LA Private Elementary School Buzz…


  • We hear that a private elementary school located on Mulholland sent at least one mom an email telling her that her child was accepted. A few hours later, she got an email saying her child had not been accepted. Luckily, this family had other acceptance letters. A Big Oops!
  • According to one prominent Westside education consultant 2011-12 was one of the most difficult years to get into some schools. Why? At older, more established schools, alumni now have kids entering kindergarten who are legacies. That combined with concern about public school budget cuts helped spur applications to private elementary schools. Even second and third tier schools were sending out rejection letters, according to our source. 
  • Interestingly, we spoke to an admissions director at a top private elementary school in the LA suburbs. This AD told us that in the past, many ADs placed heavy weight on the writing and fine motor skills portion of the observation and testing process. Nowadays, more emphasis is being placed on the child’s memory skills, language proficiency in response to the interview questions and the child’s ability to organize his or her thoughts.
  • We hear that a very prominent private elementary school has a mess on its hands.  Apparently, at a 4th grader’s birthday party at a private home, a dad of one kid, after having a drink or two, headed out onto the basketball court to play with the kids. This dad collided with a 4th grader and the dad broke his arm in the collision. The dad is reportedly suing the kid and possibly the kid’s family. The kid involved in the collision and his siblings abruptly left the school–can you blame them?. Now, there’s a dispute over the family’s request that the school refund their tuition. The school is refusing to return the tuition. The dad is married to a member of the school’s board of directors.  Can you say bad horrendous dad behavior?
  • Please join us! We still have a few spots open for our Wed. April 20th, 7:30 p.m. event at the Beverly Hills Country Club: Demystifying The Private Elementary School Admissions And Financial Aid Process.  To register, click on link: http://www.getintoprivateschool.com/insiders-game.html
  • Check out The School Boards, an online message and resource site for all things school related. 
To leave a comment, click on “comments” below. Your comment can be anonymous. Just scroll down until your see the “anonymous” option. Sometimes Google Blogger requires you to click post several times. 
Please follow and like us:

admin

Christina Simon: Los Angeles, California, United States I'm the mom of two kids who attended The Willows School in Culver City and Viewpoint School in Calabasas. My daughter is a graduate of Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism ('23) and my son is a sophomore at UPenn/Wharton ('26). I live in Coldwater Canyon with my husband, Barry, and our dogs. Contact me at csimon2007@gmail.com

2 thoughts to “LA Private Elementary School Buzz…”

  1. Thanks for sharing information you come across. I continue to find it invaluable and reassuring. As a parent in the Valley, I appreciate that you include info relevant to our neck of the woods!

  2. As to the family which left the school, I'm not sure why you said "can you blame them." It seems pretty shortsighted and reactionary for the family to leave the school if the educational environment was otherwise working for their children. Board members are more important in their own minds than in the day-to-day reality. Did the board member and her husband try to flex their muscle to make the educational environment uncomfortable for the 4th grader's family? If so, did the school support that "bullying?" Did it have a chance to act before the parents pulled their kids? This surely was a fluke accident and a purely private dispute (likely covered by insurance).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.