St. Joseph School in Kennewick (Richland, Pasco: house, catholic schools, live)

[MTNative406]

My family will be relocating to Kennewick, WA soon. My husband will be leaving in January and we (2kids + 2dogs + mom) in the comings months as the house here in Butte, MT sells. Our kids currently attend a catholic elementary school here. We are very happy with the small classroom sizes, individual attention that the kids get, and the sense of community we feel within the school system, and the teaching of values and social justice. Butte has under 30,000 people and is the only place the kids have lived that they remember. I have a few concerns for them as we move to a much larger area. First they have never attended public school, and secondly I don't want them to get lost in the shuffle at a large public school. I am interested to know what people in the area know about St. Joseph's and it's reputation. Are they strong academically, do they have enough money for things they need, anything about class sizes and the just the feel of the school itself? I won't send my kids to a catholic school just because it's catholic; I also want them to have a really good education and be prepared for life.

Anyone that could give some insight would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for the posts. This sight has been very helpful to us as we have been searching for a new job to find out what the locals really know about a community that no one would find on a chamber of commerce web-site.

[Smith45]

My 3 kids (8, 11, 13) all attended St. Joseph's for about 8 years. However, we have moved them to Christ the King Catholic School in Richland, WA two years ago and are very happy with the change. St. Joseph's is a good school, but they do struggle witht he money needed to provide what we felt was necessary for a better education. They struggle finding teachers, principal and they lack in math and science area. However, they still are much better academically than any public school. They are more conservative than the other two Catholic schools (there is St. Pat's in Pasco) and still have a few nuns teaching.

However, we have felt that Christ the King is better and has the funding necessary to offer what our kids need to be successful. Out of the three Catholic schools, we would rate Christ the King as the superior one, with St. Patrick's following close behind and then St. Joseph's.

Hope this helps

DSmith

[MTNative406]

Thank you so much for the response, I was beginning to give up on a response. I was not aware there was another option other than St. Joesph's so I am looking forward to checking out Christ the King as well. When we drove by St. Joseph's this summer it looked kind of run down from the outside, so that was kind of a flag to me about the financial well being of the school. I will be in town in about 2 weeks so I will make appointments at both to check them out. Thanks again!

[Smith45]

Great! The principal at Christ the King is Joe Jisa (pronounced ee-sha) and the vice principal is Nicole Anderson. Phone 509-946-6158. Here is the school's web site in case you're interested.
https://www.edline.net/pages/CKSchool

Good luck and welcome to Tri-Cities, Washington

Dsmith