What schools did you attend? For those looking for school info... (Santa Ana: high crime, transfer to)

[pinkgonegreen]

Let's post the schools we are familiar with so that those looking for info on specific schools can find people to PM about questions!

I can comment on the following schools:

Montevideo Elementary - Mission Viejo
Serrano Intermediate - Lake Forest
Trabuco Hills High - Mission Viejo

[psr13]

Evans Elementary
Patton Elementary
Ralston Intermediate
Santiago High School
Garden Grove High School

all in Garden Grove

[RobE]

Walter Knott Elementary in Buena Park (I think it's closed now).

La Palma Jr. High in Buena Park (closed)

Savanna High in Anaheim: Except for Anaheim High, this was the school nobody wanted to go to. It was notorious for the amount of hard drug use (lot of speed, heroin and acid) by its student body, probably worse than what was going on at Westminster High. It is also aesthetically ugly and I don't have much good to say about its teaching staff (though they were all so old I'm sure exceedingly few of them are still there). This was back in the 1970's and I can only imagine it is worse now. The people on the AUHSD (Anaheim Unified High School District) school board were complete morons back in the day. Can't imagine that has changed.

Orange High in Orange. I transferred into Orange High just before the second semester of my sophomore year and it was so much better than Savanna it was ridiculous. So I ended up enjoying high school after initially being depressed all the time at Savanna. Really good school. However, it has now gone from 80% white and most kids expecting to go to college to 80% hispanic and a really low API score. In fact, El Modena High has a higher API score now, which boggles my mind since the area that school is in was the most ghetto section of the city (kind of a Santa Ana starter kit). The reason the API is higher is because a lot of the new wealthier neighborhoods in East Orange near the satellite campus of Rancho Santiago college now serve El Modena.

As a side note, both my brother and sister went to Portola Jr. High in Orange and there was A LOT of gang activity there and frequent after school gang fights. Do not let your kid go to this school and do not live in the area immediately surrounding it because it is very high crime (lot of drug dealing, too).

The Orange Unified School District board has been riven with corruption, religious and ideological battles as well as just outright craziness the last 10-15 years. Its members are adults only by dint of their ages.

[anagrig]

Great idea! I am sure alot of parents like me will find this post extremely helpful, since most of us first pick the right school district, and then buy the house. For me, I would really love to know what would be the major differences between Irvine high schools, and Mission Viejo high schools. I know thatIrvine high schools have a little higher scores... but to me it's about the acceptance toward a newcomer, lower drug use, better family values, more progressive mentality. thanks in advance to all who can help out.

[missionhome]

I went to a now closed Catholic elementary school for girls.
In went to Tuffree Middle School (Placentia) and then El Dorado High School (Placentia). I know El Dorado still has a good reputation and strong academic programs, but I honestly don't know anything about the culture there because I graduated in the dark ages before kids had computers on their cell phone.

I know the most about the Capistrano Unified schools in Mission Viejo and the place my kids went to elementary at. My kids went to
Stoneybrooke Christian (Elementary and Middle, private school, our choice due to religion/enviornment but I felt academics were a little weak). All three are now at Capistrano Valley High School (public) in Mission Viejo. My oldest graduates June 18th and is going to UCLA, my middle is a sophomore, and my youngest is a freshman.

Our neighborhood attends Barcelona Hills Elementary and Newhart Middle School that feed into CVHS. I am an active PTSA parent at Capo Valley High and have been to all the campuses that feed into our school and know parents from those schools as well. We have three "Capo Valley family of schools" (our district arranges schools by which high school they feed into) meetings a year with those PTSA moms.

I can thus talk about:
Barcelona Hills Elementary
Bathgate Elementary
Castille Elementary
Carl Hankey Elementary
Philip J Reilly Elementary
Viejo Elementary
Fred Newhart Middle School
Capistrano Valley High School
^^^all in Mission Viejo
San Juan Elementary
^^^in San Juan Capistrano
Stoneybrooke Christian Schools (Ladera Ranch and San Juan Capistrano)

I also know about the SVUSD schools in Mission Viejo just based off what I hear from friends in the community, but no firsthand experience.

[BRinSM]

I attended both the elementary school and junior high school at Travis Ranch (K-8) in Yorba Linda.

[Fontucky]

Palisades Elementary, Capistrano Beach: Still a good school.

Marco Forster Jr High (now they call it Middle School), San Juan Capistrano: Not recommended. Too many ESL types slowing down the learning process. Also a definite gang influence. The school might as well be in Mexico.

San Clemente High School: Excellent school.

[anagrig]

Missionhome,
I always read your posts with great interest, and really value every bit of advice. Since you are so familiar with MV, how do you think high schools in MV compare to those in Irvine in terms of peer pressure, drugs, partying, etc. i can research all i want about scores and programs on the internet, but this kind of info is nowhere to be found, except this forum. thanks in advance.

[socal4now]

I really hope this doesnt come off as a rant because it is just my honest account of dealing with high schools in the orange district. I am also told this is pretty prevelant everywhere in the Cali.
My son went to Canyon high in Anaheim hills. One by one he saw his friends expelled for minor infractions and sent to continuation school. He was fortunate to be an honors student so his behavior was overlooked. Apparently this is standard there. If you have a high gpa and make the school look good you stay. If you are a drop out risk they transfer you prior to dropping out to keep the DO rate low at their school.
I found out my son was doing crack and pulled him out of the school and away from those friends so fast it made his head spin! The school called wanting to know where their honor student was and had a truancy officer call regularly and i told them his life was far more important then their diploma so "go away"
Got a call finally from someone at the school who told me all i had to do was go to the office and request a transfer to continuation school, then not enroll him there and all the calls would stop as he wouldnt be classified a drop out.
Worked like a charm! BTW he is now in his 20's ...got his GED 2 months after turning 18 and has FAR more money in his savings account then i do! Have not any drug problems since.

[KaraG]

My children went to schools in Mission Viejo in the SVUSD district:
Del Cerro Elementary
La Paz Middle School
Mission Viejo High School

For a few years I lived in the Capo Unified District near:
Barcelona Hills Elementary
Trabuco Hills High School
Tesoro High School
Wagon Wheel Elementary

Honestly, I don't think there is any area that is immune from drugs, sex and violence/gang involvement. However, the schools are so large that it is easy to find a good peer group. Because so many people move in and out of the districts from all over the world, I don't think there is the peer pressure that could happen in a small school.

I don't know much about Irvine schools, but I know that we were very happy with the teachers and administrators of our schools.