Best Schools in Newport/Balboa
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Anonymous
| DCer interested in Newport area with elementary school aged kids. What are the best schools in town? Private preferred. Thanks! |
Anonymous
| Everyone I know in LA flocks to Waldorf schools, including Waldorf school of OC. |
Anonymous
| Harbor Day School if you want k-8 |
Anonymous
| Thanks all. I’m also interested in Catholic and/or religious schools. Any good ones in the area? |
Anonymous
Catholic or "Christian"? Definitely going to be different. |
Anonymous
| Catholic preferred. |
Anonymous
|
Carden Hall School (K-8)
For Catholic schools, it is mostly parochial schools. I can't think of any independent Catholic schools. Most people would go to the Catholic school closest to their home or attached to the parish they attend. I believe Our Lady Queen of Angels is the only Catholic school in Newport Beach. St. John the Baptist is in Costa Mesa and Sts. Simon & Jude is in Huntington Beach. Those are the only ones I'm aware of that would be a reasonable daily commute from NB/Balboa area. For high school you would be looking at Mater Dei or Servite. They are OK. Sage Hill is an excellent (pricey!!!!) high school. Fairmont Schools are good- they have a K-8 campus in Tustin that could work but the other campuses (including the high school) might be too far. |
Anonymous
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Thank you! This is great info! Parochial schools are great in my book.
Unrelated to schools question: While we fell in love with Balboa/Newport, we are open to other suburbs nearby. What are the most family friendly surrounding neighborhoods? |
Anonymous
Irvine has tons and tons of families. Very nice, but pretty sterile. Corona Del Mar is a neighborhood within Newport Beach is beautiful. Walkable, charming. Ridiculously expensive, though. North Tustin Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo, Alison Viejo, Ladera Ranch, Las Flores, Rancho Santa Margarita all have tons of families. Really pretty much all of South OC is very family friendly. But again, mostly it is very very suburban/master planned type communities. |
Anonymous
| Harbor Day is the best in the area but hard to get into. |
Anonymous
| We’re in Irvine and love it. Close to everything and you get more for your money. My kids go to Our Lady Queen of Angels. It’s a great school but you should know that the public schools in Irvine are very good - the high school is listed as one of the top public high schools in the country. |
Anonymous
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Thank you everyone for responding. We were particularly interested in at Our Lady Queen of Angels. What is the Diocese of Orange’s stance on the socio-political issues of the day? We would be leaving our local parish school that is under the direction of the Archdiocese of Washington, which is pretty middle of the road, although left-leaning. We prefer a more conservative outlook, similar to that of our neighboring VA archdiocese (ie the Archdioceses of Arlington) as we are fairly socially-conservative. I worry public may not be an option for us for this reason.
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Anonymous
Our Lady Queen of Angels is catholic (with a small c meaning all-embracing) but there are enough right wing jerks in Orange County for you to feel more comfortable in public school. |
Anonymous
Public schools in Newport Beach will be a far, far better option for you. Newport is very Conservative and Republican. Our Lady Queen of Angels is not right for you or your children. You will not be happy there. |
Anonymous
| You’re not going to be happy in California, OP. Even the conservatives are socially liberal. This is not the state for you. Try Florida. |