Eastlake high school Vs Issaquah high school (Seattle, Sammamish: rental homes, house prices)

[nomad-family]

Hi All,

We are moving from Singapore after 4 years of stay. Previously we were in MA. One kid to start high and the other girl to start in middle. Reviewing niche, schooldigger and few other sites and also looking at house prices, we have narrowed down to issaquah/Sammamish area. We have shortlisted sammamish - EastLake high and Inglewood junior high for the girls. But see postings indicating that rich kids go to ELH and drive expensive cars. Is that true ? Wondering if this is just a stray posting and would like to get thoughts from parents, if there is sufficient diversity and kids from all social background are accepted. I also see that ELH is into sports and not just academics. Comparing Issaquah to ELH, I found Issaquah to be more crowded and academically, they seem to be close and not big differences. But comparing Issaquah middle school to Inglewood, Inglewood seemed to fare better. Middle school was our decision maker, so we can be fair to both our girls to have the opportunity to attend good schools. Niche rating for ELH facilities is not great. Do they have library and basic facilities ? Is it as bad as some of the postings indicate ? Overall are the facilities decent ? I come from India, Bangalore and we are accustomed growing up with "less is more" kind of attitude. So I can oversee some of these as secondary. But would like to ensure that girls are accepted. They are into swimming, tennis, biking, soccer etc. so hoping they can attend all these programs and not feel left out. Please advise.

[flyingsaucermom]

You could also do Pacific Cascade Middle School instead of Issaquah Middle School. PCMS feeds into Issaquah High School. The entire district is a rather affluent one. The reason why Issaquah Middle School fares a little "worse" is because downtown Issaquah (which isn't very big at all) does have some lower socioeconomic housing (and don't worry, downtown Issaquah is still very safe, quaint and pleasant!). Sammamish is very homogenous in terms of socioeconomics. If you choose PCMS you will lose the "diversity" (i.e. the downtown kids don't go there).. it looks and feels more like Sammamish because of the neighborhoods feeding into the school are more or less on the same tier as Sammamish... in fact, I live in Issaquah Highlands and we feed into PCMS (I have a son there). We have lots of Indians in my neighborhood.

[EvilCookie]

We're zoned for Eastlake and as far as I've heard it's a fantastic school on all counts. Test scores, facilities, etc. Rich kids...you probably have some but I would think the richest of the area send their kids to private schools...from what i see in our elementary right now, it's very solid well-educated middle and upper-middle class, a lot of tech families, a lot of hardworking immigrants from India, Asia, etc. If you can afford to settle down here than you're pretty much as 'rich' as a large part of the area, so there's no reason why your girls should feel excluded for that reason. From when I was doing school research Issaquah High didn't have as great of a reputation and overall was considered 'rougher' than Eastlake or Skyline.
Also, something to keep in mind, if your girls are into STEM at all, there is a new STEM high school that can be applied to by lottery by those in the Lake Wash district, but not Issaquah. That was a big consideration for us.

[Hemlock140]

While it's been some years ago, our 3 all went to Inglewood and Eastlake, and are doing just fine as adults now. The parents are themselves well educated and have a lot of interest in the kids doing well in school.

[nomad-family]

Thank you everyone. Appreciate your feedback. Thank you about PCMS. Stats can be so misleading. Another factor that made us consider ELH vs Issaquah was that we did not get a good response from Issaquah registrar. Thank you for the STEM school opportunity. I was not aware about this at all. Initially , we went with Issaquah, since sammamish house prices were on the high end compared to Issaquah. But when we reached out via email to registrar, she blatantly told us , that she cannot allow visits to see the school or talk , until we move into the town and register with the school. Whereas , ELH and Inglewood responded right away and were willing to answer our queries vie email or phone or see them. We are now looking for rental homes in Sammamish. Compared to house prices in MA ( we are now trying to sell our house in MA ), Seattle is way higher. we are now hoping we can manage with a decent size place within 600-700k range. Happy to know that there are a lot of Indians in both Sammamish and Issaquah. We will try looking for rental homes and if we can get one - will stick with our decision with ELH and Inglewood. Thank you all. I feel settled with our decisions, as long as we can juggle the budget and make it happen ! I am just so worried about my 13.5 year girl - she is not happy to move and loose her friends. so trying to make sure, she goes into a school - where kids can mingle. Move on to the next challenge - finding homes in the right school region !!

[Powered_by_Espresso]

My daughter attended Issaquah high school, graduated two years ago, and loved it. It's a great school.