Logan Square

I graduated from Brentano many moons ago and now, my children attend the school. I absolutely love the school and staff at Brentano but most importantly, my babies love it. They wake up excited to go to school everyday. My 5 year old does yoga and was taught to recycle. The school also offers before and after care through Right At School which makes life on working parents much easier.

Darwin Principal and Assistant Principal and staff are poorly trained. The school is severely understaffed but have $15 grant in 2023. During that year the biggest purchase was over 20 fish tanks planted throughout the school, now in 2024 not one is in sight. There is so much bullying and racism at this school it’s painful, so not send your child here. If you do not follow the underlying rules placed by staff you are labeled a threat and will be treated differently.

We relocated from Michigan to chicago and have found so much more joy at this school. The community of parents is incredibly supportive. The school has an abundance of after school programs to keep the kids engaged, even optional field trips on saturdays! Following Covid, my daughter was behind in reading but the teacher was able to bring her up to exceeding expectations. We are so grateful for the staff and community we have because of Goethe.

My son has been accepted into the pre-school program, and thus far, this has been a terrible experience. I'm interested in the dual language program, and every time I call to inquire, I receive a different answer regarding how to get him enrolled in this program. At first, I was told that it's first-come, first-served, so the sooner I complete the registration documents, the better chance my son will have. Then I was told it's a lottery system. And now I'm being told that the dual language program coordinator will reach out to me to setup a meeting to assess my son, and that she's calling people now, but I may not hear from her until the end of August. I'm just not sure I believe anything they're telling me, and it's an unbelievably stressful and convoluted situation. This school is so poorly ranked to begin with that I almost never bothered applying at all, and now I'm really questioning what type of experience my son would have here, if this is how they treat people.