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Wow. When I went to SI tuition was half that. This was less than 10 years ago. Family thought it was a steal for the quality of education, especially compared to other wealthy private schools. But I guess not so much. But 22k for Riordan???? I couldn't justify that. Riordan was letting in kids who were expelled from SI when I was there. Maybe tuition will go down now with it becoming co-ed
Since I'm not Christian, I'd prefer not to send my kids to a religiously affiliated school. If I were to do private school, that would cost me about $50k/year. Ouch!
I wonder where the OP ended up or if they decided against moving.
I agree with clongirl's assessment. Our zoned elementary school is rated middle of the road on great schools but so many in the community consider it one of the best. I think the Bay Area just has helicopter parents with ridiculously high standards. A child can be unhappy at a good school but thrive in the environment of a lower rated school.
I'm also a current Fremont resident. In fact, I've lived here my whole life except for college. My mom is also a retired Fremont public school teacher, and my oldest child is starting at a public junior high school in Fremont this fall. (Younger kids attend parochial school.)
Like some previous posters, I would not recommend most of the Fremont public schools, particularly the junior high and high schools, for a child suffering from anxiety. My own daughter has fairly severe social anxiety, so I empathize. Fremont public schools when I was a kid were like most CA public schools--they weren't the worst, but they certainly weren't great. Now they mostly score very highly, and that is due almost entirely to the huge influx of Asian immigrants (mostly from China, Taiwan, and India) over the past 30 years or so. The downside is that most of these same immigrants who greatly value education, which is generally a good thing, take it to an unhealthy extreme, in my opinion.
A few years ago, there was a spate of suicides of high school students in Palo Alto, just across the bridge from Fremont. The suicides were attributed to the extreme academic pressures placed on young people in Palo Alto high schools, in the shadow of Stanford University. These tragedies were well-publicized in local media. What most people do not realize is that Fremont high schools have also had many suicides and suicide attempts, but these, for whatever reason, do not make their way into the press like the suicides in PA did. Granted, I believe it is the pressure put on these poor kids by their families which is the real culprit, not the schools or most of the teachers, but being surrounded by classmates who are nearly all experiencing similar pressure cannot be healthy, especially if a child already has anxiety and is focused on academics.
Also, if you are not an Asian-American family, your child may be racially bullied in Fremont schools. It happened to my daughter. (She was one of seven kids in her elementary school class of 28 who were not Asian-American or recent Asian immigrants.) I have two friends who actually leased out their very nice homes in Fremont and bought houses in other cities (Livermore and San Carlos) a few years ago because their kids were being bullied for being white in Fremont elementary schools. And, a neighbor of mine recently complained that her grandson has been racially bullied for the same reason at Irvington High School, even though he is a tall, big kid. I am not saying it happens to every non-Asian kid--it's never happened to my other kids, fortunately--but it does happen. So, if one of your kids has anxiety, and you are not Asian-American or an Asian immigrant, that is another thing to seriously consider when it comes to Fremont schools, in my opinion.
Washington High School and Kennedy High School, which are not considered as "good" academically as the other high schools in Fremont, at least tend to have greater ethnic diversity. Kennedy for decades was considered the worst of the high schools, but recently I have heard a lot of good things about it. One of my mom's friends teaches Math and Computer Science there. I've usually heard Washington is only "so-so" academically, but the same parents and current students also tell me that the honors classes are generally good. If we stay in Fremont much longer and cannot afford a private high school (you need to commute outside of Fremont for those, btw), I will probably try to enroll our daughter at Kennedy.
Btw, school attendance in Fremont is based on zoning/neighborhood and is extremely strict for the "top" schools, but I do know kids who do not live in the neighborhoods for Irvington who managed to get in there because it is considered a "magnet" school for the arts, and both of these kids are talented at drawing and painting. They had to present portfolios to apply. Mission San Jose, despite its vaunted academic reputation, is currently open enrollment, as many students in recent years have flocked to Irvington instead.
Anyway, I hope this helps.
Firstly, I am extremely sorry for whoever is the person you know who went through racial bullying. I can attest to this fact as it happened to my child as well. But not in Fremont. It happened to my child when I lived in the Dublin-Pleasanton area. My child went to a private school for Kindergarten in Pleasanton. I don't know if I am allowed to name that school, so I will just say "private school" - extremely highly rated and most of the students were asian. I was paying $2800 per month as fees for this private school (including for extra curricular & after school). With that kind of money, and the school being private and highly rated, you'd think it would at least be an ok school. It was a nightmare for my child to attend. My child is half asian-half white but looks mostly caucasian and people usually assume my child to be 100% caucasian. It breaks my heart to have to recall this, but in this private school in Pleasanton my child was beaten by this 1 Asian kid from india every single day! Literally every damn single day!
And you'd think the principal of the school would step in to coach the bully and ask his parents to step in, but that didn't happen. Instead the principal of this school called us in for a meeting along with our child present and shamed our child in front of us telling him how "weak" he is for not fighting back. Every single day my child came home bullied by this kid. The bully child’s parents were casually told that their child is beating our child but no recourse or coaching was set for that child. We eventually found out that the bully’s parents donated $500 every quarter to this private school therefore their child got away bullying other kids. If I had known that giving a donation meant they’d protect my child I would have given them a mountain of donation just so that my child was not bullied! They never gave me any indication of that!
I got so done with that horrible place, I put my 4500 sqft Dublin Ranch home in a gated community up for sale, moved to Menlo Park and have never looked back since. Now my son goes to a top-rated phenomenal public school in Menlo Park whose endowment itself is more than Dublin area schools entire budget, and donations in the millions of dollars per year come from generous and successful parents. The school here is a million times better than any school in East Bay! My child’s teachers, counselors and principals all stepped in and went above and beyond to help him adjust! I could never be more proud of my community here in Menlo Park. Every single person in my community has been nothing but nice, kind and amazing! No racism, no stereotyping, no prejudice.
This kind of culture, school and community is next to impossible to find in Pleasanton or Dublin.
It may seem minor, but something else we noticed is that when they first started developing East Dublin, high class restaurants started opening there. The restaurants were good quality and only a bit expensive, but sure enough they all closed down to be replaced with Chik-fil-A and cheap boba sugar tea shops.
I also remember one time I went to Jordan Ranch Park in East Dublin with my friend, there was this really old Indian guy staring right at us in a very perverted manner. Eventually his wife came over and yelled at him in their local Indian dialect as they were from India. And my friend and I were like “that’s great, his wife put her pervert husband in his place! Way to go! Women empowerment!” and then that same wife walked by us taunting us saying “these 2 young women wearing such tight clothes having no shame” - mind you, we were wearing full length loose pants and a baggy loose long full-sleeved tops! Even in India, no one would give us a second look, we were dressed so conservatively. But the experiences we have in the Dublin/Pleasanton area remind us of 18th century times!
The constant traffic from the outlets backing up Fallon Rd several times a year. The new ikea, not sure if that's still in the works or not as some people opposed it. Not to mention the smell of the dump in Dublin. The sound of rifles, pistol and machine guns echoing across the town from the firing range. The occasional extreme winds that exaggerated the disgusting smell from the dumps I want to throw up everytime I even think about it! The rodents, rats constantly getting into the garages with people posting about it all over Nextdoor. The cockroach infestation, the ant infestation! You had to constantly stay on top of pest control but in spite of that ton of infestations happened. Wasps wasps wasps everywhere! bird poop everywhere especially owls that loved hanging out on the houses. Not important but, the water has to be softened but even with a high quality water softener it destroyed my hair. There is only this brief time when its green when its spring and everyone takes pictures then but the whole rest of the year its a dreary brown dry grass with constant danger of fires. There has been multiple fires around Positano hills and near Fallon Rd got pretty close to where I used to live.
The constant break ins due to being near prison, everyone was always angry especially on Nextdoor. Lot of bullying neighbors, especially if you are not indian. Neighbors had no regard for each others privacy, constantly listening into other people’s yard and passing comments. We also had a neighbor fly a drone into our yard and even look through our windows. The summers were unbearably hot so our family couldn't really play outside. Lot, and I mean a lot of dangerous untrained dogs without leash left out in public parks near small children. Quite a few parents carried pepper sprays in Positano Hills Park and Jordan Ranch Park to protect their small children from unleashed untrained dangerous dogs. Neighbors posting video doorbell images on Nextdoor of strange people checking out their homes looking for a way in. One time a car was slowly driving through the neighborhood while i was walking on the sidewalk and the person drove by, glared at me and showed me he had a gun in his hand.
There are frequent reports of car break-ins as well, so be prepared esp for prison town Dublin! Apparently criminals coming and going to the jail and courthouse break into cars looking for garage door openers so they can break into homes.
All these people from San Francisco looking to get away and move into single family homes, please live anywhere but Dublin-Pleasanton area! Schools esp are majority Asians and unless your kid is Asian too they will be sidelined!
Now during the pandemic my former neighbors tell me their children’s schools have been shut down, and distance learning requires them to supervise their young kids all day while somehow also working. Whereas schools here in Menlo Park have safely opened since last year August!
Menlo Park also had the first doses of covid-19 vaccine in December for first responders and after that for 75+ years old, but they have none so far in their local hospitals. Please don’t just move to single family homes to these places just thinking about zoom rooms and remote work, there will be substantial trade offs especially for your children, your lifestyle and your peace of mind!
Homes in East Dublin may look big and pretty (for cookie cutter homes) but they are real estate lipstick on a regional pig with a reputation it deserves.
Based on where your husband will be working and good schools for your kids, you should focus your search on Almaden 95120 and Cambrian area it will be less of a commute for your husband. (Westmont, Menlo Park, Fremont, Dubmlin are very far esp. with commute traffic. I live in Almaden and I can tell you that it is very nice here, much better than Cambrian. Almaden has excellent schools, beautiful neighborhoods, many parks and trails to go to, calm and safe area with friendly people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smove-20
ok , looking at all the replies , I think we need to increase our budget . Initially we were thinking about putting 30% down on the 1.5M budget .
so new budget is 1.8M to 2M with 20% down .
My options are Freemont ,Almaden Valley,Campbell , Branham, Westmont ,melno park, dublin . Am I missing anything ?
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Granted, I believe it is the pressure put on these poor kids by their families which is the real culprit, not the schools or most of the teachers, but being surrounded by classmates who are nearly all experiencing similar pressure cannot be healthy, especially if a child already has anxiety and is focused on academics.
