Bradenton - Sarasota Schools Private & Public (North Port: house, buy)

[LUV2FlySouth]

My family is looking to relocate to the Bradenton / Sarasota area. We currently live in a Chicago Sub. We are very happy with our school. I know what I am looking for in a FL school, but I don't know where to find it. I think that scores are very important. I also think that parent involvement and continuing to work with the school to make a wonderful learning environment is key. Schools and parents need to work closely. The school that we are currently in is really wonderful. They have smart boards in grades 3-5, music twice a week, and gym three to four times a week. It is very well rounded and parents usually drop of and pick up their kids at school. Is there anywhere in the Bradenton & Sarasota area like this? Do I need to go private to find this? Are there private schools that function like this?

[Iamrita]

This week will be our first month here @ Heritage Harbour in Bradenton. While we don't have a need for schools now (empty nest and our 3 kids were all educated in NJ) friends speak well about the private St. Stephen's Episcopal School in Bradenton where their son attends.

[SoFLGal]

Sarasota county has on of the top school systems in the state of Florida. It also has Pine View School, which is a public gifted school. It's one of the top ranked schools in the nation and serves grades 2-12th. I believe every classroom in Sarasota county has smart boards. Most of the private schools in the area are extremely expensive: New Gate, Out of Door Academy, etc.

Here are the rankings for the local schools:
School Accountability Report...

And here you can read reviews on various schools in the area:
www.greatschools.com

I've also written numerous blogs on my City-Data page about the local schools. Good luck with it!

[LUV2FlySouth]

Thanks SoCalGal. I've been reading threads and looking online over the last 6 weeks. I started this one because it's easy to look at testing scores, but not easy find out about atmosphere. What has been your experience with PV PTO or PTA? Do most of the parents get involved in the education process? Know who their kids attend school with? Is PV able to have a strong parental involvement and PTO with people being bussed 1 hr away? We don't have choice or gifted schools out here. I'm not sure how that works. Any more info would be helpful.

[SoFLGal]

Originally Posted by LUV2FlySouth

Thanks SoCalGal. I've been reading threads and looking online over the last 6 weeks. I started this one because it's easy to look at testing scores, but not easy find out about atmosphere. What has been your experience with PV PTO or PTA? Do most of the parents get involved in the education process? Know who their kids attend school with? Is PV able to have a strong parental involvement and PTO with people being bussed 1 hr away? We don't have choice or gifted schools out here. I'm not sure how that works. Any more info would be helpful.

PV has a HUGE parental involvement-PTO, PTA, volunteering, etc. Whenever there's a field trip in my 7th graders class they have to pick a parents name out of a hat because every parent wants to and can go. I believe they have an open house sometime in the beginning of the year. You'll get a sense of how the school runs and what type of parental involvement they have by taking that tour. I always recommend the tour because PV isn't for every kid and they do a good job of going over the positive and negative points of PV on the tour.

Here's the deal with PV. You have to test into the school to get in there. So, if you have "issues" i.e. drugs, fighting, low GPA then you will be districted back to your local school. I've never seen or heard of any physical fight at PV in the last 10 year I've been involved with the school. The PV environment reminds me of a collage campus, somewhat. For lunch the kids can eat in the cafeteria or sit out under the big oak trees or go to fields, etc. They give the kids a lot more freedom then many of the other schools and for the most part the kids respect that.

Most of the kids are just accepted at PV. What I mean by this is my oldest daughter wore a green, velvet cape to school for about three years. She's an art major and has always had a "different" sense of fashion. If she wore the cape at one of the regular public schools she probably would have been made fun of. Nobody really paid much attention to it other than voting her "most original" for the school year.

PV covers all of Sarasota county. I live in North Port, which is about 35 minutes away. My high school kid drives my 7th grader to school in the morning and my 7th grader takes the bus home in the afternoon. Because my older one leaves school early.

Many of the kids are very involved in their communities. For instance, my 7th grader had a birthday party a few weeks ago and asked everyone to bring cash for presents so she could buy stuff for the Sarasota Humane Society. She want shopping with the $250 she raised and bought dog toys, food, beds, etc. We just dropped all the stuff off this afternoon. Several of her class mates decided it was a great idea and have gotten involved in raising money for the shelter as well. So, my point is that the parents and very involved at the school and in turn many of the kids get involved in their communities.

The great thing about Sarasota county is that there are many other fanstatic schools. If you check out my blog on CD I have mentioned some of them.