Neighborhoods and School Districts (Corpus Christi, Portland: credit, living in, dangerous)

[Janeb106]

Our family is considering moving to CC. What neighborhoods and school districts are considered the most desirable? My son currently attends Catholic grade school. Which Catholic grade school is the most desirable too? We haven't decided whether to do public or private education when we move. Also, any schools on the balanced calendar/year- round school?

[ocean2026]

Jane take 30 seconds and do a search on here about AREA SCHOOL DISTRICTS - you will see the ratings and the rankings

[Marlow]

Originally Posted by Janeb106

Our family is considering moving to CC. What neighborhoods and school districts are considered the most desirable? My son currently attends Catholic grade school. Which Catholic grade school is the most desirable too? We haven't decided whether to do public or private education when we move. Also, any schools on the balanced calendar/year- round school?

If you want to continue in Catholic school, there are several. Incarnate Word Academy is probably the most popular with professional people. If I'm not mistaken, all of the Catholic schools are on a balanced calendar. I think the kids are out about 8 weeks or so in the summer.

Overall, CCISD is not rated very high, but individual schools are often highly rated. I think they have the different rankings listed on the CCISD website.

I know that Tuloso-Midway ISD is on a year-round calendar and is considered a pretty good school district. CCISD is on a traditional calendar. I don't know about the other districts.

[CalallenMom]

Texas School Performance Maps

[SOM]

As far as elementary schools go, I recommend St. Pius X (where my kids go), St. Patricks, or Incarnate Word Academy. IWA can be a little snooty, and is the more expensive option.

St. Pius and St. Patricks go to 6th grade, so if you go that route you only need 2 years of middle school. You have two choices at that point, Bishop Garriga and IWA. I haven't heard many good things about Bishop Garriga...it's smaller and not very well funded. The diocese is really struggling to provide a diocesan-run option to IWA.

You have two options for high school as well....IWA and John Paul the II. JP is fairly new, and is receiving a lot of focus by the diocese. I've heard pretty good things about it.

All of the Catholic Schools are on semi-year-round schedules. They used to have longer and more frequent breaks through the year and a shorter summer, but have shifted towards a more traditional schedule, although it's still more balanced than the public schools.

If you do opt for Catholic schools, it gives more flexibility as to where you live. I personally like living in Corpus Christi proper. And, even though CCISD is not highly ranked, it does have an Athena program for gifted kids. One of our kids is in the Athena middle school program. We've been pretty happy with King High School as well. We tend to send our kids to Catholic school for elementary/middle, and then public for high school (unless they're smart enough to get in the Athena program for middle school!).

Some info:

IWA
Incarnate Word Academy of Corpus Christi, Texas

St. Pius
St. Pius X School in Corpus Christi Texas

St. Patrick
Welcome to St. Patrick School

John Paul II
John Paul II High School

Bishop Garriga
Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School

Diocesan School Site
Diocese of Corpus Christi


Be sure to check out the Corpus Christi Cathedral for mass. It is a beautiful building with an absolutely world-class choir. One of the most inspiring liturgies I have ever experienced.

[CCdweller]

Do yourself a favor and look into London ISD. It has received the highest ranking in Texas education. My son attends the school and I could not be happier. It is a small school with low student:teacher ratio. Currently the school goes to 8th grade but the area is growing and in the next couple of years there will be a high school. When I was deciding where to send my son for grade school I considered IWA but chose to live in the London district and send him there instead. Hope this helps, any specific questions about LISD let me know.

[ocean2026]

CCdweler a little bit of knowledge is dangerous and that applies to you. First of all London doesn't have a high school and the TEA ratings are especially tough on high schools. There are many local districts who would score higher than London but for their high school. That includes Calallen, Flour Bluff and Rockport (ACISD) and probably Gregory Portland. Eastcliff Elementary in Portland is just about as good as one can get in the State of Texas's 1100 or so districts. Aransas County and Port Aransas are within 1%.

The overall best district in the area is Port Aransas as it is Exemplary yet has a high school.

CCdweller using your logic if London's middle school was 10-0 in football you would say it has best football team in the area, beating say Flour Bluff high school if they went 9-1.

Finally your post was misleading in that London did not receive the highest ranking - its middle school and elementary school received the highest category of ranking just like 500 other districts in Texas.

[SOM]

Great post, ocean2026....very informative and logical, keepin' it real! As mentioned on another thread, one has to be careful when making "objective" comparisons. Need to make sure the yardstick is accurate and applied equally, and that the same thing is being measured.

I have heard that the London school district is very good, and your post supports that....just puts it in better perspective.

[CCdweller]

I understand that you cannot compare London to any other district in the area. London does not have a highschool therefore their rating should have an asterisk. Fine I will give you that, but where do the kids that finish 8th grade at London go? They primarily go to Tuloso Midway and the kids are already given credit for some high school classes that the TM kids are not. Why is that? Could it possibly be that the London kids are better prepared? I do not know but it could be. Someone that I work with is on the school board over at TM who tells me that the London kids are always graduating at the top of the class for TM. Why is that? Could it possibly be that the London kids are better prepared? The proposed highschool at London will be discussed this school year and will be built within the next couple of years. Do not let me mislead you, London has it's share of issues, I just do not think that you can dismiss their academic reputation.

[ocean2026]

CCdweller that post makes more sense and you make good points this time. Once again one school board member does not prove a case but I am partial to school board members lol.

Another factor is size - ratings people have told me its easiest to get "Exemplary" if you're a smaller district. I should be able to articulate exactly why and fault myself for not doing so.

Discoll is probably not considered a hotbed of education but its small district (78 kids?) has enabled it to be exemplary as well.

Maybe its because high school kids are more able to cut class -- and attendance counts- they are sometimes able to drop out and that counts too- some may have fallen hopelessly behind - another problem. Others get arrested. Tired today and I'll admit I'm just wondering out loud. Last night I was at the Aransas Pass Annexation meeting and on KIII at 10 ranting lol today very mellow- even Gabe probably couldn't get me upset- lol but he shouldn't try!