Best middle school in/around San Antonio? Opinions please! (Edgewood: home, neighborhoods)
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have you considered moving further out??? maybe to a totally different area of NISD or possibly NEISD --- my daughter is in 7th at Rawlinson Middle School, in the GT program, and i have been very happy with it...she attended Rudder for 6th and frankly, i would never do that again, that is why we moved...our elementary child attends Aue elementary...this is the 2nd year Aue has been open and in it's 1st operating year it received an Exemplary status, very hard to do for a school open for only 1 yr...dh and i, as well as our kids, love the schools...
In NEISD i have heard really really good things about Tejeda Middle School, i believe it's one of the best rated middle schools ...
i am a firm believer that kids will get into school whatever they put into it...even if the kids attend a rougher school, if they stay focused, they can still excel...but the middle school years are tough in general, it's just the age of the kids, so i can see where you would want as little distractions as possible for your son...
dh and i are native SA'ers, both born and raised here and honestly, the 1604/culebra area is not an area we would personally want to be in...DM me if you want to talk about that a little more...
Luna MS ~ 2 of my kids went there last year, and we were very happy with it. Most all of the kids at the school were great, not really any "gang" influence (my daughter said there weren't any gang "members" there, but there were a couple of "reps" ~ whatever that is). The only reason they're at a different school this year is because the new MS opened (Vale) and that's what we're zoned for. (We're VERY happy with Vale!)
Regarding the boundaries for the new Brennan High School. They have not been established yet. Will go to the various committees and board in February and then a public hearing on March 16th. My guess is that one of the boundary lines will be 1604, so anything inside 1604 will not go to Brennan. Whether the boundaries will stretch down into Westcreek, I don't know. I'd guess that it's likely.
That's the first I've heard of Vale. I'll have to look that one up.
I meant to mention earlier, my hubby's childhood was rough to say the least. He graduated from Memorial HS. He was a good student & didn't give in to any of the nonsense that went on there, but since our son is already having difficulty with this, we don't want to make it worse. We thought we taught him better, but apparently not. This whole ordeal completely blindsided us. We know that changing schools won't just magically fix all life's problems. We know there are "bad eggs" everywhere, but we'd like to lessen the number by a bunch.
What happened was we caught him stealing (gum) at HEB. Turns out he was doing it to impress & make friends with his classmates. His grades have also dropped (from straight A's to mostly B's) because he apparently thought he'd be "cool" if he wasn't as smart. He's trying so hard to fit in & be accepted by these boys. Alot of this has to do with the fact that his teacher went out on an emergency leave & the school district completely dropped the ball. For well over a month they had whatever random substitue the school could get, no structure, no homework, etc. School turned into a complete & total free for all on a daily basis & I guess since we (specifically me) are super strict with him at home .. our son took the freedom & ran with it. His regular teacher is back & we're working to get everything back on the right track, but I'm not happy at all with the school & how they handle things.
What a difference a few blocks makes. My son's school (Connally MS) is not perfect, by any means, but our Principal..........he's an ex-drill sergeant and I am so impressed with him. He's out there every day before and after school--he lets those kids know that there will be no nonsense, inside or out. He's at every evening function I've been to. He really runs that school and has made a huge difference. I don't know who the Principal at Zachry is.......I pass by there when school is letting out and it's total chaos. Yes, the kids are in uniform, but you can tell there is absolutely no discipline!! The kids run out in the street, and you can also notice the budding gang-bangers. It makes me want to scream, and thank God for the boundary line!
I wouldn't want my son there, either! I think you are wise to move him. Good luck in your search.
I'd recommend Rawilinson. You're still close to the Bandera/1604 area, within 15 minutes, and everything is still close to you. The school is still new (has the new feel) but isn't as crowded as the 1604/Culebra area.
My hubby just called me from work (he's a restaurant manager) to let me know that he was just spoke with the VP of one of the NISD middle schools. I guess the now-VP used to work with my hubby awhile back (the guy waited tables at night because he was a teacher). He mentioned that's what he's doing now & they got talking about our situation. His recommendation to hubby was to put our son in Jefferson MS. According to him they have such great programs there that they are using it as an example school for the other NISD middle schools. He also said he's aware of issues at Zachry too & thinks moving on is definitely a good thing. We actually looked at a nice house the other day that would be Krueger/Jefferson/O'Connor .. but were unsure about Jefferson (mainly because we don't care too much for Shaenfield Rd. area from what we've seen).
We were looking at Tejeda, but with further dicussion decided that it probably wouldn't be the ideal situation for us since that would be quite the commute for hubby with traffic & everything. He doesn't exactly have much time to spare, especially once he starts his 2nd job (which he had to do so we can even think about moving). Still not any definite decisions either way, but things to consider.
I can tell you that my daughter (who is also 11 but is in 6th grade) attends Jefferson and so far I've been pretty impressed by it other than the fact that it is such a huge school (1600 students last I heard). The academics are great. She's an honors student and I can tell you that I've been impressed with the academics offered in both her honors and non-honors classes. She was struggling in Math due to the fact that we moved from GA to TX after school had started so she missed some stuff during the transition, and once I contacted her math teacher she called me back immediately and mapped out a plan with me to help her get back on track. She even offered to tutor my daughter herself. Another thing that impressed me about Jefferson is that I had a concern about the kids and the swearing I was hearing from them as I was sitting in line to pick up my daughter from school, as well as some of the rough-housing from the boys causing some of the kids end up right in front of oncoming traffic. I made that call at 2:00 in the afternoon and at 3:40 when I was picking her up there were extra staff members lined up along the sidewalk outside monitoring the kids and have been there every day since! How's that for taking the parents concerns seriously? I was very impressed. I know you said you weren't too impressed with the Shaenfield Rd. area but we live in Bridgewood and aside from the HOA and their nonsense we actually really like it here. There are a few houses for rent here, I can think of two just in our little neck of the woods alone. Of course every neighborhood has their issues, but we've not experienced anything too bad. Both of my kids 10 yrs (4th grade) and 11 yrs (6th grade) have made some great friends here in our neighborhood. Sorry I know this response was probably supposed to be much shorter than this, but if I were in your shoes I would want as much info as possible. Like you said, these are your kids and there is nothing more important than them! If you have any questions about Jefferson (or Ward Elem. which is where my son attends) please feel free to ask and I'll hopefully be able to help. Best of luck to you!
Thanks!! Long is good, I tend to write lengthy posts too! LOL
When we drove through one of the neighborhoods off/around Shaenfield (I think it was Bridgewood, but not really sure -- at this point all these neighborhoods are kind of running all together to me since we've been looking so much), it reminded us too much of our current neighborhood. When we drove past several not-so-great-looking kids fighting over a BB gun, we pretty much crossed that area completely off our list & got the heck out of there.
Taking parent concerns seriously is a biggie with me. When I was trying to get ahold of the elementary school Principal I left several voicemails & he didn't even have the courtesy to call back. I finally had to go to the school. As always he was "unavailable" but I did get in to speak with the VP. We were really happy after talking with her, but then all that changed when she didn't do the things she was suppossed to do (main thing was getting our son into see the school counselor). In the very least, she didn't even follow-up with me in "a day or two" as she said she would & wouldn't return my calls. I guess she thought she would just sweep the issues under the rug & we'd all forget about them. NOPE. It took me going back to the school a week later & demanding an appointment with the Principal (who is IMO, the biggeest BS'er of them all). I'm not about to send our daughter to that school (Kindergarten) when they can't even return a parent phone call in a timely manner, or at all.
At this point we are really leaning towards the Krueger/Jefferson/O'Connor area house. We really wanted to wait to actually move until over the summer (so we could save up some $$ & we also don't think switching schools mid-year would help the situation at all, I fear it'd make it worse), & do some serious research/house hunting in the meantime, but not sure. Moving is going to be a financial stretch for us no matter what, but right now (Feb. 1st actually since we have to give our current landlady 30 days notice) would prove to be really difficult. Hubby doesn't start his 2nd job until Wednesday. We really like the house (especially for the price) & the area though so we're trying to decide what we should do.
Sounds like you have made some decisions and I applaud you for researching it and really putting your children's education first - that is great.
I just thought I'd second the vote for Tejeda, though, if you do decide to come out this way (lots of new developments and existing for-sale houses in several price ranges, but probably a long commute as you said).
The elementary schools and high schools that feed into/out of Tejeda are awesome too...
Good luck with your decision and I hope it works out for the best - if you're looking out for your kids, I'm sure you'll find a great fit!
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