work with parents. There is a strong group of parent volunteers both in and out of the classroom and the PTO is active. The more parent involvement, the better your experience will be!”

“My two kids as well as us, the parents, are very pleased and happy with this school. Great Teachers! and wonderful parents involvment. Would not do any different. Great Job!”

“I have 2 children at this school. I agree most of the teachers are outstanding. However, I also agree with 'All goes well unless you raise a question or issue because appearance is more important than reality to the administration.' The administrations seems to favor certain parents who donate $ and time. The 5th grade boys can't play football because of rough play by several 'pet parent' kids. Rather than punish the responsible boys they punished all the boys by taking away football. I also agree there is a big problem with bullying.”

“Kyrene del Cielo is a great place for my children to learn and grow. We will be graduating our last child this year and moving on to a new school. We doubt if any other school will be as warm and welcoming to parents and their needs as Cielo has been for all of these years. Our three children have blossomed under the direction of such fine teachers. The school administrators are such a part of the learning process and have always been receptive to all of our needs at any time. We appreciate the open door policy. We will miss you all dearly!”

“Sadly, I do have to agree with some of the other negative posts here regarding the callousness exhibited by some staff, and especially the laid-back and unprofessional attitude of the principal. We had special needs, and it never got attended to. The quality of teachers is substantially high, although being a Kyrene school, that's well expected. How I wish they could somehow rectify the gross invisibility of the Principal! Unless things change soo, this school is on its way to go downhill.”

“Quality of academic programs: high Availability of music, art, sports, etc: High Level of parnt involvment: High.”

“Teacher-student ratio is not favorable, and individual attention to the students suffers as a result. Strong principal; very loyal to her staff and involved in every aspect of the school.”

“Several of my children attend this school and have been fortunate to have a couple of good teachers and a few that need to retire or find a new career. There are many opportunities to aid the school by xeroxing and fundraising; the parents are very supportive. All goes well unless you raise a question or issue because appearance is more important than reality to the administration. This is most unfortunate; the first step to solving a problem is admitting there is a problem. A huge number of parents end up hiring outside tutors for their children in basic subjects to compensate for what is not being taught in class. It is easy to be labeled a 'problem parent' if concerns are raised about school practices or academics. There is a lack of supervision on the play ground; historically, bullying is a quiet but real issue at this school.”

“Nice school, lots of older parents. Very old fashioned. Charges for full day kindergarten.”

“Kyrene Del Cielo is a wonderful school. We have two children (grades K & 2) who love their teachers. The teachers at Cielo are creative, caring, and organized. We see extensive parental involvement, in addition to the quality school staff.”

“Kyrene del Cielo offers a great education to my children. The parent-involvement at this school is unsurpassed and the administration is constantly striving to offer the best possible environment for the students.”

“As with any school, teacher quality can vary widely, and the principal can only deal with so many crises at once. My son is a fifth grader at Kyrene del Cielo, and has attended since kindergarten. In that time, he has gotten several outstanding teachers (you know who you are!), one mediocre teacher, and one atrocious teacher who was clearly in the wrong line of work. He was placed in the 'gifted' reading program, which one of his homeroom teachers was unfamiliar with, which presented some challenges for both the teacher and the student in adjusting to the schedule. My advice is: trust your instincts and stay involved in your child's curriculum. If you feel your child is not doing well in a particular teacher's class, get to the bottom of the situation.”

“Two of my children currently attend Cielo in 1st grade. One is near the top of her class, the other entered Cielo with no English language skills. Both children's extremely different needs have been very well met by the staff and teachers. Highly achieving children in the lower grades are assigned to a special reading group and get extra credit homework that is both more advanced and fun. In addition, teachers are very open to modifying other classwork (such as math assignments)to provide more of a challenge. At the other end of the spectrum, the school staff and teachers have also worked with our non-English-speaking child to make the transition easier. The teacher went to some effort to prepare her class for our child's arrival, and our child received lots of caring support from teacher and classmates. Both Principal and Asst. Principal were also individually interested, involved and supportive of all family members throughout the process. Unfortunately English-limited students receive minimal ESL services (half hour pull-out a day) which I feel is inadequate. Overall, we have been very pleased with Cielo. In spite of its large size (and large class size), teachers, administrators and staff have been very open and committed to providing individualized service to meet any unique needs its students may have. The school climate supports racial, ethnic, and religious diversity. Truly more of a community than an institution!”

“We are very happy with Kyrene de Cielo. While the class size is a bit big - about 26-28 - there are volunteers and teaching assistants. One of our daughters gets taken out of class once a day for a special reading class, as she and about 4-5 kids in her class are so far ahead in reading. We recently adopted a child. The school has been very supportive of us. Our new daughter's teacher prepared her class to include her, including putting procedures in place to help her cope with not understanding English, or not knowing 'the rules'. She also got the kids really excited about how neat it was that our daughter was from another county, so she was quite 'popular' when she first came to class. The teacher also updates us regularly on what is happening with our daughter at school, behaviorally and academically (she usually calls in the evening or weekend). And when we were having some behavioral problems with her, we talked to the Ass't Principle for about a half hour strategizing with her how to handle the problems consistently in the home and school setting. She was extremely responsive and quite flexible in her approach, which we appreciated. The school has over 800 kids in it, and goes up to 5th grade. It includes a special component of classes for deaf kids, offering programs both in sign language and in lip reading. It currently has 4 first grades, which can be very good if your kid is not meshing with the assigned teacher or classroom. The school passes out a questionnaire each Spring asking you to assess your child's learning style, and they try to use this to assign the kids to the teachers. One daughter's teacher is perfect for her because she is young and enthusiastic and all that that daughter really needs is channeling and some attention. And our recently adopted daughter's teacher is perfect for her because she has 20 years of teaching experience, is good at drawing kids out in a motherly sort of way, is pretty structured (though not rigid) and is extremely patient. We know we are missing some things by not being in a charter or private school (and we may look at a charter school as it gets towards middle school time, because of the academics); but we have also gained from being in a public school. The teachers and administration have been responsive to kids with unique issues. And we know we are getting much better services for our recently adopted daughter than most charter schools could/would provide. All of the teachers and staff are very dedicated and concerned with learning. We are very impressed witrh the school and am very happy that we live in the Kyrene district.”

“Kyrene Del Cielo has excellent teachers, an outstanding music curriculum and a great Principal. Our 3 children are currently attending Kyrene Del Cielo, and I highly recommend this school.”

“This is the most professionally run school - - the principle and her staff treat kids and families like valued customers!”