sparklegem

Hello,

Thank you to everyone who has been helping me with this move and all my posted questions! We have decided that if this job is the one for my husband, my daughter and I will wait to put our house on the market in the spring. That will allow her to finish the school year and we will be able to visit Los Angeles a few more time to look at schools.

We really like the Waldorf school in Northridge. My husband's job is in Santa Monica so it will be a commute, but possibly do-able if we live near the 405 corridor.

I have heard the Santa Monica and Malibu Schools are good. Could some one please tell me more about them? I have also heard that El Segundo has its own district and that it has good schools. Any details and/or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank You so much (again!).

sparklegem

Hi,

Just checking again to see of anyone has information to share.

Thank You!
Gem

cmarlin20

I am not personally familiar with the ES schools, my kids went to Manhattan Beach schools, I know they are/were good. I am leery of the commute you are contemplating, the 405 is a parking lot. As far as private I know Chadwick is desirable in the South Bay.

artlover

Many years ago my daughter went to what I consider to be the best school I've ever seen anywhere--The Mirman School on Mulholland. You can check them out at www.mirman.org.

dina4

What kind of school are you looking for? There's a Waldorf School in Santa Monica. But there are so many different kinds of private schools, and there are lots of good school districts. Can you be specific in what you are looking for? People may be able to be more helpful.
Mirman School, for example, is a private school for gifted children only.

sparklegem

Hi!!

CMarlin, Manhattan Beach is one of the places that I have been wondering about. I would like to visit the town and schools when we are down there next. Do you know how long the commute to Santa Monica is from there? Could you tell me more about the schools?

Thank you for the suggestion, Artlover. The Mirman school looks like a wonderful school. We have not had our daughter tested; so I am not sure what her IQ level is. I think that the Mirman school would be out of our price range but I will still keep it on our list and share the information with my husband.

Thank you, Dina4. I do need to be more specific.

We visited the Westside Waldorf and our daughter did a two day classroom visit. We had hoped that the school would be the right one for us. When my husband accepted the job and we drove him down it was our plan to live in Santa Monica and have our daughter go to the Waldorf school there. A neat little package. Unfortunatley, Westside Waldorf was not the right school for us.

Just doing our due dilligence, we visited Highland Hall, not prepared to love it. My daughter and I absuloutley loved it. It had all the things that we love about her school in Portland, plus it runs pre-k through highschool and has been around for fifty years. Finding a school in Northridge has sent us scrambling to find out if we can get there while my husband works in Santa Monica.

I have heard from many that Santa Monica has great public schools. I would like to learn more about them. What makes them great? I saw on the website that they get their produce from the Farmer's Market for their lunch program. That sounds terrific! I am hoping to find out more. I would also like to know like to know if they offer forign languages, how they work with the whole child- not just accademics, what are there arts programs are like and of course accidemics.

I would like to learn more about the private schools in the area. We do not have a huge budget. The Westside Waldorf's tuition is around $13500. That is more then twice what we pay in Portland.

Our daughter is very good with languges. If the public schools did not offer languages but we could find classes for her that were fun and good we would deffinately suppliment.

sparklegem

OH no, my rough draft just posted! I haven't even read through what I had written (or spell checked). Sorry about that.

It would be wonderful to find a public in Santa Monica that we could live by and we could walk to school and my husband could walk to work (and we could all walk to the beach!)

We would willing to live in another town if the commute was not too bad.

We are interested in finding out about private schools, too.

Our favorite school so far is Highland Hall, but it is in Northridge and I do not know how the commute would affect our family.

Thank you to everyone for all you help!! It is difficult to make this move. We love our friends, house, and school in Portland. We want to find the school that is right for our daughter before we move so that we can live convenient to it and not have to switch schools again.

Very Best,
Gem

sparklegem

P.S. I would say foreign languages, fine arts and acting are her strengths and favorites

artlover

Cal State LA has a high school for the Visual and Performing Arts and it may be worth checking with them about recommendations for elementary schools. I believe Mirman offers scholarships for qualified students. And yes, I agree with you about not wanting to commute to Northridge--that really would be an awful commute from Santa Monica every day.

sparklegem

Dear Artlover,

Thank you so much for the tip. The Arts High School sounds Amazing!! Just what we are looking for! I will take your suggestion to contact them to see if they have any referals. I will also contact Mirman.

Thank again for all your help!
Gem

here_today_gone2Maui

Did you say how old your daughter is? Is she high school age, or younger?

sparklegem

Oh, Hi,

I do not know if I did or not. She is eight; in third grade.

Elena

Well, if you haven't looked at the SM-Malibu Unified School District website, you need to. You will find out that the district is very well known for it's excellent music and theater arts programs. The high schools (SM & Malibu) teach at least 5-6 foreign languages.

Since your daughter is just in the third grade, I would try to reside in the Franklin Elementary School district. It is an excellent public school.

My son is a senior at Santa Monica High School right now. I feel it is one of the better public schools you will find anywhere.

sparklegem

Elena,

Thank you so much for your post. That is just what I was hoping to find out. I did not know that they were strong in those areas. Do you know if they offer languages in elementary school? Do you feel that Franklin is the best of the Santa Monica elementary schools? I have looked at the website a bit. Does it show what the different schools boundaries are? I could not find that information.

Thank You for your help!
Gem

Elena

I'm not sure the exact boundaries but Franklin is basically zipcode 90402 and 90403 (I think north of Wilshire more or less). It is a fabulous elementary school but they are very, very strict about where you live because so many people would like to send their kids there. My children only went there in kindergarten and first grade (we moved away for awhile) and I don't remember foreign languages at that point but don't quote me.

MBnancy

Sparklegem,

Manhattan Beach Schools are excellent, and free, but you need a million dollars to move here!!! Seriously, they are ranked among the highest in the state. My husband used to work on the westside and it took him a half hour to get to work (but he went the beach way, not freeway)

Now he works some of the time in El Segundo, and is on the Educational Board there. ES has a very good school system too, but is located next to LAX.

You should visit Manhattan and El Segundo, look at the schools, and check out if they offer what you are looking for.

lynnejoel1015

Roosevelt and Franklin Elementaries are great public schools!

sparklegem

Thank you! Could you share a bit more about what makes them great?

sparklegem

Thank you both to MBNancy and Elena.

We will visit both Manhattan and El Segundo. We plan to be in Santa Monica in February to look at schools.

Very Best,
Gem

Elena

I forgot about Roosevelt. It is probably the same 90402 andf 90403 zip codes but closer to the beach.

Roosevelt and Franklin are excellent PUBLIC schools. You trade paying tuition at a private school for paying a mortgage and property taxes through the nose to live in those zip codes.