Mom Seeking Good School in San Antonio Area

You Definetly want to live on the north side of town. Good schools....Northside ISD and Northeast ISD are good schools. Private schools....School of excellance is a good one.

Good luck with your move.

I'm owner & director of Playworks Child Development center on the west side... loop 1604 & Bandera Rd is the closest major intersection. This area is growing rapidly. Anywhere in the North and/or North West is nice for living. The North East... Shertz area is also growing rapidly. Many folks are finding nice living out past Helotes or up I-10 in or on the way to Boerne. Traffic going north in the morning between Bandera and IH-10 or further is absolutely bumper to bumper. Houses are going up faster than school bonds being passed and road contruction modifications to allow for more people on the road... if this makes sense. It's crazy; but good for business! Anywhere north of Stone Oak Parkway...or around this area is nice for living as well. Nice homes, subdivisions well kept, etc.

As for schools, your children's schools will be determined by where you live. Here, you must attend in the area you live... unless you are a teacher taking your child to school with you, or you go private!

There is one public school with an exception, Monroe May Elementary, located across the street from UTSA. This school started a pilot 5-6 years ago by turning one classroom in K-5th (6-8th here is middle sch) into spanish speaking only. If the child only speaks english, I believe they will not be accepted unless they start in Kinder. I actually wish I'd have known about this long ago...as these children are fluent reading, writing, speaking and passing all TAKS tests with high scores (done in spanish!) in 3-5th grade! It's truly amazing. There is no deficiency in their english language either... science, social studies, you name it... they are scoring high in both languages. Something to check out if you're interrested in researching something like this.

In any case, you have Sea World, Six Flags/Fiesta TX, the Zoo, Children's Museum, Children's Magik Theater, the Riverwalk... and oodles of entertainment "field trip" like places for children. There's a Little Chef's place, artworks, clay casa, loads of music places, Martial arts, libraries, and sports opportunities for children here... you will definately have many, many choices.

Jr colleges & Universities are plentiful as well. This is a wonderful "home base" for families.

Good Luck with your move.
M.

saint mary's hall but very expensive

Good day care for your little one? We'd definitely recommend Rainbow Station on Sonterra (off Stone Oak) on north side of city just off 1604. My wife is a pediatrician and we looked all over for the best option, and we are very happy there. Other learning centers are ... well, it's hard to find good childcare here!

For the schools, I'd suggest looking into the northside, and the northside independent school district.

Where are you moving from? We're originally from SF Bay Area, and love San Antonio - great city to raise a family. It's not SF, but it's a nice city!

Feel free to e-mail us directly - emiyeric-at-sbcglobal.net, since we don't always check this site ... happy to talk with you about the city, best places to move, etc.

Good luck!

- Eric (and Emi and our 3 young kids)

hey! we live in rogers ranch, 1604 and bitters. we LOVE it! tons of young families and kids. perfect location to get to anywhere! i have a 3 year old too and she attends crown of life lutheran preschool. small, great staff, very happy there. good luck!

The Alamo Heights Schools are very good and the area is well located to access downtown and some of the better private schools. The wonderful part for my daughter was having the same friends from elementary to HS. The district only has one Junior School and one HS. She started in the Northside ISD (due to advice received when moving to SA) and although she did well she did not like school and I found the school to be rigid. It was like night and day when we moved to Alamo Heights- she was eager to go to school. Welcome to San Antonio!

We relocated to SA 08/07, and working with the education system, I did my homework for school districts and schools. I have a daughter in highschool and college prep was very important. I am a single parent so I throughly researched the neighborhoods in SA.
What I found is Northside ISD provides the best schools in all areas, Academics, Quality Control, Dual Enrollment and so on. Alamo Heights has probably the best public high school in SA but its location is not doable for us. Alamo Heights has some waiting lists I am told at most of its schools, the student teacher ratio is awesome, which in turn the students really benefit. Northeast would be my third choice in school districts. I work for the Inner City school district and you want to stay away from there as well as the South Side, West Side and East Side. Sorry I dont really have much info on private schools.
As far as best places to live; My priority was the crime rate in the neighborhoods, and the North / Northwest side of SA has the lowest rate. I realize in a city this size crime is everywhere, but if you can stay away from the high crime areas you will be one step ahead. You can go online and check the SA police website, they have all the data. You will of course have traffic but its worth it. The safer areas are closer to 1604. You will find everything you need from shopping to automotives to medical. Speaking of Medical, The Medical center is full of apartment complexes and high crime rate, so be cautious of that.(If that is important to you) You want to stay away from any areas near L410, the West Side, East Side and some of the South Side. The Northeast has some rough areas as well.
I hope I was of some help. I know how stressful a move can be. Good Luck on your move!

My daughter attends harmony science academy, a charter school in the NW area. It is a smaller school geared toward academic success in mathematics and science. The school is K-10 right now and will be adding 11th and 12th in the next two years. The school here has been open two years and will be in a new building starting the '08-'09 year. You can check out more info at www.hsasa.org. As far as which part of town, you probably want to stay in the NW or North Central part of town, The public schools in NISD are supposed to be better also. Good luck with the move, I know how overwelming it can be. We have only been in San Antonio a little over a year now. My husband transferred us from TN last year. Now my parents have transferred in (for the grandchildren of course). Anyway I'm mumbling, good luck with everything.

I don't believe that any of the San Antonio private schools are any better than Alamo Heights ISD. Very small district, old enough to be past the growing pains that plague the more rapidly-expanding districts, maintains its reputation for excellence. I am a public school teacher in the second-best district - North East ISD. If I were moving into NEISD I would choose Stone Oak Elementary and the middle and high schools north of Loop 1604. Northside ISD is doing the best they can, but they are growing so fast that they have trouble keeping up. If you are not considering parochial school, St. Mary's Hall is the co-ed private school I would consider most strongly. If any of your children have special needs, The Winston School in San Antonio (near the medical center) is the ONLY way to go. Welcome to Texas and good luck!

You want to be in the North East Independent School District or the North Side Independent School District. I live in the first one. My son graduated 6th in his class from Madison High School and my daughter is now a freshman there. The elementry school my children attended was Longs Creek (it was ranked excellent at the time) Go to WWW.NEISD.NET and you can see the rankings of all the schools in our district. Most people move outside loop 1604 toward the Stone Oak area. There are a lot of high ranked shcools in that area (still my district) WWW.NISD.NET will have those schools ranks listed. Good luck. If you have any more questions about San Antonio feel free to contact me.
K.

We live in Alamo Heights, great old neighbourhood with trees and good public schools - Cambridge Elementary and Woodridge Elem. We moved here because of the public schools. Also Olmos Park and Terrell Hills are great neighbourhoods.
There are some great private schools, I have heard about the San Antonio Academy - only for boys (K - 8) and Keystone School (K-12) - great non-religious school.
Good luck with your move!
L.

K., I live in San Antonio, and I am a former realtor and school teacher. As far a good private schools, I am not familiar with, but there are three very good school districts: North East ISD, North ISD, Comal ISD. Regarding neighborhoods... there are some really good ones, but it depends on your price range.
If you are looking to buy a home, I can recommed a very good realtor friend of mine by the name of Anna Marie Tatsch. She has over 25 yrs. realtor experience and knows all the ins and outs of the business. She's very dependable and highly experienced. You can reach her at ###-###-#### or feel free to email her at ____@____.com can find you some excellent deals right now because of the way the market has changed and be assured that she always look out for her client. Anyway, hope this helps!
J., author of HEART OF THE JAGUAR
"A Shadow to Call Her Own" Amazon shorts
"A Bridge to Freedom" and "Grandma's Recipe" CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE LATINO SOUL
www.heartofthejaguar.com

K...

hello,and how exciting that you guys are heading to TX!I love it,we just moved here in august...We have been very pleased with the northwest side of San antonio..ANd northside Isd...

check it out!

D.