Bert315 said:

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We have our kids at SBSUM which is a university classical model. PK-4th grade is 2 days a week in school and 2 at home. 5th-12th is 3 days at school and 2 days home. Our 1st grader is doing 3rd grade level according to public school. The goal is for almost all to graduate with an associates degree. We love the model of school but it is not for everyone. Majority of homes have one stay at home parent, especially during the younger years. Once kids hit 5th grade they are doing the home days mostly by themselves.

Will we get all the money back in an ROI, no but we know what our kids are being taught and it lines up with our Biblical world view.

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Y'all are good folks, better than us, lol. We seriously considered doing the UM at Second, but after much deliberation, decided we couldn't do it. My wife is a stay at home mom, but it was just too much, especially with 3 of them if we'd have done it. A really nice school and setup though.

Even if preK is tougher to get into right off, there are advantages to applying early.

I've noticed schools will give preference to families that have applied for multiple years, vs those who wait until Kinder.

Probably not always the case but I know the parents at competitive schools will apply early and often.

I agree that I would like to have faith based instruction, I can't wrap my head around 60k a year. I have 5,2.5 and 4 months so its coming for me

No doubt, better to start applying and get them on the lists, and if it doesn't work try again next year. Never know when that spot may open and you don't want to get missed. I was just strictly speaking in terms of what the normal entry points are, kinder, 6th, and 9th, at least at Second

Well, today was decision day in Houston. Did everyone's kids get into the schools they wanted?

I've been getting caught up on this thread. Our daughter got her HS acceptances yesterday. Now we're going to struggle with which one to choose.

Houston Christian and Duchesne are at the top of list followed by St. Agnes. Logistics might make the difference as Houston Christian is very close to where we live and my office. I don't mind the drive to Duchesne considering we're in W. Houston.

Curious what the board says about those three high schools.

trestamu said:

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I've been getting caught up on this thread. Our daughter got her HS acceptances yesterday. Now we're going to struggle with which one to choose.

Houston Christian and Duchesne are at the top of list followed by St. Agnes. Logistics might make the difference as Houston Christian is very close to where we live and my office. I don't mind the drive to Duchesne considering we're in W. Houston.

Curious what the board says about those three high schools.

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I think it depends on what your daughter wants to do. All 3 are great schools.

I would say Houston Christian seems more balanced of the 3 schools mentioned. Not better per se but more balanced in culture.

I do know St Agnes is more rigorous compared to its neighboring school Jesuit. I believe it will all depend on your daughters interest and personality

All 3 are great schools and congrats to your daughter.

Ag13 said:

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megs03 said:

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I have 3 kids at JP2 this year. We moved them from St. Cecilia last year and have been very pleased. Hoping my 8th grader receives his Strake Jesuit acceptance this afternoon .

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If you know - what's the HS Pipeline like for JP2? Do a lot of JP2 kids end up going public for high school or do they more so stick within the Catholic System (and if so which ones)?

We live very close to JP2 and want to send our kids there in a few years. But being close to JP2 means we are not close to any Catholic High Schools which somewhat stresses me out for the future. Even Strake/St. Agnes would be a bit out of the way on the way to work every morning.

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I have 4 kids at SJP2. My observation over the years is that there are a few "camps" on whether to go public or private for high school - 1) committed to private/catholic high school, 2) acceptable public high school so they'll weigh that as option compared to the private HS options, 3) acceptable public school so not pursuing private.

I see a good bit of folks go the Stratford route if they live in SBISD or Katy schools if KISD. A lot of the kids continuing to private school look at St. Agnes, Duchesne, Strake, St. Thomas, and SJ23.

As to the distance aspect. It's Houston, so comes with the territory. I don't know how the new license laws impact carpools, but carpooling used to be common with other families/students. I will say the private options for West Houston families has improved slowly over the years. Sure seems like the demand and population concentration would support more private high schools.

Side note: Roughly, the intersection at Memorial and Eldridge delineates three school districts - Spring Branch, Katy, and HISD. And for grins, go north a couple miles past the levee on Eldridge to Clay Rd and you're in CFISD. So depending on where you sit, the length of school commute might not be a significant deterrent compared to the schools you're zoned to.

BillYeoman said:

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trestamu said:

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I've been getting caught up on this thread. Our daughter got her HS acceptances yesterday. Now we're going to struggle with which one to choose.

Houston Christian and Duchesne are at the top of list followed by St. Agnes. Logistics might make the difference as Houston Christian is very close to where we live and my office. I don't mind the drive to Duchesne considering we're in W. Houston.

Curious what the board says about those three high schools.

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I do know St Agnes is more rigorous compared to its neighboring school Jesuit.

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Seersucker Ag 2011 said:

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Well, today was decision day in Houston. Did everyone's kids get into the schools they wanted?

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That's only for the independent schools.

trestamu said:

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I've been getting caught up on this thread. Our daughter got her HS acceptances yesterday. Now we're going to struggle with which one to choose.

Houston Christian and Duchesne are at the top of list followed by St. Agnes. Logistics might make the difference as Houston Christian is very close to where we live and my office. I don't mind the drive to Duchesne considering we're in W. Houston.

Curious what the board says about those three high schools.

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I've heard great things about Houston Christian.

Not strange at all.

You want the best for your kid and believe St Anne is a step in that direction.

trestamu said:

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I've been getting caught up on this thread. Our daughter got her HS acceptances yesterday. Now we're going to struggle with which one to choose.

Houston Christian and Duchesne are at the top of list followed by St. Agnes. Logistics might make the difference as Houston Christian is very close to where we live and my office. I don't mind the drive to Duchesne considering we're in W. Houston.

Curious what the board says about those three high schools.

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Houston Christian is a great school. I would also say proximity to home is a huge factor. Even once they start driving, there is a lot of parent driving for games and activities.

Appreciate it, thank you

From what I've seen, the pipeline is similar to the other Houston area Catholic schools. Most of the students go onto Strake Jesuit, St. Agnes, St. Thomas, St. John XXIII, etc. There are always those that move to public school too, depending on where they're zoned.

We're zoned to Cy-fair so are used to driving at least 30 min. to get anywhere.

Congrats Megs!

FWIW people have been talking negatively about NAIS schools and I see that Duchesne, Houston Christian and Regis are on their list
https://my.nais.org/s/searchdirectory?id=a2C3m00000EQaO4

Congrats on St Anne.

Hope to see you around next fall.

Cibalo said:

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FWIW people have been talking negatively about NAIS schools and I see that Duchesne, Houston Christian and Regis are on their list
https://my.nais.org/s/searchdirectory?id=a2C3m00000EQaO4

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FERK!!

Carmine Scarpacio said:

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gindaloon said:

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It seems the church affiliated schools are holding the line against all the woke stuff but cracks are appearing. However school's like St John's and Kincaid are all members of NAIS. NAIS is all in DEIB and various other alphabet soups. These schools all have DEI departments. As older more traditional headmasters deans teaches have left they are being replaced with much more "woke" people. So if goal is to limit your kids exposure to DEI, gender, and how white people are the root of all evil be careful and do your research. Good instagram follow is Education Veritas. They shine the light on NAIS and what "elite" private schools around the country are doing as it relates to DEI etc.

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NAIS is poison. I learned this being on the board at ROBS, a NAIS school. It is basically just a far left advocacy group that has captured almost all of the elite private schools.

It's why if I was starting over and knew then what I know now, I would send my kids to Second Baptist.

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This is interesting. My kids go to an NAIS school, so now I'm curious as to how this works.

Do they influence the curriculum, have DEI requirements for certification, etc?

Get a star and I will Private Message you.

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It is basically just a far left advocacy group that has captured almost all of the elite private schools.

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Ahh. One, if not both of those characteristics could explain why my alma mater is not a part of it.

megs03 said:

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My oldest is headed to SJ, received his acceptance on Friday!

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Congrats - we've been very happy at SJ.

I know I am no longer in houston area but we switched our kids to a catholic school when we moved away and it is night and day compared to what our kids experienced in public school, although that was just a short sample. Oldest finished 1st grade in public school and started 2nd in private. Middle kid started kinder in private. Pretty sure my kinder kid is about where my oldest was in first grade at this time, it seems like. She is already reading whereas i dont think they taught reading nearly at all in public kindergarten, and we were at a really good suburban elementary, so I honestly was not expecting this kind of difference. Best part about it is the cost for 2 kids here is the same cost for 1 kid in private school back in our suburban hellscape.

My daughter received acceptances to Duchesne and St. Agnes and even received a small scholarship to one of them. Her top school, however, is HSPVA. She was invited to an in-person callback a few weeks ago, but we won't find out if she's accepted until later this month, which just happens to be the day before the deadline to accept or reject the Catholic schools. I just hope that HISD doesn't delay that decision day (knocking on wood).

Where did you move?

A review online of a catholic school, not high school, that likely has a large percentage feeding St. Ag.

bigjag19 said:

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A review online of a catholic school, not high school, that likely has a large percentage feeding St. Ag.

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Which school is that?

Don't know the answer. Saw on a post.

Carmine Scarpacio said:

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Buck Turgidson said:

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For those who are just starting to consider private schools for their young kids, my first piece of advice is to visit all the schools on your list and really check them out in person. Published test scores and other stats only go so far. I started researching schools as soon as it was confirmed that my wife was pregnant. My initial list of schools that I picked based upon online research wound up being 100% different than the schools we really chose after visiting them.

A series of in-person visits is really the only way you will gain a comfort level for the specific people who are going to have a huge influence on your kids inside and outside the classroom. Besides teachers, you'll have coaches, fellow students and their families all playing a big role in your kids childhoods. We have been very fortunate to have our three in schools filled with like-minded families. That means their friends and the families of those friends are the kind of people you are glad to have your kids hanging around, doing sleepovers, playing on sports teams with and eventually dating (my kids are not quite old enough for that yet). These are the people who become the volunteer coaches on the sports teams, chaperone field trips or coach on cheerleading squads, etc.

You must also decide if you want a serious religious component or not. We quickly realized that some "Christian" schools don't really walk the walk. We wanted the real deal, with chapel, Bible classes, regular prayers and a Christian perspective infused into the curriculum. In our school's application process, you must submit letters of recommendation from you pastor indicating that your family regularly attends church services and is involved with church activities. Other Christian schools do not require that and take the stance that they will evangelize non-Christian students once they are in. Many other schools are just going through the motions or are purely secular (and usually woke).

Our kids are not enrolled in one of the 2-3 schools whose names everybody recognizes (St. Johns, Kinkaid, Strake), but they still receive a superior education compared to even those public schools that people tout as being near the top. We've had kids transfer in from well regarded, suburban public schools and struggle to catch-up academically in even the on-level courses.

Also, just because a school doesn't send every graduate to an Ivy League institution, doesn't mean that a self-motivated student wouldn't get into a highly competitive university. Our school sends a high percentage of each graduating class to A&M and Baylor, but we also send kids to MIT, Stanford, Rice, Tulane, service academies etc. each year. The point of all that is to say that published stats about previous graduating classes don't guarantee any particular result for your kid. You have to look deeper than those stats.

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Sounds like Second Baptist to me. I was on the Board at ROBS and we had a lot of kids leave for Second two years ago. I have heard great things about the education from friends who left ROBS for Second and how Christ-focused they are.

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It's not.

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/03/18/houston-isd-superintendent-expected-to-announce-possibly-removing-more-than-100-principals/

Reddit is very upset that Principals are held accountable for performance...

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HISD superintendent says jobs of 117 principals were never threatened for low performance scores

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Quote:

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HISD Superintendent Mike Miles held a press conference Monday morning to provide an update about the principals' performance scores after 117 of them were reportedly told last week they could be fired if there's no improvement. That's nearly half of the district's principals.

However, during Monday's press conference, Miles said he never threatened the jobs of 117 HISD principals for underperforming school scores. Instead, he said the messaging was that the specific group of principals was told they needed to continue making progress. ABC13 learned that the message came through a meeting and via email, one Miles confirmed was an internal email leaked to the media.

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https://abc13.com/hisd-superintendent-mike-miles-principals-put-on-notice-for-performance-scores-117-houston-isd-told-they-could-lose-jobs-texas-nes-schools/14539623/

I think the problem is the net may be too big. Yes, principals should be held accountable and yes, there are some bad principals who are lazy/incompetent/bad. There are also some who are very capable, but in my experience, if the community support and parenting isn't there, it's almost a no-win situation.

Tough situation for sure.