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Schools - Private vs Public - Suggestions in the Maplewood / North St Paul area
Mich411
member
Hi,
We are looking into K-12 options for kido. I am wondering if any Mommy's with older kidos have any great resources for helping with this decision. Any and all are welcome!
We are looking to stay in the Maplewood / North St Paul area. Do you have any suggestions or thoughts both good or bad of schools I may want to look at or not look at?
Thank you!
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Re: Schools - Private vs Public - Suggestions in the Maplewood / North St Paul area
Surrounding area info... Lake Elmo is a GREAT school (rec'd by our neighbor who retired from the district after 30+ years), and Stillwater HS is good by most accounts. The best school to get into in the Stillwater District though is St. Croix Prep!!! There's a HUGE waiting list to get in though. I can say after our experience with St. Croix Catholic other than Kindergarten, I'd never recommend a child go there unless there's an administration change in a big way. The nun that they put in charge rules by the size of the parent's bank account rather than treating all kids fairly and equally. If your check isn't big enough they could care less.
Depending on which area of Maplewood, you could also check out St. Croix Academy in Woodbury, there are families from up that direction who attend. Most kids are driven rather than bussed. We've found the school fantastic when there has ever been an issue it's been addressed up front. Teachers aren't afraid to contact parents and vise versa. It's not cheap, but when it comes to private schools it's one of the top serving this side of the cities and NEVER once have we been treated like a bank account like the above mentioned school.
We know several families who have kids attending SCP, and top notch all the way from K-HS Rigid yes, but I really love their approach in how they teach in terms of order (i.e. they start with global in the younger years and as the years go on, it is broken down to more local government/geography). They've also been fantastic with a family friend whose daughter has special needs.
It's a bit of a hike, but St. Croix Montessori is another good private school on this side of the cities. They're completely private and there's quite the process to getting accepted there, but I also think it has a lot to do with the child's personality for what educationally Is the best fitting environment. They were our third choice when relocating DD to a new school...
I'm with you on the anti-90% of private schools aurora!!! If not for my IL's generosity we'd NEVER likely send our kids to private school.