Good Shepherd vs St. John's (Dallas, Paris: neighborhood, preschool, college)

[jbsb]

We are currently visiting private schools in the Dallas area and so far Good Shepherd and St. John's Episcopal School stand out the most. I would give the slight edge to Good Shepherd, but St. John's would be much more convenient (we live in Lake Highlands) and still appears to be a great school. Does anyone have any insight into these schools?

I am also wondering about the parochial schools, St. Monica in particular. I have heard very good things about the school, but do not know if our family would fit well there. We are not Catholic and consider ourselves more spiritual than religious, if that makes any sense.

We have young children and would start our oldest in Pre-K. We also need a school with before and after care since we both work.

Thanks!

[appletoz]

GSE has experienced a lot of administrative changes in the last few years and has lost strong families to Parish and ESD, due to the fact that those schools go through HS. I'm not very familiar with St. Johns to comment on the differences.
St. Monica strongly adhears to Catholic teachings. Your child will learn specific catechism in theology class. I think the people who are the unhappiest are the ones who are suprised at "how Catholic" the school is. There are many strong familes at St. Monica but 90% of them are Catholic.

[jennifw]

I have friends with children at both St. Johns and Good Shepard. If you live in Lake Highlands, I would recommend sticking with a "neighborhood" school. Both schools tend to draw from the local area and you might end up spending a LOT of time in the car if you choose GSE. Just imagine all of the playdates, birthday parties, mom's coffees, etc. that will be centered around the school community.

I have heard nothing but great things about St. John's and don't think you would go wrong there. Good luck!

[debtex]

We are at St. John's, you can PM me if you want more specifics on our experience. We are super happy with the quality of education, the strong community, and the peer group our kids have found there. We are Catholic but preferred SJES to STA. My only beef has been the cost, but it's still cheaper than GSE, I think. If you're thinking Catholic, I hear great things about St. Pat's, which doesn't get the same attention as St. Monica's. I think you would have a hard time getting into St. Monica's without moving over there.

We wanted to go to a neighborhood school, and I think that was the right decision. The school pulls primarily from Lake Highlands, Lakewood, and Forest Hills. Our kids play on sports teams based in East Dallas, have friends in East Dallas, and they run into friends from school all over the place. As for us as parents, having friends from our kids' school creates a community for us, too. When you see people every Saturday at games and twice a week at practices, not to mention scouts & school parties, etc...you get to know them!

Good luck, I know this is a hard decision!

[jbsb]

GSE has experienced a lot of administrative changes in the last few years and has lost strong families to Parish and ESD, due to the fact that those schools go through HS. I'm not very familiar with St. Johns to comment on the differences.

Thanks for the insight appletoz. Do you know the cause of the administrative changes? I was very impressed with their tour, but I don't know any families personally that send their children to GSE. The only potential problem that I saw at Good Shepherd was that there was no scheduled nap at the preK level. It seems that St. John's had a nap or rest period for that age. On the flip side, I wasn't as impressed with the St. John's tour, but have only heard great thing from the families that go there.

We know three families that send their kids to ESD and all love it. My fear is that we do not have "ESD Money" like they do. I do not mind having less wealth than the other families, I just worry about not affording some of the over the top extracurricular activities. I have heard that $25k/year and get to $35k very quickly. Don't know if there is any truth to that. I also go back and forth on k-12 programs vs programs that stop at 8th grade. I like the idea of not having a high school influence around younger children and the fact that we will know what kind of child we will have by then (academic overachiever, wall flower, social butterfly, athletic, etc.). At the same time, the thought about going through this process again makes me a little apprehensive.

[jbsb]

I have friends with children at both St. Johns and Good Shepard. If you live in Lake Highlands, I would recommend sticking with a "neighborhood" school. Both schools tend to draw from the local area and you might end up spending a LOT of time in the car if you choose GSE. Just imagine all of the playdates, birthday parties, mom's coffees, etc. that will be centered around the school community.

Thanks jennifw. I completely agree. We absolutely love our neighborhood and house, but would be willing to move closer to Good Shepherd, ESD, etc. if we found a good school fit for us on that side of town. I am just trying not to be selfish and look at St. John's vs the other schools as objectively as possible!

It is a little difficult to judge St. John's vs the other schools because it is such an East Dallas only program and there doesn't seem to be as many people that know about it. The other issue I have is that it seems like a majority of the students go to Bishop Lynch. I do not know a lot about BL, but it seems that most people rate it a notch or two lower than a lot of the other privates on the other side of 75.

[debtex]

My take on the inclusion of a high school vs not is that by 8th grade, my kids are going to be ready for a new school and new faces. I can't imagine going to one school for 10 years as it is...I didn't. By high school I think they are going to be more than ready for a change.

As for the high school admissions...I'm not sure what the party line on that is, but it's my sense that a lot of the kids want to go to BL because their friends are, and BL makes a really hard sell to SJES kids. Plus it's in East Dallas, and all the kids at SJES are East Dallas residents. But it's certainly a question mark...BL just isn't on par with Jesuit and Ursuline.

[autyger]

We recently went through a similar decision process. We live in East Dallas and our kiddo was in a North Dallas preschool that feeds into the highly-regarded North Dallas private schools. When it was time for the next step, we did a ton of research, visited several schools, sought input from other parents and high school admissions folks, and even met with a private school consultant.

The consensus seemed to be that St. John’s is the closest thing East Dallas has to the North Dallas private schools. It’s not a St. Mark’s/Hockaday/Greenhill, but it compares favorably with the other North Dallas schools – and is most similar to Good Shepherd.

We decided if we could get the equivalent of a Good Shepherd without the commute, we would do so. We went with St. John’s and have not regretted it for a second. The academics are strong, our kiddo is happy and learning, and the parent community is great. Having most activities in the local community is an added bonus.

Regarding Bishop Lynch matriculation, I think that is more a function of geography than anything else. We have a friend at Ursuline who says they love St. John’s kids and actively recruit there.

Anyway, good luck with your decision. Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions and I’ll answer as best I can.

[jbsb]

Thanks for all of the input! It seems that St. John's and Good Shepherd are on a fairly level playing field. How would you compare these schools to Episcopal School of Dallas? I know that they are different in regards to ESD going all the way through high school, but I am trying to get a feel for the academic aspect up until 8th grade. It seems like a lot of people on the forum are saying that the social pressure at ESD can be overwhelming, but the families that we know are very happy there.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by jbsb

Thanks for all of the input! It seems that St. John's and Good Shepherd are on a fairly level playing field. How would you compare these schools to Episcopal School of Dallas? I know that they are different in regards to ESD going all the way through high school, but I am trying to get a feel for the academic aspect up until 8th grade. It seems like a lot of people on the forum are saying that the social pressure at ESD can be overwhelming, but the families that we know are very happy there.

ESD has long been known as the " rich kids party school", particularly at the high school level. Check their SAT's / NMSF and college admissions list and you'll see a BIG gap between St Mark's / Hockaday/ Cistercian/ Greenhill and ESD. You might as well consider the Catholic high schools (Ursuline & Jesuit)- same academic tier as ESD but half the price. ESD isn't a bad school, it's just NOT worth $25-35k/ year. Not even close.