Pinecrest Schools have been offering affordable and outstanding education to children in Southern California for the past 60 years. With eight campuses, Pinecrest is one of the largest private school programs in the U.S. The schools welcome students from kindergarten to middle school.
The Lancaster campus is proud to be part of the Pinecrest institution. With a large curriculum, the Lancaster campus pursues the legacy of excellency that has been the focus of Pinecrest for so many years.
We sat down with Lancaster Campus Director Lisa Latimer to learn more about the campus and its specificity.
Lisa Williams: Hi! I’m Lisa William with Local Online Visibility and I’m here with Lisa Latimer with Pinecrest Schools Lancaster. Lisa, how long have you been with Pinecrest Schools?
Lisa Latimer: I’ve been with Pinecrest Schools for 26 years.
Lisa W: I see many of your directors have been with Pinecrest for well over 20 years. Tell me about Pinecrest Schools?
Lisa L: Well Pinecrest Schools is a system of schools that has been around for over 62 years so we are obviously doing something right. We have been around that long that we a very successful in what we do and we believe in catering to the whole child. We have specialty classes where children are exposed to music and computers, physical education, art and a foreign language. We believe it is best to teach to the whole child. We also believe in hands-on experiences such as going on field trips and applying their learning into real-life situations.
Lisa W: what is unique to your location at Lancaster.
Lisa L: Well, Lancaster is an aerospace industry. We have a lot of parents who come from all over the world to the Edwards Air Force Base for the test flight pilot school, so we are a very diverse campus. We have students from the UK, Israel, Korea, Netherlands, and Denmark. Because of our diversity we get to learn about different cultures hands on. As an aerospace industry school we do a lot of STEM based activities, so Science, Technology, Engineering and Math are emphasized. We have a robotics team, a science Olympiad team, we have Math Leagues, and we tried to really incorporate a lot of technology because we know the importance of introducing science at an early age. And hopefully when our students are grown they may even go into a science oriented field. We also have an accelerated math program which is technology driven. It is computerized and data driven so we can see results of gaps and that way we can fill the gaps and make sure the students are successful in the areas of math.
Lisa W: Excellent and Math and Science are extremely important. So what types of events do you have in Lancaster?
Lisa L: We try to have events every six to eight weeks and we try to always make it student driven. We have an imagination creation day every year where the students have to design, engineer, and build some kind of object or game out of recyclable materials. So it is higher-level thinking and problem solving and they have to write a report about it. It applies to all parts of the curriculum and then we set an entire day aside to build the object, what’s nice is parents come in and with it. We also have an event that is open house but not a typical open house.
We pick a different theme each year. This year it is Living History Museum so the students had to design what the classroom will look like, every classroom will be a part of the Smithsonian Museum and they will bring it to life for the parents. The parents will go to every single classroom rather than just their child’s and they see everything all the children are learning. We also have family nights for our parents and after school groups, like our singing groups and cheer leading groups who perform for the parents. We try to have something every five weeks where the parents and come on campus and see what the students are doing.
Lisa W: What would you like the parents to know about Pinecrest Lancaster?
Lisa L: That the teachers care. We are not just here to give out grades but we are here to make sure our students master the concepts and our teachers go above and beyond because they genuinely care. Our teachers tutor after school, they teach in a multitude of ways so the learning is meaningful for our students, because we know our student learn differently. When a topic is taught, it is taught in a number of different ways so it is meaningful for all of our students. We teach because we want our students to love learning.
Lisa W: Thank you very much for your time.
The Lancaster campus offers classes from kindergarten to middle school. Students can also participate in specialty classes such as art appreciation, computer class, and many others.
The campus also offers many extra-curricular activities and teaches kids lessons they’ll need to live a successful life.
Registration can be made any time all year long. Students must undergo a quick interview and test to see their abilities.
Students can earn a great education for life at the Lancaster campus. More information is available online at www.pinecrestschools.com. Or visit our campus at 2110 W Avenue K, Lancaster, CA 93536.