Private Schools in SA? (San Antonio, Austin: apartment, house, transfer)

[trayce]

We are moving to SA in about 3 weeks. I am looking for the best private/parochial schools. I am most interested in schools that are strong in academics with small class sizes. We are more than likely going to live on the NW far NW side of town. Atonement Academy and Rolling Hills Academy seem pretty good, but my opinoin is solely based on info I recieved from their websites. Any suggestions?

[firstclassflyer]

You are moving in 3 weeks and don't even have a house picked out yet?

[adtobias]

st marys hall has good academic but is very expensive

[sapphire]

Harvest Academy is a great Christian school. And I've heard good things about Concordia as well. They aren't really NW though, more N/NC.

[neddy]

We are moving to Austin at the end of the week but we went to St. George Episcopal Day school and we loved the place. About 500 kids K-8 small class sizes. In the med price range for private schools in SA. Been around a long time.

St. Mary's Hall is extremely, massively competitive in the stuff kids shouldn't have to compete in - things like who has a nicer car, and whose parents let them drink at parties, and who doesn't have a curfew, things like that. I find that the focus on academics is lacking, and there is much more focus on social life and sports. The parents are also highly, highly competitive with each other.

Other private schools that'd I'd recommend are Keystone, which is in Monte Vista and is geared towards academically excelerated students (all APs by 10th grade), and has small class sizes - there are generally 40 or 50 kids in the younger grades, and less than 30 in each grade in the high school. There is the San Antonio Academy, which is PreK-8 military school for boys (and across the street from Keystone).

WRT to Catholic schools, I have heard good things about St. Matthews, St. Peter Prince of Apostles, Blessed Sacrament, St. Anthony's Elementary (separate and different from St. Anthony's the high school) and Holy Spirit. St. Mary's Hall, fyi, is not a Catholic school, irregardless of the name. It's Episcopalian.

What is the age range/gender of the kids? That would help give people an idea of what you are looking for.

[googie2525]

Originally Posted by adtobias

st marys hall has good academic but is very expensive

St. Mary's is excellant, 3 of my cousin's go there and love it. They all decided to transfer from Alamo Heights after their freshman year, since they felt the classes were too big, too much social/distracting hub-bub, etc. - they wanted somehting small and personalized, and they got it at St. Mary's...But yeah, it's expensive as heck.

[url=http://www.smhall.org[/url]

[trayce]

Thanks great info.

I have 2 kids. My son is going to be in the 4th grade and my daughter will be in the 1st. Unfortunately we have not picked out a house, we are pretty sure we are going to build. Which means we will probably have a short stint in an apartment. I have moved around alot and in my experience I need to get my kids schooling situated rather quickly so I am not limited. My husband is starting a new job there and that is why we are moving on such short notice. St Mary's Hall looks excellent, but is a little to pricey. I want tuition to be about 5k a year for each of my kids.

[MichelleSG]

A lot of my neighbors have kids that go to Atonement, or rather did, they are putting them in public school this year due to disenchantment. As with most private Catholic schools they have their own set of internal strife and gossip. As for how the school works (totally unrelated to the last comment) they have mass every day and the classes are segregated between girls and boys. Some catholics I know didn't want their preschool kids put through mass every day because they didn't want their children burnt out. I understand that they have good academics, which is to be expected.

I've heard great things about St Matthews too but I also understand there's a loooong waiting list there.

You really need to have already contacted the schools that you want to get your children into. Even the public schools in the desirable neighborhoods are capped. I know our local school was capped the day they opened registration and that's with 9 classes in each grade.

[wCat]

"Best" is relevent to what you want. By far, St Mary's Hall and TMI are the most desired private schools in San Antonio. They are expensive, but the education at both is excellent. "monied" families lean toward these two....and there is a lot of status and clout that goes far beyond graduation from there. That is if you care about that. But the academics are not lacking at all......but the "money" competition is tough on some of the kids that are not used to that kind of lifestyle. High grades and SAT scores from either make college choices a lot easier......not to mention the HUGE alumni support later on when college grads are looking for solid careers.

Seems unfair that money can sort of buy academic "success", but trust me, these kids work for it to get through.