North Mason School District (Seattle, Bellevue: crime, house, luxury)
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Hello everyone! My husband and I and our three children have moved here to Belfair a little over a year ago. As much as we love the beautiful nature and the breathtaking view of Hood Canal, as our oldest is getting ready for the middle school(Hawkins Middle School) this year, we are getting a little concerned about the school district and its low score on the tests.
I am not from United States and having a little hard time understanding the school system here, I was wondering if someone can shed some lights on the North Mason schools.
Does it really make a difference to go to the school district with the good score in order to success in life? Does bigger school have more to offer when a small school is low in funds and can't afford to have many programs to offer?
What my concern is that when my children want to do something specific and if the school has lots of choice to offer, it would be better for them since the opportunity is right there in front of their eyes.
Also, when the score is so low such as the Hawkins Middle school(It's 2 out of 10 according to the Greatschool.net) the children who can do more will have to stay with the children who needs more help and that will pull them behind. ( I hope my english will be good enough to express my concern...)
If any of you out there have any opinion or advice, knowledge about the North Mason schools, please, please share them with me.
Does it really make a difference to go to the school district with the good score in order to success in life? Does bigger school have more to offer when a small school is low in funds and can't afford to have many programs to offer?
Thank you!!
The good score is more indicative of quality of education, but not a guarantee to success in life. In your case, you might have to be more involved in your children's education and push them to be very ambitious.
The scores does look at the percentage of kids going to 4-year colleges after high schools (and two-year colleges, vocational schools, et c.) and include that in their figures. You also have to look into the area you live in for the general mentality-- is the area you live in very blue collar small town? They might not consider going to Colleges/University of grave importance or simply consider it a luxury. I mean, it could be anything.
Usually in areas where there's more wealthy people, the scores will be higher because these wealthy parents have high expectations. And there's more money flowing to the schools. So of course those school districts would have more programs to offer. However, you can't really expect ALL wealthy areas to have good school districts. Seattle Public School being one example-- you have the wealthy putting their kids in private schools.
If education is that important that you would consider moving, Olympia (school district) would be your best bet. Or Bainbridge Island.
Thank you Inkpoe for your advice. I know the good score is not the key for success. I am just saying that there in nothing wrong with choosing better school than not so good school if you want them to have more to be offered by the school. I guess you would consider Belfair a small blue collar/retired summer homes small town. lol To us, for our kids to go to collage is not an option, it's a must. It seems so unfair to me that the kids who were born under a poor parents would have to suffer with the low fund poor school. That is not equal. That won't happen in Japan where I am from. I guess I have lot more to learn.
Like you said, I am even considering moving just because of that reason. Central Kitsap school district seems pretty good so far. Thank you for the input. It means a lot to hear a diffrent opinion on things for me to be open minded.
Ah yes, my mother's Japanese and I did a summer school stint in Kagoshima. It's... very different from the US system, for sure.
I mentioned that Olympia school district and Bainbridge Island school district in previous post, those S.D. happen to be the best in the State. So is Issaquah, Bellevue, Edmonds, Mukilteo school districts. These also are the best quality school districts in state. Normally 97% (or more) of these kids that goes to these schools will go on to a 4-year university.
Wow! My father is from Kyusyu, near Kagoshima.(Kumamoto) It's so different, I am learning new things almost everyday.
The reason why we are on the penninsula are here is because my husband is in the Navy. He has three more years till he retires from doing 20 years in the serivice. Depends on where he will get his next job, I will definately keep in mind of those places. I have heard of Japanese schools near Seattle area. Feel very lucky to be able to have plenty access to Japanese food and books and such.
Again, thank you for the information. Arigatou gozaima****a.
The North Mason school district is worse than working class. It is a very poor district and there is a lot of crime and drug use in the school system. Activities are poorly funded. There are a lot illegal immigrant kids and poor white trash in this area. However, putting your kids in a wealthy district such as Bainbridge Island can hurt them if your family is middle class because there are so many rich upper class kids (mostly white) for yours to compete with and the financial expectations on the parents may be beyond your ability to fund. If you are navy and middle class, the Kitsap school system offers a lot of activities and advanced placement classes with high expectations for motivated kids. Many engineers come out of those school systems and they have an ethnic diverse student body due to the naval bases. Easier for navy kids to assimilate and achieve there. Most of the cheerleaders are of Asian decent.
I am sorry for taking forever to reply. I just wanted to thank you for your opinion and your point of view. We are putting our house in a market and going to move to a better school district. Meanwhile, I am not trying to bash the schools here. The staffs are great and the teachers are compassionate and I know my children and I will miss here greatly. I crave diversity and more closer to activities I guess.
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Thanks for the advice!
