Jserra High School (Mission Viejo, San Clemente, Rancho Santa Margarita: sales, insurance, house)

[smil]

I went to see schools in OC I really liked Jserra High School and St. Anne in LN - I think these are good matches for my children, but I wanted to hear opinions about these schools, both the bad and the good ones .
How is the teachers, how difficult is it to adjust as a new student not
knowing anyone !!!, how is the sports program, any bulling going on, how is the kids attending these schools is it only the wealthy ones or do you have a diversity in kids, - what do you know about these schools???
thanks for helping in this always difficult situation finding the right school for your child.
thanks
Smil

[bhcompy]

the sports program is young(small, newer school) and overshadowed in the trinity league by national powerhouse teams mater dei and orange lutheran and also perennially competitive st john bosco and servite. santa margarita isnt too bad either.

if sports are very important, your children will get exposure to one of the most competitive leagues(trinity) and sections(CIF southern section) in the nation. may get a better chance of starting at a school like jserra that is building their programs, but if they are truly good and looking for scholarship opportunities they may be better served going to a traditional powerhouse instead.

[America Favela]

Both my kids are going to Jserra. They both love the school. Coming from a public education until 8th grades, they really appreciatte the friendly enviroment. My son graduates this year and my daughter next year. I highly recommend the school.

[MagnusTheGreat]

We were very impressed with the sales pitch given at an open house a year ago by Frank Taglia - JSerra President who has since been fired, as was the principal.
My son came from a local school and is an exceptional student, with constant high report cards.
As far as academics, my son was bored at JSerra, and told us his homework in 7th grade at his previous school was more demanding than his Freshman honors classes at JSerra.
In addition, sone of the classes are a complete waste, and dont count if you transfer, such as the religion class (frankly, over the top goody goody stuff more appropriate for 10 year olds).
Athletics seem to be the main focus. In fact, for some strange reason, the AD reports to the president - not the principal. This is not common in other comparable schools.
My son participated in freshman football and had a great coach (albeit part time - John Shanahan). John cared about the kids and they performed to their utmost abilities for him.
However, the varsity program is coached by Jim Hartigan, who is a very tough, old school 'bully type of approach' who believes the kids need to have their 'double-days' from 6AM to 6PM, which completely exhausts everyone, and each year, some kids succumb to heat stroke and need hospitalization. Each year, there are significant complaints from the parents.
In addition, each year the Freshman football team does very well (9-1 in 2011), but only a small % of players return the following year to play for Hartigan as he is not well liked, is over the top in conditioning, and frankly the kids either quit playing, or move to other schools and play.
In 2010, approx a 32-member freshman class returned 9 sophomore players for JV & Varsity. This past year, the team started with 61 freshman, about 10 quit (fairly average), and rumor has it about 25 will be back for camp in a month.
Compare this to Rancho Santa Margurita, Mission Viejo, San Clemente, etc. where almost all freshmen come back to play the next year. Thus, there is a massive problem.
In addition, JSerra is not associated with the Catholic Diocese for some reason -we felt misled by this when we heard their sales pitch. They also do not carry insurance to cover injuries the players sustain in sports (probably the only school in the area to not have insurance!).
Our son has now left JSerra and will be starting at a school much more focused on academics.
We felt extremely mislead after we joined JSerra (we bought the demo!) and found it to be an extremely poorly run organization. The teachers were fine, and cared about their students, but the administrative management of the organization compared to many other schools we know well is the worse we have ever seen.

So, be beware. It's not cheap (oh, and when you add all the fees for 2 sports, like football and baseball) you are up around $20+K You may as well try to get into St. Margaret's at this price point, which is the top school for college placement in Southern California.

Just giving everyone an honest assessment based on facts.

[stone007]

I have several friends at St Anne's and checked it out personally myself..Overall very happy with the school but like JSerra, I hear academics are considerably 'easier' than local public school and there is alot of grade inflation. Alot of $ families go to St Anne's so not alot of diversity in terms of soci-economic status. In looking at other public schools, I heard that in terms of the area (South OC), the 'top' private elementary schools are considered 1) St Margerite's in San Juan Capistrano (if you can afford it) followed by St Anne's. We personally checked out St Edwards in Dana Point (beautiful location but large class size and not that great academics in my opinion) and Serra Catholic in Rancho Santa Margarita. For us personally, after researching many, many of private elementary schools, we opted for a public elementary school. This is coming from two parents both private school educated that opted with public school for both diversity and also a solid education all around. We may revisit once kids are in 8th grade and go with a private high school but for 1-8 grades, solid if not better education we found at a local public school. Just my personal opinion but did want to share input on St Anne's with you..