Question About Schools in the KMC Area

Hi M.,
well, I have been in Germany for 2 years now. I am 39 and have a 5 year old son who started Kindergarten this year at Landstuhl Elementary. I assume you will be stationed at Ramstein? I was fortunate enough to be home with him until he entered Kindergarten and he has just learned and adapted so well. I haven't heard anything bad about any of the other schools. Do you know what base you will be at. You are welcomed to keep in touch. We will be here for another year and a few months.
E.

I've been here since 2001 and my son has ONLY attended school here. He attendeed Kaiserslautern Elementary K - 3 (this is located on the BX side of Vogelweh) and it was great. He has atteneded Vogelweh Elementary for 4 - 5 and he has the best teacher EVER! Vogelweh Elementary is located in the housing side of Vogelweh and all housing kids as well as the villages of Weilerbach, Seigelbach, and Rodenbach attend it as well. Ramstein, Landstuhl, and Sembach also have elementary schools. Each school's classes are fairly balanced as they did a huge rezoning for this year. I don't necessarily have a preferance of elementary schools and I've never heard anything bad about any of them (other than the previous overcrowding).

Also, each elementary school has grades up to 8. When the kids enter high school, they either attend Ramstein or Kaiserlautern HS. (Again, Kaiserslautern is on Vogelweh.) Ramstein gets much better funding so the school itself is much nicer but the quality of education is comparable in my opinion. There are drugs in each school and the schools go back and forth as to which has the "worst" reputation. I do have a 16-year-old step-son at Kaiserslautern and it seems most of the kids know each other anyway regardless of which school they attend.

Good luck! And welcome back to the KMC! I think you may be able to contact the Housing Office to start getting access to the housing lists now. And the KA is still a good source just be leary of the ads that do involve a realtor. One mention though, the townhouses on base are really nice. Housing isn't what it used to be. You'll be shocked at how few stairwells are left!

IF you are looking to live off base do not go through the KA, most of those places you will have to pay a realtor the amount of the rent you will be paying, just for finding the place for you..Say you see a place for 1200euro/month you will have to pay the realtor that money plus you will be paying a security deposit as well(everyone who lives off base has to pay a security deposit to the landlord you will get this amount of money back upon moving out of the home)..ITs best to go through the housing office for this, The housing office will narrow down for you the area of your choice down to the number of bedrooms you want and most importantly, you can see all the houses that is under your Monetary cap, Example..If you are alloted $1500/month for rent you can ask for only those houses whether freestanding homes/apartments/townhouses whatever you are looking for also with 2,3,4,5 bedrooms whatever you need...When you decide where you wanna live, then that decides where your child(ren) will go to school..Schools are decided by which town you live in..Example, if you live close to landsthul they will have to go to landsthul depending on where in landsthul your child(ren) may have to attend ramstein elem school.. no matter how far you live, there is a busing system here your child(ren) can take. If your child(ren) is/are in high school all high schoolers in the KMC now have to attend Kaiserslaturen American High School..that school was just an elementary school last year..anyhow i hope this has helped you out..God Bless you and Welcome

I have heard that the Kinder in our community is excellent. We live in Wallhalben. Also, if you would like the housing referral list from base, I will glad to send that to you as well.

O.

We are AF and have two girls in the Baumholder area school (Smith) in 3rd and 5th and we really like it. It is not that big and the teachers are good. This is our first experience with DoDD's. I have a 5 year old that will start Kindergarten in the fall. My only concern, is the "bussing" of students. I'm sure many deal with that if they live off base. Our school is about 12 miles away, but they get on the bus 45 minutes before school starts. Good luck!

My son is in Kindergarten at Sembach and we really like it. Ramstein is good, too, but since everyone wants to go there the classes are huge. Sembach has a good student/teacher ratio (2 kindergarten teachers for 23 children in my son's class).

Hi M.,
I have lived here in the KMC for 2 years now. My girls are in 3rd and 5th grade. I would highly recommend Ramstein Schools. My 3rd grader was in the elementary school for 2 years and I loved it. She was in a combination class and that was very good. They also have German immersion class and if I would have known more about it I would have had her in that. Great program. I have also heard good things about Landstuhl elementary. In a whole you can't go wrong with these schools. There are lots of good teacher's but unfortunately you can't request a certain teacher, only a certain teaching style. Good Luck and welcome!!

I don't acutally have kids yet...but here's what I know as I have sponsored folks in the past. You can send your daughter to the german kindergarten! They are awesome, but you need to pay out of pocket. If you want to know more about the schools here...I would have to gather more info about elementary school. I do know that there are schools on Ramstein and Vogelwegh. Depending on where you live...depends on which school your child will go to. They have tons of buses that go to many of the small villages in the area. Based solely off of appearance, the school at Ramstein seems to be nicer. The elementary school at Vogelwegh is in the same building complex as the elementary school?! If you need more info contact the ACS (Army Community Service) ###-###-#### DSN or 0631-3406-4203. To dial from the states 01149 63134064203. Best of luck!

G.

Hi... I have two daughters that are in 6th and 4th grades and they attend Landstuhl Elementary and Middle School (yes it is all one school), however the younger kids attend one side while the middle school is on the other. This is our first experience with DoDDs and I love it. Landstuhl is small so you know most of the people and if you will use the before/after school care it is right next to the school and the folks there are wonderful. I am Air Force stationed at Ramstein and when I first got here (almost 2 yrs ago) my girls started on Ramstein since we were in the TLFs there. Now while I haven't heard anything bad about Ramstein the schools are huge, the elementary goes from K-2nd and then there is an intermediate school for 3rd,4th and 5th graders. I personally didn't like this b/c I would have preferred my daughters in the same school. I also felt that the staff (not teachers but admin staff) at the Ramstein elem. weren't very friendly...just my opinion...maybe I caught them on bad days. I'm from a small town and expect people to be friendly like small community friendly and I get that at Landstuhl. It's a bit of an inconvenience having to go onto Landstuhl after leaving work on Ramstein to pick them up but other than that I have no complaints! Good luck!