Top private schools in Austin? (Kirby, West: top school, costs, safety)

[Raskolnikov]

Casis to O'Henry to AHS? Oh well, maybe I have to move to Tarrytown then! Ha ha. That's out of my league financially right now unless I wanted to rent. Thanks for the information though, it's very helpful. I've not heard much about Bowie either but a TON of suburban kids now go there.

[mimimomx3]

My impression is that there are quite a few wonderful elementary schools in AISD...I can think of Hill, Davis, Doss, Highland Park, Casis, Guillet, Kiker.... The only middle schools I would think of as good/great are Murchison and OHenry. As for high school, Austin High and Anderson. There are some great niche high schools (the science academy at LBJ, the arts program at MCallum...but that's about it in my opinion. Apologies for any offense....

[Raskolnikov]

What does everyone think about Patton and Small? I've heard teachers (at Kealing) say that Small is a great school; but I've never heard anything about Patton but it seems to rate well on the websites I've seen.

[mimimomx3]

If you're interested in Ohenry and Austin High, but don't want to live in Tarrytown, check out the AISD maps- the boundary for Ohenry and Austin High goes all the way to parts of Legend Oaks. The elementary school there is Patton, which is fine.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

If you're interested in Ohenry and Austin High, but don't want to live in Tarrytown, check out the AISD maps- the boundary for Ohenry and Austin High goes all the way to parts of Legend Oaks. The elementary school there is Patton, which is fine.

Yes, northern sections of Legend Oaks, Western Oaks (roughly north of a creek the name of which I can't remember) and all of Westcreek attend Patton Elementary and Austin High. The attendance boundary changes south of Convict Hill Rd., near as I can tell, along the creek that runs through Dick Nichols park.

Steve

[Raskolnikov]

Yes but it looks like Small is the middle school for all those homes in Western Oaks and Legends Oaks (north of Convict Hill-ish)

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by Raskolnikov

Yes but it looks like Small is the middle school for all those homes in Western Oaks and Legends Oaks (north of Convict Hill-ish)

That is correct. Nothing wrong with Small Middle School.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

That is correct. Nothing wrong with Small Middle School.

That's true. I think that Ohenry and Small are similar...Ohenry has a wealthier demographic to pull from (if that's important to you), but lots of kids from all over Austin transfer in.

[elmstreetschool]

My oldest son went for kindergarten to the Lycee Francais, which is bilingual French/English. It is now called the International School and teaches the challenging French Baccalaureate. We lived in Georgetown, and have two other children, so the commute and tuition expenses were impossible. But I thought it was a good program. I'm not sure what the school is like now as many of the personnel have changed.

[TX transplant]

My kid is at the Austin International School you mention, Elmstreetschool. It's a nice school in terms of the curriculum but I'm biased since I'm French! That said, the school welcomed last September 140% more students than the previous year. Sounds great, right? Well, it does get trickier. The building is way too small to accomodate all the kids and parent events. The school's administration is aware of that fact and is currently looking for new facilities, as it does plan on opening a new middle school in the next 5 years and a high-school some time after that. Unfortunately, it all comes at a certain price they currently just can't afford.

My kid spoke primarily Frenglish before Sept and I am psyched to hear her sing in French among other things. The same goes for Spanish since it is a trilingual school with a 70/20/10 ratio for French/English/Spanish.

My beef with them is they are too often closed for one thing or another. In the summer, they close for 3 months. They do provide daycare during some of those closing periods but at a hefty cost ($250/week). The school itself isn't cheap either ($1000/month), and that's not including the food ($65/month with pizza every other Friday for an additional $45/year). Then comes the extra-curricular activities. All very educational and entertaining but not free of course. However, the variety is great: taekwondo, tennis, ballet, gym, piano, Chinese lessons, Abrakadoodle, etc.

We are currently looking at placing our child in a public school because of all these crazy costs primarily. Easier said than done, she won't be 4 before mid-Sept and we are told she can't start kindergarten in a public school unless she turns 4 by Sept. 1. By the way if anyone knows how to beat the system, we're all ears!

So to summarize it all, the school is great but their struggle with space and therefore lack of organization having to deal with so many people in and out is taking its toll: not enough communication to parents which always leaves us wondering about one thing or another.
The cost is also something to take into consideration very seriously. Our first checks were astronomical!!!!