Best planned communities for school aged kids near Carlsbad? (San Diego: rent, how much)

[DebinCA]

Hello all,

We have lived in the SF Bay Area for the past 20 years (with some stints overseas and on the East Coast). We are now considering a move to Southern California and are honing in on the San Diego area. (we are tired of the exhorbitant cost of living in Marin county and the really cold, foggy summers - this year was particularly bad).

We nearly moved to a wonderful planned community near Charleston, South Carolina (Daniel Island) last summer, but for job related reasons, ended up staying in Marin.

So - now to my question: we love golf, the beach and have four school aged kids (9 to 11 years old), so we tend to like the whole "planned community" cul de sac thing with the larger, newer homes, community pool that the kids can ride their bikes, too - ideally with a school within walking distance and shops/restaurants. I've read about Bressi Ranch and also La Costa Green - are there others? What about schools associated with these? How much can we expect to pay in rent for a largish, newer home (4 to 5 bdrs) in a community like this? Are the beaches better than in the SF Bay Area?

Thanks for any insight that you might have - greatly appreciated!

Deb

[janineg]

Next to Bressi Ranch is a slightly older (10 years old) development called Rancho Carillo that my sister used to live in. The elementary school is Carillo, and it's highly rated. Not sure which middle school it feeds into, and high school is San Marcos High, which is supposedly scoring better and better as all these newer developments feed their wealthy kids into it.

[rhanifin]

"Near" carlsbad or "in" carlsbad?
Bressi Ranch is a nice community. Carlsbad schools are good. Bressi has faux small town development, while La Costa Greens & Rancho Carrillo are just residential neighborhoods.

My family is more familiar with Rancho Carrillo though because my sisters and I all attended. IMPO, it was the best elementary school for us- great teachers, parent involvement, etc. A lot of former Carrillo students have done really well after leaving. The last 3 valedictorians at San Marcos High have been from Carrillo and my sister is going to be the 4th (or 5th) when she graduates in 2 years. A lot of Carrillo kids go on to attend UC schools.
La Costa Greens is in the boundaries for La Costa Meadows, another great school in San Marcos Unified. In terms of test scores, Rancho Carrillo & La Costa Green schools are higher than that of Bressi Ranch at all levels (LCM/Carrillo scores higher than Poinsettia in Bressi, San Elijo Middle in SM scores higher than Aviara Oaks in Carlsbad, and San Marcos High scores better than Carlsbad High). But they are pretty much all great schools.

I would choose between Carrillo and Bressi. Better for kids..