New to Irvine schools

Hi all,
new member here, long-time lurker, very interesting and informative forum. I've been reading many of your posts because I used to live in Irvine, moved to FL, and now finally after 6 long years moving back to Irvine. I have school aged kids now, and I plan on moving close to one of the K-8 schools, in fact already found a decent house so all ready to pack, very excited! I'm very involved in my kids' education (kind of an Eastern European version of the tiger mom!!), so schools are a big issue for me (one of the reasons I'm running away from FL). So you'll probably see lots of questions and comments from me in this sub-section!
Q1: where can I purchase textbooks, especially math? I see what the schools use on the IUSD website, and I know they can be accessed once the kids are registered, but they are not just yet, and I'd like to compare the math curriculum with what they do here in FL. Do students bring their math textbooks home everyday, can I get a copy for home and one for school?
Q2: my kids are in accelerated subject programs in math, in their school, where they work at a level of one grade above (during their Math class they go to a different class one grade higher). They would be completely bored in their grade level. Is this offered in IUSD? I assume kids in Irvine are super gifted, and many work at higher levels outside the schools, but is there an official way to accelerate them in certain subjects during school?
Q3: is P.E. mandatory in middle school? My pre-teen son is not the athletic type, and he wouldn't do well in an environment where the PE coach times the kids' one mile laps and does class rankings. It would really undermine his self confidence (and I'm sure those of you with middle school age kids know what I mean!). I actually wanted to ask this question when I called the school I have in mind, but I felt kind of like a wuss!
Q4: can parents come in and have lunch with their kids? I would love to do that on maybe a weekly basis, my kids love it here in FL (oh, well, my middle schooler not anymore!!)

Sorry for the long post. Thank you for listening, and I'm so excited to get there and end my miserable hours-long carpool nightmare! (Trust me, I've done a lot of research, there are very few places in this country where I can live in a great city, in great weather, and WALK to a great K-8 school!)

You mention a middle schooler- just remember in Irvine that's 7th and 8th grade.
How old is the younger one?  There is an APAAS program at several of the elementary schools.http://www.iusd.org/parent_resources/gate/APAASFAQs.html

Just note that once your kid goes to middle school, the only "accelerated" classes are GATE Language Arts/History and then what your child places in math.  With moving to common core, I personally think it's going to make it harder for some kids to jump several grade levels in math- especially if they have been in the IUSD since the lower grade levels and are not in APAAS.  The best you can do if your kid is not in APAAS is Integrated 7th/8th math (essentially doing 7th and 8th in one year).  They made the test and requirements pretty onerous for the 6th graders to place in the Integrated 7th/8th.  My son is in the Integrated 7th/8th and it's been fine so far.

You mentioned that you like to walk to school- just know that there are only a handful of schools that are APAAS schools.  So it may not be your neighborhood school.  In our case, we decided not to even pursue the APAAS route because we wanted our kids to go to their neighborhood school and ours isn't an APAAS school. 

For PE- you have to do it in middle school.  The only way to get out is if your child is a nationally ranked athlete and then the kid gets out one period earlier.

The middle schooler is in 6th grade, but in the K-8 school, that's middle school they told me. I do know 6th grade math is the same for everyone, and for 7 grade they start with the options. I'll probably wait till 7th grade for him and do 7/8 math (here in FL he is doing 6/7/8 in 6th grade, which is pre-algebra, in 7th grade they do Algebra I Honors, and in 8th grade Geometry Honors).
My two younger ones are in 4th and 2nd grade, but they do 5th and 3rd grade math in school. The rest of the subjects I don't worry that much about.
I know about APAAS, it's offered in a school not far, but still not walking distance. And it's a K-6 school. I want K-8 so I can walk to the same neighborhood school with all three kids for a few more years, so I'll pass on APAAS.

Oh no, PE will be a real bummer for my son! Is it every day?

Thanks for replying.

One more question:
I have read an older post here on this forum, discussing the situation where you may live in a certain area and not be guaranteed a spot at the school across the street (which you should be zoned for), and since I am moving mid-year, that is a bit of a concern for me. Is that really the way it works? I did call the school and asked, the lady seemed not too worried about it, but did mention that nothing is 100% guaranteed (I didn't really like that, I can't sign a lease on a certain house and not be absolutely sure about the school!), so I told her I would be willing to homeschool them till a spot opened for all three of them, she laughed and said hopefully it won't come down to that!

PE is everyday!

Are you looking at the year-round school in Westpark?  If I recall correctly- that school might be impacted.  And if that's the case- they would send the child to Culverdale.  That would not be ideal. I think that's one of the lower-performing K-6 schools.  I have no experience with YEAR round schools- hopefully someone here can chime in.

At my kids' year-round K-8 school, PE is twice a week for my 7th graders.  Yes, 6th grade is middle school here.  It is nice that the kids can walk to the same school until they get to high school.  However, more than a handful of my kids' classmates transferred to a "regular" middle school when they got to 7th grade since their parents thought the K-8 middle schools did not have the same feel as a regular middle school with only 7th and 8th grades.  And, they thought that going to a K-8 middle school would make the adjustment to high school harder.  I don't really understand but you have to do what you think is best for your child.

@RandomG:  Not meaning to add to your worries but at my kids' school, they do time you on the mile run in middle school. You have to run it under a certain time but it's probably not that difficult and you get many chances.  I don't know about class rankings but they give out different color/time t-shirts if you run it in the 7, 6, 5 minutes range, etc.  So, if you're slower, you probably get reminded by the different shirt you wear.    But, seriously, don't worry, one of my girls proudly wears her miler shirt but the other doesn't try very hard and probably lumbers in chatting with her friends and doesn't care that she wears the default PE shirt.  This may be school specific.  I'm sure things will work out fine for your son.

I wrote this in another thread but a few years back we moved from one part of Irvine to another and we went from a regular schedule to year-round.  They did not allow us to change schools immediately due to the different scheduling and we had to drive our kids to the old school for about half a year.  Then, for the next year all three of my kids were wait-listed at the new school.  They did eventually all get in before school started but that was annoying since you would think if you lived in a certain area that your kids would get in no questions asked.  The more popular the school, the higher the chance you may experience this, I would think.

Oh no, not PE everyday! That seems a little too much! And they still have recess too, right?

Irvinehusky, I went back to read your post, looks like we are talking about the same K-8 school, PV. I wouldn't choose Westpark, because I like the K-8 concept. My son is in a traditional middle school now, honestly I don't see why parents would choose to pull the kids out of K-8 for middle and send them to traditional. I am of the opinion that disrupting the child at one of the most critical ages in their life is not very beneficial. I mean, if you have no choice, yes I guess you have to do it. Also if you have multiple kids of different ages, it would be insane to want to deal with two different schools.
I actually called PV  in august, because we wanted to move in september, and they did not want to take us at the time, we had just started school in FL, and they had been in school since July. They said if we started in January, things would be more balanced and there would be no problems enrolling. I sure hope so! I am not going to enroll the kids in College Park and then in a few months enroll them in PV when they have spots.
I know there is a strong school choice movement nationwide, but I firmly believe in neighborhood schools. Hard to believe in Irvine, schools that are in established neighborhoods haven't figured out an enrollment pattern where they can actually accommodate new students even if they move into the neighborhood two weeks before the end of the school year. Statistically speaking, one family moves into the neighborhood, another family moves out, it's not a one-directional flow. Figure out how many spots you can give to "outsiders" every year, so you can still accept new neighborhood students at any time. Hmm. Not rocket science.

So it looks like I'm signing the lease today. They better not tell me at the school that they can't accept my kids in January. I'm giving them plenty of advance notice

Some of the reasons people may switch from K-8 to just a 7-8 school is the schedule, and where the school feeds to.

Plaza Vista and Vista Verde are the only K-8 that are year round, so by 7-8 they may want a  traditional middle school to coincide with high school schedule. Additionally, some students in the K-8 school may not be from the home area and prefer to go to a middle school closer to their home or a middle school that feeds their preferred high school.

Q1: You can contact the school to find out where to purchase the text books. They are available online once you get the credentials. IUSD is currently following Common Core, not sure what was in FL.

Q2: Already answered with GATE and APAAS.

Q3: PE is not every day for K-6, 7-8 is most of the time. They do run exercise tests periodically but I believe that's good for the kids to be able to do minimally required exercises. Not sure what to tell you about your son's self-confidence, but maybe have him do some activity outside of school to prep him for PE.

Q4: I don't think parents can have lunch with kids regularly but you may want to check with the school. One of my kids classmates had parents bring them a hot lunch every day, but I don't think they sat with them.

Bonus Q: Keep contact with the school. I was told the same thing when we moved but our kid was able to get in despite how "popular" the school was.

Good luck and welcome to Irvine!

Regarding the lunch question, at this school, I don't think you can eat with your kids every day.  I'm sure it involves security issues. They do have "family lunch" days where you are invited to bring lunch and eat with your kids.  There's also some lunch trucks that come by on that day.  But it's only like once every other month or so.  You can always volunteer for your kids' classes if you want to see them often. 

I was worried that 6th graders were considered middle schoolers here and if they might be bullied by the 7th and 8th graders but they seem to keep them apart well.

We also wanted the year-round since we didn't want the kids to have a long 3 months break during summers.  Although, they have a short summer break, they do have frequent 3 week breaks instead.  Not good either (for me).  :'(  Also, it's nicer to be able to go on vacations to those popular spots when other schools are not.    I am a little worried when they go to high school where they'll go back to a normal schedule.

In this area, there's the K-8 year-round and also a regular middle school which I think you are also able to send your kids to making the switch easier.

I forgot to mention that we actually didn't want to send our kids to a K-8.

We had concerns about elem kids and middle schoolers mixing. I'm sure the school does their best to keep them apart but with the hormones of the older kids (who are "dating" now), not sure if that we wanted our kids exposed to that.

Have any parents with kids in a K-8 had any issues with this?

Yes, I have two girls so I had the same concerns.  And, since 6th grader are in middle school, I was worried about them being bullied by the 7th and 8th graders.  But so far so good.  6th graders are like sub-middle schoolers here.  They do keep them apart well.  Lunch and dismissal times are slightly different.  But once they are outside the school, there's nothing they can do about it.

In any case, I have my Rambo/Colonel Braddock gear ready to go if any guy gets near my girls. 

irvinehomeowner said:

I forgot to mention that we actually didn't want to send our kids to a K-8.

We had concerns about elem kids and middle schoolers mixing. I'm sure the school does their best to keep them apart but with the hormones of the older kids (who are "dating" now), not sure if that we wanted our kids exposed to that.

Have any parents with kids in a K-8 had any issues with this?

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That's an interesting issue about K-8 school you guys brought up.

That Beacon Park school just opened is also a K-8 school, wonder how many home buyers will take that issue into consideration when buying a home there.

I just remembered my wife mentioning that when my daughters go to high school, she would put my son who is 2 years behind into the regular middle school around here just so that we don't have different holiday schedules.  I would feel bad for my son to have to pull him away but I would assume a few of his friends will move to that other school when they get to 7th grade.  Then, we'll have to drive all of them to/from school.  Not looking forward to that.

Oh no, I never thought about the different vacation schedules for K-8 year round vs. traditional high school. Hmm, that's a head scratcher. I guess I'm willing to trade the convenience of that, later down the road, for the wonderful feeling of all three kids in one school, with the same schedule, for a few more years. Plus, in the summer they still have 5 weeks of overlapping vacation time.
I guess the traditional K-8 Beacon Park school would solve the vacation schedule issue, but I am not sure I like that area too much. Still a lot of construction, not a lot of vegetation, looking pretty spartan and grey, no retail walking distance. And no 3 car wide garages (well, not in my price range at least!). I guess retail will come, but I'm all about instant gratification!! The school does look really nice though, all new and shiny!

I just got in the mail the 6th grade math textbook used by IUSD schools (as per IUSD website), and I have to say that it is a lot easier than what my 6th grader does here in FL. So that's a plus for us, starting to differentiate the math levels in Irvine only in 7th grade. One less thing to worry about.

We are 3 weeks away from moving to Irvine, just signed the lease close to the school I've wanted, excited but nervous, I called the school and said we'd start in January, even gave them the address, I'll do online enrollment tomorrow, apparently they have guarantee for a spot in the lower grades, but not in the upper ones, that bothers me, but oh well. I told the registrar there is no way I'll take the kids to two different schools even if it's just for the rest of the year, and that I'd rather homeschool the ones who don't get a spot, she said hopefully there would be no need for that. I'll live across the street from school, that seems pretty ridiculous. Do you know anyone who has not been able to get into a school during the school year, although they live in the attendance area? Or is it just an urban myth?
Also I ordered the 6th grade math textbook for IUSD, and it's so much easier than what they do here in FL (my sixth grader now does pre-algebra, in 7th grade he would have done Algebra I and in 8th grade Geometry Honors), so I guess academically the adjustment should be a breeze. Would they be able to get into GATE sometime later in the spring? Or is it just at the beginning of the school year?

RandomG said:

Do you know anyone who has not been able to get into a school during the school year, although they live in the attendance area? Or is it just an urban myth?

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I know of two cases with kinds in lower grades in elementary school.  Likelihood of it happening varies from school to school.

Just an update, we just started school and there was no problem getting into the neighborhood school (which was my number one priority). They did scare me at first with one of the kids, they said sorry, we are full, then they went to check, and lo and behold, there was one last spot available!! Cut it pretty close, I'd say!

The teachers seemed super nice, and so did the entire staff. Good first impression.
I was a little taken aback by how crowded the classroom seemed, and also the corridors, backpacks everywhere, clothes everywhere, kids everywhere! California, get your act together and build more schools!!

Oh, one negative thing, compared to FL. Elementary classrooms don't have their own bathrooms. Bathrooms are somewhere down the hall. Ha ha, good luck anyone washing their hands before lunch or snack.