With two and a half weeks left in the school year and our younger child about to start high school, we’re finishing out 12 total years as K-8 parents -- urban public K-8 parents.

My daughter graduates from Aptos Middle School (in San Francisco Unified, not the town of Aptos near Santa Cruz as is often assumed). Aptos had some rough years in the ’90s and was a “turnaround” school when my son started there in fall 2002, and has steadily gained in prestige and popularity. It’s still known as about the most diverse school in the district, rivaled perhaps by Balboa High School.

The other day a friend whose now-11th-grader attended one of the more prestigious SFUSD middle schools commented ruefully that her daughter had a string of less-than-excellent teachers at that school. I asked my daughter how many bad teachers she has had at Aptos, and she thought a few seconds and said, “None.”

There was a P.E. teacher who once set up the day’s activities in a way that so flagrantly favored the boys and slighted the girls that my daughter was part of a girl delegation who met with the principal to complain. I asked, “What about [that teacher]?” She said he’s been fine ever since, and that going to the principal about the incident “was fun.”

And the Aptos Jazz Band has been really life-changing for both my kids, even though it’s so casual that Mr. Goodrich basically lets in any kid who’s willing to show up zero period three days a week (8:15 a.m., with the school day officially starting at 9:02). Jazz Band rehearsals ended last week after the spring concert, and that part of our family’s lives is quietly done.

So this is a tribute to my kids’ elementary and middle school years. Thank you to Aptos Middle School and the principals and teachers from both my kids’ years there: Linal Ishibashi, Ericka Lovrin and Paul Marcoux; Russell Addiego, Allen Goodrich, Patricia Kudritzki, Jennifer Ruskin, Glenn Fong, Tony Payne, David Brody and Rebecca Pollack (and I’m sorry I don’t have all the P.E. teachers’ names down). And thank you to other administrators and staff such as Kelly Roja, and all the PTSA officers, parent volunteers and carpool-sharers and other friends.

Thank you to Lakeshore Elementary School, the two principals over our kids’ time there, and all my kids’ teachers: Sharon Guillestegui, Cheryl Lee, Kurt Polzin, Cathy Barry, Eve Arbogast, Jane Jones, Kathy Longacre, Rich Mertes and Molly Bass – and staff and other teachers, from Mao Savea and the amazing, late, great goddess of the crosswalk Alba Veille to Mimi Sarkisian, Sharon Collins, Linda Leibschutz and many more. And, again, all the PTA officers and parent volunteers and friends who made and still make Lakeshore what it is.

Also, a tribute and moment of silence for Dennis Tamura, Lakeshore student advisor and much more, who died during the time my kids were there. I think the thousand gold cranes the kids folded for him are still hanging in the Community Room.

In this sentimental moment, the notion that there are people who think all urban public schools are failing is just too weird to fathom.

• Aptos Middle School, San Francisco Unified School District, 105 Aptos Ave. (Balboa Terrace)
• Lakeshore Elementary School, San Francisco Unified School District, 220 Middlefield Drive (Lake Merced/Sunset)