Asians in St. Louis schools (Kirkwood, Webster Groves: for sale, rent, house) - Missouri (MO) - City-Data Forum

bestplacetolive · 03-20-2010, 10:45 AM

Considering moving to St. Louis, thinking about inner-ring suburbs (e.g. Clayton, Ladue, Webster Groves, Kirkwood). Realize now that while Clayton and Ladue have a decent number of Asians (6-8% in the high schools), Kirkwood and Webster Groves are down at ~1%. I don't want my kid to feel like he's the only Asian in his school.

Clayton and Ladue are a bit pricey. I'd prefer public school, but does anyone have recs on private schools if we were to live in these areas?

What about Olivette? Looks like you would be in the Laude school district if you lived there. What is Olivette like?

Thanks!

stlcitygirl · 03-20-2010, 11:03 AM

Both Clayton and Ladue are known for having excellent schools. You pay a lot to live there, but would be able to save $ by sending your child to public schools.

nettiefromnc · 03-20-2010, 06:59 PM

When we relocated to St. Louis, I looked for a house in Clayton or Ladue because of the public schools and ended up in Ladue. Our younger kids are in elementary school in the Ladue district and we are very happy with our choice. Since we live on the border of Clayton/Ladue, my kids swim and play sports with lots of kids from Clayton. Clayton seems to be a bit more diverse (with more Asian) but I am sure your kids would do fine in either school district. All of the areas that feed those schools: Ladue, Olivette, Clayton, Richmond Heights, Frontenac, etc. are nice areas.

St. Louis also has lots of great private school options. If you decide to do private school, I would recommend you save some money on housing and live in the city limits of St. Louis or other less pricey inner-suburb.

Nettie

wustu87 · 03-20-2010, 10:50 PM

We live in the Ladue district and can state the Asian population at the middle school is definitely pronounced. If you look at the middle school orchestra, for example, it must be 15-20% Asian. Olivette itself has a fairly strong Asian population due to its proximity to the Asian businesses, stores and restaurants on Olive (as well as its relatively affordable home prices within the district). It has a feel similar to its location -- halfway between U City and Creve Coeur, more suburban than U City, but less so than than Creve Coeur. It has a variety of housing stock, from smaller, older homes under $200K, to new teardowns costing well over $1M. The majority of the existing homes are older brick homes, many being ranches, and most with mature trees in the yards. We considered some homes in Olivette but ended up further south but still within the Ladue district. Hey, there are some homes for sale in our neighborhood in Richmond Heights. We'd love to have some new neighbors with some children!!

bestplacetolive · 03-21-2010, 01:55 PM

LOL, you can always count on the Asian violin players to fill up the orchestra! Olivette sounds quite nice. Good to know also that parts of Richmond Heights are in the Ladue school district. Do you have more info on the homes for sale there in your neighborhood? Earliest we would move would be Sep, and will probably rent for at least a few months anyway, but getting a better feel for the housing situation there will definitely impact our decision.

inahandbasket · 03-21-2010, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bestplacetolive

LOL, you can always count on the Asian violin players to fill up the orchestra! Olivette sounds quite nice. Good to know also that parts of Richmond Heights are in the Ladue school district. Do you have more info on the homes for sale there in your neighborhood? Earliest we would move would be Sep, and will probably rent for at least a few months anyway, but getting a better feel for the housing situation there will definitely impact our decision.

If you have a serious string player in your family you may wish to consider the Parkway school district, specifically the geographic area that Parkway CENTRAL school district serves. Parkway Central High School has three orchestras. The top orchestra, "Symphonic", is predominantly Asian. In fact, the orchestra director, Winifred Crock, is considered the best high school orchestra director in Missouri. Asian families have moved into Parkway Central's district in anticipation of their children becoming part of the whole string program, along with the academic reputation of Parkway.

inahandbasket

bestplacetolive · 03-22-2010, 12:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by inahandbasket

If you have a serious string player in your family you may wish to consider the Parkway school district, specifically the geographic area that Parkway CENTRAL school district serves. Parkway Central High School has three orchestras. The top orchestra, "Symphonic", is predominantly Asian. In fact, the orchestra director, Winifred Crock, is considered the best high school orchestra director in Missouri. Asian families have moved into Parkway Central's district in anticipation of their children becoming part of the whole string program, along with the academic reputation of Parkway.

inahandbasket

Well, my son is only 5 1/2 months old, but maybe I should put a violin in the crib now!

Seriously, though, good to know there's a strong Asian presence in certain areas...

stlcitygirl · 03-23-2010, 08:52 AM

^ Parkway is a good school district, but in terms of being close to the things that make STL awesome, Clayton and Ladue are a much better location.

moorlander · 03-23-2010, 09:03 AM

My Clayton neighborhood, the Moorlands, has got to be 10-20% asian. Come to the Moorlands we'd love to have ya!

The elementary School is is Glenridge, I'm sure you could look up the demographics online somewhere.

bestplacetolive · 03-23-2010, 04:18 PM

You're right on, Moorlander. According to schoolmatters.com, Glenridge has 17% Asians! Not sure if this link will work, but I compared 3 different elementary schools in the Clayton area:

SchoolMatters (http://www.schoolmatters.com/schools.aspx/q/page=sc/scid=69860,69861,69862/pid=cmp/up_scid=69860,69861,69862/up_pn=1,1,1/up_ust=MO/up_csa=3 - broken link)

So how come the % Asian is so much lower at Clayton HS? Is it because of other elementary/middle schools with lower % Asians also feeding into Clayton HS? Or is it because the % of Asian families with young kids moving into the Clayton school district is increasing? I'm guessing more the former than the latter.