George Washington Elem School - Burbank, California

Shawn F.

As the parent of a child on the autism spectrum, I am right there with you with regard to your concerns & your willingness to fight for your child. As a matter of fact, my wife & I also have her daughters from her previous marriage..& we are raising & in the process of adopting her sister's four kids.. two boys & two girls. So family is important to me & if for half a second, ANY teacher or Administrator did anything less than look out for my child's best interest, I would be just as upset as you! This is also the reason why I have come find the autism program at George Washington & Chandra Collins in particular, a blessing. You see, our son first attended Horace Mann pre-school in Burbank & was part of the autism program there. He had a wonderful teacher & the staff was great. When it was time to attend a new school, we were petrified about the change. At Horace Mann, his first few months, I would leave the school in tears as he cried for me to stay.. as kids often do, autism or not.

Eventually, he grew to love school & when he attended Washington, as afraid as we were, Chandra put us at ease. We have seen transitions that have included Brandi Young's arrival after two great years with former Principal Arlene Zenian who was also great. Again, we were nervous but Mrs. Young has been a great help as well. I can say that we have even survived one or two items upon which we did not see eye to eye & the school as a whole has been very supportive. As a matter of fact, one of the kids in my son's class was graduating a year ago to middle school. Aware that there was no autism program at the middle school level, we formed a parent's support group & cautiously took our concerns to the Burbank School District, not sure if they would hear us out. They listened to us & in response, this year, they unveiled an autism program at Jordan Middle School. They even sought our input as the program was created. We have not always met eye to eye but have respectfully worked through challenges to do what is best for our children. Now we are poised to grow our group & bring more hope, encouragement & support to others & the district has supported our efforts to grow the group & have the program serve as a model for similar programs. I'm sorry you have had the experience you described & I can only speak for my own experience. I've found that far more is accomplished when we take our concerns in a constructive manner to those whom we have conflict with, determined to find a solution, rather than just warn others.It's especially disturbing when names are mentioned specifically for the sake of warning people. My wife & I are proud of our choice to have our son attend George Washington Elementary's autism program & for the time he had in Chandra Colin's class. She is a fine teacher. A fine teacher. In your post, you referenced clients, exactly what do you do? Parents have complained to you personally? Maybe we could come together to further strengthen & support autism families & people in general? Is that something you are actually interested in? By all means.. let me know.

Aylin G.

To whom it may concern and to the parent/or business owner who gave one star and wrote a review that is based on false accusation and bunch of non sense.
I normally don't like to single a person out or use social network to raise concern or talk about serious stuff going on in the community because I know it doesn't work out well and it is not a mature way of handling things. I am choosing to write this because as a parent of George Washington the comments made by this individual really surprised me and offended me. I have volunteered 20-35 hours per week for the past 5 years at Washington. I have worked with most of our teachers, I see all the aides from the Autism program on daily basis and work closely with all the parents every single day. I have never , I mean never seen anything like what was described in the above review instead what I see is a group of dedicated ,hard working and the most selfless group of individuals I have ever met in my life and this is not just our Autism teachers and aides but our entire school staff.
My question to this person would be how can you make accusations when you have not ever been at our school to see what really happens? How can you say our Principal is friends with the teacher so she let's things go? I recommend you get your facts before you make false accusations. This is our Principal's third year here and she has been nothing but a blessing to our school and for your information she was not friends with anyone of the teachers before coming to Washington.
Do you think for one second if this kind of abuse was happening and according to you, being reported to the police, that the police would let it go without investigation or charges? We live in the 21st century and I guarantee you no one can get away with behavior like that. I as a parent would report it and not let things like that happen in my kids school.
Now about Chandra Collins, since you mentioned her name, did you know that she is the biggest advocate for Autistic children, she goes above and beyond to make sure every single class get's a visit from her as she talks about our Autistic kids and educates the students about the challenges these kids face and encourages these students to make friends and be a little more understanding of the autistic students. Do you know every year she plans and requests that PTA host special events for our autistic students. Honestly I can go on and on about Mrs. Collins and I can give a list of things for all of our teachers and staff and you know why? Because I have been there every day for the last five years and see everything that goes on and I am sorry to tell you how far you are from the truth.
For any new or current parents that may question my post or my honesty I challenge you to get clearance from the district to become a volunteer and see it for your self. Don't just believe what I have to say or anyone else and make a judgement off of a review.
9-3-15
To: Lana Bulova
To make sure we are on the same page I want to be clear, I personally as a parent got concerned and upset for the review you had posted not because it's true but because I know it's not true. Because I am a parent and I really do care for everyone, I would love to meet you any time and place you feel comfortable to try to help you in any way I can. The last thing I would want is for you to think that I am mad because I am over the comments you made and now want to serve you and your needs. I would love for you to meet me and for me to prove to you that I am not an employee and just simply a parent. This will be my last comment or way to reach out and if it's turned down then I am not going to play a game on the internet with having words go back and fort. I like to take care of things and not just talk. I am not a lawyer but from one parent to another I like to share that defamation of character is against the law. If I can't help you then I will use my energy to get the word out to all the rest of the parents to review our school in their honest opinion. Wishing you peace.

Sonya G.

#1 thing I'd like in this school that it it's an uniform, 2# Because of Principal Young I'd prefer stay in this school, she is really care about all students, and doing everything that they meet the highest criteria in education. Thanks to Principal Young.

Marcos H.

I don't like this school because you have to wear uniforms and I think that's stupid let the kids what they want

kayla C.

mario B.

Cindy M.

Karina V.