Westlake Academy waitlist

[RogerWilco357]

We have students at Westlake Academy. A few thoughts on some of the posts in this thread (plus a few other related topics):

- As others have stated, the suggested donation of $2,500 per student is not mandatory, but is strongly encouraged and such encouragement is repeated frequently at the school - Westlake residents are not exempt from the donation request
- As others have stated, the reason for the donation is because WA gets 30% less per student than the public school ISDs so there is a funding gap
- You know who donated to the school as the names of the families that donate (but not the amounts) are posted and are also listed in the school communications/bulletins - I am sure that Westlake admins know all the donation amounts, though
- You would not be stigmatized for failing to donating the full amount - there are families that just cannot afford it, especially if they have several children at the school - they just give whatever they can manage
- The overall annual aggregate donation goal for the entire school has been met for as long as we have been at the school
- There are families that donate way more than $2,500 per student, as well as additional civic-minded non-parent and corporate donors, so any shortfalls in the $2,500 per student are absorbed
- I would estimate that at least half the school are not Westlake residents - There are a higher percentage of lottery students in upper grades - older student transfers to Carroll ISD for athletics or many more extra curricular activities are common
- The percentage of kids that live in Westlake is generally headed higher due to the amount of new and still-growing and planned residential construction in Westlake
- It's a very small tight knit school - the senior class of Carroll Senior High is almost larger than then entire K-12 student body at Westlake - class sizes are small
- It's one of the few K-12 IB schools in Texas - they follow the IB curriculum very strictly so if you or you kid are some sort of iconoclast when it comes to education or have beefs with certain aspects of IB, you won't like Westlake
- Westlake residents have auto admission, siblings of existing students are next in priority, then town of Westlake employees (including teachers), then the lottery students, which are separately drawn for each grade - there used to be several exceptions around the margins for Westlake building permit admission and extended family caregivers that are Westlake residents classes of admission priority, but those have been phased out over the last few years as Westlake resident numbers have increased

[bmlx]

Originally Posted by cordata

The thing to remember about Westlake is that only a part of the town is located in Carroll school district. The rest is in the Northwest ISD which is not terrible but not anywhere near the reputation of Carroll. The town created the charter school for the purpose of attracting more residents to Westlake, according to documents on their web site that I read a while back.

I just wanted to pitch in that most of the non-Carroll ISD Westlake residents are in the boundaries of Keller ISD (including Vaquero). Generally speaking it is the portion east of Davis that is in Carroll ISD (such as GlenWyck Farms). The portion of Westlake in Northwest ISD is either open land or corporate campuses, with few to no residences there at this point in time.

[accidentalpancake]

Originally Posted by shar42

My kids are on wait list in Westlake Academy. My 1st one is waitlist #16 for 9th grade and 2nd one #23 for 5th grade. Does anyone has any insight or experience with this school waitlist? Do you think they have any chance to get in. Thanks in advance.

Since many of the replies have gotten off-topic (and no, there is no required donation; that would be illegal, as many have pointed out), I'll weigh in on the wait list. There are very few spots open past Kindergarten, as very few people remain in the area and withdraw from the school. Through the PYP, I would expect low single-digit numbers, maximum, to be available, and probably no more than high single-digit numbers after that.

The school has maintained a fairly consistent 30% resident population for years (information available through Westlake town budgets, etc.), across all grade levels. Some variation year to year, and it is likely to skew higher starting in 2019/2020 with the new development occurring within the boundaries of the town, but the overall enrollment will likely grow as well.

[accidentalpancake]

Originally Posted by vailbaby

Considering the younger grades are only 50% Westlake residents and the older grades are about 35%, not everyone going there has Westlake money to afford 2500$ in donations per student.

Is an IB education only available in charter schools in Texas?!

IB is complex. There are plenty of schools with IB components/courses, and plenty more with one of the programs (PYP/MYP/DP), but Westlake is one of the few that is entirely an IB World School.

[jennifw]

Originally Posted by accidentalpancake

IB is complex. There are plenty of schools with IB components/courses, and plenty more with one of the programs (PYP/MYP/DP), but Westlake is one of the few that is entirely an IB World School.

Hmmm... my daughter has always attended an IB school. While I agree with you that there are only a few IB World schools in the Metroplex, I don't know of any (high) schools that offer any IB curriculum without having the entire program. I am not sure it would make sense as the tests are only offered through specific programs and AP is pretty readily available at most high schools.

[accidentalpancake]

Originally Posted by jennifw

Hmmm... my daughter has always attended an IB school. While I agree with you that there are only a few IB World schools in the Metroplex, I don't know of any (high) schools that offer any IB curriculum without having the entire program. I am not sure it would make sense as the tests are only offered through specific programs and AP is pretty readily available at most high schools.

By entire program, I was referring to PYP/MYP/DP. Granted, this is rare in a single school to begin with (requiring a K-12 facility).

[jennifw]

Originally Posted by accidentalpancake

By entire program, I was referring to PYP/MYP/DP. Granted, this is rare in a single school to begin with (requiring a K-12 facility).

Gotcha. You would only find that in a few privates. In DISD, they do have all 3 programs but on 3 separate campuses that feed to the same high school. Kind of the same thing.

[accidentalpancake]

Originally Posted by jennifw

Gotcha. You would only find that in a few privates. In DISD, they do have all 3 programs but on 3 separate campuses that feed to the same high school. Kind of the same thing.

True. Westlake having them all together is rare outside of a private school. Lucky kids to be in the feeder system with all IB programs.