What are the best schools in South Texas? (Dallas, San Antonio: college, property taxes)

[supfromthesite]

Trying to get a discussion going...

In San Antonio; Alamo Heights, St. Mary's Hall, TMI, and SA Academy are some of the best schools you could ask for. I like San Antonio ok but would prefer to live somewhere with a slower pace of life. I have see the growth going on and I prefer to live in a smaller place with less traffic. It is getting overwhelming unless you stay in your little corner all the time. I may have to suck it up and stay in San Antonio for my future kids but I've been wondering.. Are there any schools that rank up there with these that are South or West of San Antonio? It seems like the best public school district South or West of SA might be George West, the elementary is probably about on par with Alamo Heights but the middle school is a little worse and the high school leaves a lot to be desired. I wonder if the kids just get unmotivated as they get older, if the smarter ones go on to boarding schools, or if perhaps the current students that are in elementary are just much smarter than the current students in high school. Are there any schools in Corpus Christi that are highly regarded like this, or elsewhere? Anybody have experience with Uvalde Classical Academy or Alice Christian School, or another private school? If anybody on here lives in one of these smaller towns (Uvalde, Hondo, Alice, Castroville, Corpus, RGV, etc) I'm curious to know what you did for school? I'm not trying to trash small town public schools or anything but my experience was not very good within the past 10 years and I have a feeling by the time I have kids and they are in school it will only be worse.

My uncle and grandpa went to Woodberry Forest in Virginia so that's always an option too I guess for boys but if I have to do that I might just stay in San Antonio.

[jackalope48]

Corpus has a top of the line public IB program that has it's own elementary,(Windsor Park) and then shares Baker middle school and Ray High School. Before it was IB and just a G&T program it ended at high school and pretty much the entire top ten at all the high schools were alumni of the program. It's not a huge program(like 120 kids a class year) so it doesn't really show at the school level scoring at the middle and high school levels.

The Episcopalian private school which runs (1-8) and Seashore Academy on the Island(1-8) are the good private schools. They are academically comparable to the IB program but I will say when I was in school they had a tough time adapting to high school socially.

In terms of public schools Calallen(northwest Corpus) is all around pretty good as is London(South Corpus Christi). Flour Bluff and Tuloso Midway are also well regarded.

I graduated from the precursor to the IB program and went to a top 50 college. I was not a top student in the IB program in high school. I'd say I was similarly academically prepared for college as the kids from Andover, Exeter, and Milton. I will say that socially the boarding school kids were weird, like caged tigers suddenly thrust into the wild.

[texasdiver]

Former teacher here. I have family and friends who live and teach in San Antonio (all on the north side in the Shavano Park area).

If I had kids in school I'd probably stick it out in the greater San Antonio area until they were out of school. The ones you mentioned or the districts in the north and northwest suburbs. Like Boerne or North East ISD or North Side ISD.

The smaller rural districts are simply going to have less funds and less opportunity to attract good teachers. That is the reality throughout all of Texas. The best districts are pretty much ALWAYS in the old money inner city areas such as Alamo Heights or places like Highland Park in Dallas. Or in the newer upscale suburbs around the bigger cities like Frisco, Katy, Lake Travis, Westlake, Woodlands, or the upscale burbs around San Antonio. That is a consequence of how Texas pays for schools through local property taxes. The old money inner city areas just have a ton of taxable property and generally few school aged kids. So lots of $$$ per kid. The upscale suburbs have a lot of new property and business/industrial parks that pay tax plus lots of parents who always vote for bond measures.