University City -- what schools?

[joythomas]

i live in Ucity and I took my children out of UCity because of both teachers and kids. They were not learning much of anything and the administrative, as well as teachers were very very negative toward black children and themselves. The teachers had no self confidence, very broken and didn't care for themselve or students. I was very outraged. Now my son is about to attend 7 grade next year and I am looking for a good private school not too expensive. He now attends a independent private school.

[cnult]

I just moved to U City last years and did a lot of research on the subject for when my wife and I have kids in the near future. Here goes:
Flynn Park is an exceptional Elementary School. My nephew goes there and his parents have nothing but positive things to say about it. Parent involement is very high. The neighborhoods around Flynn are all well kept and have little to no crime. Jackson Park is good but not great. I will not send my kids to the Junior high/high school when the time comes. I know some people do and they think it is great, but I think it just depends on your comfort level. U City is a big area and covers every spectrum of income/crime/property values/etc. While there are a lot of good kids there, there will also be a lot of kids from homes with little parent involvement that are in high crime areas.

As previously mentioned, you can pay to send your kids to Clayton schools. However, if you are going to go that route, and given how cheap interest rates are right now, you might as well buy a house in Clayton for the extra $100k-$200k. Three kids at $9k each is equal to at least a few hundred thousand dollars in mortgage payment right now. Clayton will be a lot less diverse but when it comes to schools there's is going to be at the top of public schools in the area.

On the flip side, I love living in U City and the charm of the neighborhoods and houses is, in my opinion, unmatched in St. Louis. Hope this helped