The East Bay School

Crisis reveals the character of organizations as well as people. EBSB managed the pandemic as well as could possibly be asked. The teachers and faculty worked double-time to assure the students the most saturated and compelling virtual experience. I saw a lot of competence and creativity spring forth. The school leadership made decisions that were timely, well-informed, rational, and clearly articulated. The school gracefully bore the additional burden of being a front-line provider. We didn't know how much our boy was benefiting from being at the school until he couldn't be there. This was an extremely difficult time to be in middle school, and boys especially needed help in understanding their own emotional processes. It gave me great relief to know that we had caring people with particular expertise on our side when we needed it most for our boy.

Now, in our third year at EBSB, I can say the journey has been positive at every stage. Our student wants to go to school, continues to improve and grow, feels teachers care about him, and has many kind and caring friends. From our perspective, the boys at this school are nice. They are middle schoolers, but they are generally kind, engaged, and good friends to each other. The teachers really care, connect with us as parents to support with challenges, and the administrative staff are also caring, loving, and hardworking. The culture of the school is one of giving the kids lots of ways to learn, teaching them self-esteem through encouragement, and engaging them in thinking about how to be kind and caring young men who can make a positive impact in the world. Grateful, we found EBSB.

EBSB is an amazingly caring school with a constant focus on self reflection, improvement and building a caring class community. Our boys are challenged in diverse ways, seen as individuals, exposed to diverse learning opps and challenged to grow into their best selves. They love school and the team of adults who lead their learning every day. The work in a fully appointed wood and metal shop, they participate in creative electives; they learn about being change agents and growing into caring adult men and they are provided with an engaging school environment. Love our school!

My son has attended EBSB since 6th grade and is currently in 7th grade. EBSB has been an incredibly positive experience for us and - dare I say - transformative for the whole family. At EBSB I've seen him change into someone who sees himself in charge of his own learning. At the beginning of 7th grade he even signed up to give a speech to the whole school on "engagement." The message at EBSB is that the students are seen and loved even (and maybe especially when) they make mistakes. Allowing kids to fail in a loving environment is rare these days and so essential for children to learn to be resilient. EBSB holds workshops and courageous conversations to foster learning. My son and I attended a workshop on the topic of homework. As we worked through the thoughtful program, I realized that the workshop was about the relationship between parent and child. Afterwards my son said that the workshop helped him "fundamentally change" his relationship with his dad. This is a 6th grader talking!