Sacramento Schools - Public vs. Private (Orange, Citrus Heights: for sale, real estate, apartments)

[swimjenswim]

My husband is getting transferred to Sacramento from Miami just as soon as we can sell our house. I'm starting to check out neighborhoods and schools in the Sacramento area. I have two daughters ages 3 and 5. The 5 year old will be going into 1st grade. I've called some of the public schools in Folsom and Roseville because I've heard they are the best. Isabella is in a bilingual school now where she is learning Spanish. I found a Spanish magnet school in Folsom, but they basically told me it would be impossible for her to get into the program as a 1st grader because they already have a waiting list of 50 people and there are only 20 spots. The other thing is they have no art program and music doesn't start until 4th or 5th grade. I really want her early years to be fun as well as educational and she really enjoys art and music. So, now I'm starting to look at private schools. The perfect school would have the basic Reading, Math, Science and Social Studies as well as Spanish(or other foreign language), Art, Music, and Computer Lab. I liked Country Day School, but they're too expensive. I would like to keep the cost under $700 a month. If anyone can recommend a good school, please let me know. Any advice on schools or areas of town to live would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!

[d_deathrage]

There are some really good tools for finding the location of high quality public schools listed here. This might expand your availability of schools.

As for private schools while you can find some good ones, I think you are going to have problems finding one for under 700 a month. You might want to look more at Charter Schools, specifically the Waldorf methods charter at John Morse Elementary.

John Morse Waldorf Methods School

Originally Posted by zen_klown

This is a map of schools by test score.

California School Performance Maps

The Fabulous Forties area is going to be in the Sacramento City Unified School District. You can research those schools here.

California schools - CA elementary, middle and high school information

The area along the American Parkway is in the San Juan Unified School District.

You can find test scores for those schools here.

California schools - CA elementary, middle and high school information

You can find the craigslist housing classified ads mapped here.

HousingMaps

And the MLS mapped here.

HotPads - Map Search for Real Estate, Apartments & Houses for Rent, Foreclosures and Homes for Sale

If you grew up here, you have an idea of what all of those neighborhoods are like.

[NorCalMan]

We took our daugther out of the "the best" Folsom elementary school because they are cutting programs right and left. She was getting 30 minutes of P.E., art, and music each per week. Everything else was math and writing ditto after ditto after ditto, etc. Then two hours of ditto homework per night. It was awful and she hated it, so much for being in the "best school in Folsom".

I would look at charter schools because finding a private school for under $700 a month is going to be difficult. A friend of ours has her daughter in a private christian based school in Roseville but I think it's exactly $700 per month.

[swimjenswim]

Just out of curiosity, what is "the best" elementary school in Folsom? I may have to up my budget a little to find a good school. A lot of the charter schools already have their enrollment filled for next fall. I called Carden School ($675 per month) and Brighton Schools ($855 per month). Do you know anything about either of those?

[volleyballer]

How about sending your daughter to the neighborhood public school, and then paying for private music/Spanish lessons? That would be a lot cheaper and more challenging than some of your other options. You could probably find the lessons pretty cheap from college students trying to get by off of Craigslist. Just an idea. FYI, Natomas School district still has their music and PE. Granted, it is in Natomas.

[NorCalMan]

Originally Posted by swimjenswim

Just out of curiosity, what is "the best" elementary school in Folsom? I may have to up my budget a little to find a good school. A lot of the charter schools already have their enrollment filled for next fall. I called Carden School ($675 per month) and Brighton Schools ($855 per month). Do you know anything about either of those?

The "best school" in Folsom is kind of a toss up between a few schools but our daughter was at Russell Ranch, the newest, nicest school in the district.
The only thing I know about Carden School is that it's Christian based and the only thing I know about Brighton is that it's ridiculously expensive. Sorry. I'm a product of private schools and I didn't have a great few years so my opinion of private schools in general is a bit biased. If your child thrives in the school setting and both you and she has no problem with the traditional manner of teachings then there is no reason why she wouldn't like Folsom Schools.
The problem, as you pointed out, is enrollment is already done. So Private schools, homeschooling, or being lucky on a waitlist are your options. What's funny, or sad (depending on which way you look at it) is even the schools that have horrible scores have wait lists here, there's just too many kids.

[DeanMoore]

St. Albans in Roseville is highly recommended, but pricey. Valley Christian is much cheaper, but you wont get Spanish in lower grades. My oldest son graduated HS there, and is finishing his BA at Drury, my youngest started there, and continues to be top of his class here in our new home. the facilities are not much to look at though.

[MamaToThree]

Originally Posted by swimjenswim

The perfect school would have the basic Reading, Math, Science and Social Studies as well as Spanish(or other foreign language), Art, Music, and Computer Lab.

Are you planning on living in Folsom or Roseville? Have you ever considered a Montessori school? For private schools I would recommend Claire's Montessori in Orangevale, Granite Bay Montessori in Granite Bay/Roseville, or Sundance Montessori in Folsom. As for free charter schools, the California Montessori Project has 5 campuses (Elk Grove, Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Shingle Springs, and Midtown). CMP uses the Rosetta Stone language programs and they also have art, music, and computers. I love a lot of things about Waldorf and I'm sure the Golden Valley charter school is lovely, but if you are looking for a language and computer lab, Waldorf is definitely not for you. There is also a charter school in Rocklin - Maria Montessori Charter School - but I don't know much about it.

As for good public schools in the area, if my children were not attending a Montessori school, I would choose Mission Open. I toured the school and we actually got on the waiting list during open enrollment, but my children have been in Montessori school for preschool, so that is where we belong.

You can PM me if you have any questions. Good luck!

[Mossy]

Originally Posted by MamaToThree

Are you planning on living in Folsom or Roseville? Have you ever considered a Montessori school? For private schools I would recommend Claire's Montessori in Orangevale, Granite Bay Montessori in Granite Bay/Roseville, or Sundance Montessori in Folsom. As for free charter schools, the California Montessori Project has 5 campuses (Elk Grove, Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Shingle Springs, and Midtown). CMP uses the Rosetta Stone language programs and they also have art, music, and computers. I love a lot of things about Waldorf and I'm sure the Golden Valley charter school is lovely, but if you are looking for a language and computer lab, Waldorf is definitely not for you. There is also a charter school in Rocklin - Maria Montessori Charter School - but I don't know much about it.

As for good public schools in the area, if my children were not attending a Montessori school, I would choose Mission Open. I toured the school and we actually got on the waiting list during open enrollment, but my children have been in Montessori school for preschool, so that is where we belong.

You can PM me if you have any questions. Good luck!

What is Granite Bay Montessori like? My child goes to Whispering Oaks in Citrus Heights and we love it!

[MamaToThree]

Hi Mossy, I replied on the other thread to you. We almost enrolled into Whispering Oaks Montessori because the owner used to work at Claire's Montessori. We absolutely ADORED her and her school was very impressive. She has so much passion for the children, her school, and she is just an all around wonderful, comfortable woman to speak to. In the end, we decided to stay in the school where we currently are because the owner of the school gave us a very large discount so that we could afford the tuition for our 2nd child. Our oldest just got accepted into CMP (no tuition), so now we will be enrolling our 3rd child into our current school. Having 3 kids makes private tutition almost impossible, but we manage.

How are the teachers at Whispering Oak? They all seemed very nice and gentle with the children, but I was concerned that when we toured the school they had just opened their doors and enrollment was very low. Has enrollment picked up? How many kids are there in each class now? I would actually like to go back and see how they are progressing. I absolutely wouldn't hesitate to recommend Whispering Oaks from what I observed last year.