Moving to St. Louis - need help with schools, swim teams & neighborhoods (St. Joseph: appointed)

[Mary-Iris]

Hi. My husband is planning to accept a job in St. Louis & we are preparing to move during late December in the hopes of having our girls start school there right after Christmas break. Our oldest daughter is in 9th grade & is a pretty accomplished swimmer (qualified for the YMCA National Meet this year) and another daughter in 5th grade. We are considering both Catholic and public schools. Looking for strong academics & nice, safe environment. Coed HS is probably preferred, but all girls would be okay as long as there was an affiliated all boys "brother" school. For our 5th grader, a K - 8th arrangement would be preferred. In terms of our new residence, we think we'd like new contruction but are not married to that idea ($400 - $500K) , and a very family-oriented neighborhood. Any suggestions?

[ShadowCaver]

Welcome to the forum, and to the StL area

First questions, what area of StL will he be working, and then, how far of a commute is desired?

Give us that idea, and then we can work w/in that radius to recommend 'best' suggestions.

[Mary-Iris]

My husband may be accepting a position with Cooper Bussman in Chesterfield (we think). We've honed in on Lafayette, Marquette & John F. Kennedy high schools. Any help with their reputations in terms of safety, academics, sports, drugs, etc.? Looks like Lafayette has a good swim team. Our daughter would likely swim for the local Y if there is one. I've looked at MLS listings -- not sure how the school districts divide communities & if, from a housing standpoint, one district is better than another. A 30 minutes of less communte would be preferred. Any ideas in terms of a good K-8 school for our 5th grader? Any other swim teams we should know about?

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by Mary-Iris

My husband may be accepting a position with Cooper Bussman in Chesterfield (we think). We've honed in on Lafayette, Marquette & John F. Kennedy high schools. Any help with their reputations in terms of safety, academics, sports, drugs, etc.? Looks like Lafayette has a good swim team. Our daughter would likely swim for the local Y if there is one. I've looked at MLS listings -- not sure how the school districts divide communities & if, from a housing standpoint, one district is better than another. A 30 minutes of less communte would be preferred. Any ideas in terms of a good K-8 school for our 5th grader? Any other swim teams we should know about?

Lafayette and Marquette are public high schools and "Kennedy" as it is known in STL is of course a Catholic private school. With no offense to anyone at Kennedy, the reputation isn't the greatest.(there are many other better Catholic high school choices imo for what you mentioned) Both Lafayette and Marquette are well regarded and strong public high schools in the Chesterfield and Ellisville area.

The public school system in the area you mentioned is very good. Also, the parochial grade schools there are good too. And if for some reason neither of those routes wowed you...there are always private, high end cost private grade schools too.

Also, Lafayette is the defending large school state champion in girls swimming. And all 3 of the schools in the Parkway school district are very strong as well. This link can give you some basic info on high school swimming.

STLtoday - Prep Sports - Swimming - Girls

[Mary-Iris]

Lafayette may force our hand with such a good swimming program, but other than Kennedy, what other Catholic high schools in the area would you recommend we look into if we were to settle in the Chesterfield area? My daughter would prefer coed but an all girls school would be okay so long as there was an affiliated boys school for it...

[TGS]

Visitation and St. Joseph's Academy have good swimming programs. Cor Jesu also has a good program, but might be too far away.

In St. Louis, the Catholic schools are usually either co-ed or single sex without sister/brother schools, per se. The single-sex Catholic high schools in St. Louis have a very strong reputation for academics and athletics. They are, for the most part, regarded as better then the co-ed public and Catholic high schools.

Don't discount a single-sex school because there isn't a "brother" school. The kids from our parish elementary school go all over to different high schools, and there is a LOT of interaction between the kids at the different schools. It isn't unusual at all to see a group of kids hanging out, all of them with different high school hoodies.

For your younger girl, most of the parish schools in Chesterfield are very good.

You should also check out the public school districts of Kirkwood and Webster Groves. They have very good high schools, good swimming programs, and great parish K-8 Catholic schools. Those suburbs are very safe, and have more of a "neighborhood" feel than Chesterfield.

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by Mary-Iris

Lafayette may force our hand with such a good swimming program, but other than Kennedy, what other Catholic high schools in the area would you recommend we look into if we were to settle in the Chesterfield area? My daughter would prefer coed but an all girls school would be okay so long as there was an affiliated boys school for it...

Speaking only of Catholic high Schools, most are single sex schools(she'll get used to it and many date guys from many single sex boys schools and/or public schools. Single Sex Catholic high schools are common in the STL area. Most families will drive all over the metro STL area to their kids high schools. I know multiple single sex high schools where the students come from not only the entire metro area but as far as over an hour a day every day just to attend that school. The kids at the single sex high schools generally are from the more upper middle class suburbs of STL, but some go to schools based on aid, etc...

If you are asking me my opinion, Cor Jesu, Visitation Academy, Nerinx Hall, Villa Duschesne, St. Jospeph's Academy, have some of the stronger reputations, "Viz" and "Villa" are very small schools and have grade schools too. The rest are bigger....600, 700 girls in grades 9-12 generally speaking....there are more than just these too....All emphasize athletics a lot, academics at a few on this list are tougher than others, but all on there are solid schools and very popular in the STL area.

There are also co-ed private high schools, not Catholic too.

St. Louis doesn't do affiliations with a girls school with a boys school.....i.e......you have a kid at one of the above girl schools and they are associating with any of a number of half a dozen or more single sex Catholic boys high Schools.....plenty of boys and boys schools to choose from.....

These schools have tons of "mixers" and events where hundreds of kids show up from many of the schools.....also many kids know the kids from grade school at other places, or sports teams, or neighborhood friends...and so on.....you don't just hang out with your own school and one other boys school....it doesn't work that way....you hang with whomever you want...

[yumaaz]

Not to change the subject much, but I am in the same boat. Moving to Saint Louis (working in Fenton) and am currently living in Eureka. My kids are in competitive swimming (8, 8, and 6) but I am disappointed now that there is not a local USA swim team in this area. Am I missing something or is there in fact a year round team in this area? If anyone out there knows, please let me know.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by yumaaz

Not to change the subject much, but I am in the same boat. Moving to Saint Louis (working in Fenton) and am currently living in Eureka. My kids are in competitive swimming (8, 8, and 6) but I am disappointed now that there is not a local USA swim team in this area. Am I missing something or is there in fact a year round team in this area? If anyone out there knows, please let me know.

What do you mean by "local?" There are a lot of excellent USA swimming teams in the St. Louis area.

Clayton CSP Tideriders
CSP Tideriders :

Parkway Swim Club
Parkway Swim Club :

Rockwood Swim Club
Rockwood Swim Club :

St. Peters Rec-Plex Sharks
Rec-Plex Sharks :

Here is a list of all the teams if the ones above don't work:
Ozark Swimming - Teams

[stlcitygirl]

The Parkway school district in Chesterfield is well known to be superb.