[quote=serendipity4]We are looking to rent or sell our current first home (suburbs) and move to a home in 4s ranch (most likely) or Carmel Valley (2nd option). We are looking for highly ranked schools (elementary through high) and proximity to lots of kids activities/amenities etc. Selling our first home is not a requirement to buy a new bigger one. Last winter to early spring, there was a slight drop in the market before things picked up again starting this spring. Even something like that would help us save 50-100k I believe. So no one expect a housing drop anytime soon? :([/quote]

You are wasting your time trying to figure out which public school best, 4S or Carmel Valley for an elementary school kid that may or may not be a genius by the time they are in middle school and are exposed to external influences like drugs, sex, alcohol, and vape, which pretty much happens at both of these “excellent public school” districts…The only difference that is really going to make for your kid is your personal involvement, as any other tiger parents have already figured out. The teaching staff at any public school is going to be mediocre at best. You might have one or two good teachers, and the rest are just there because they are there… The only thing you probably should be considering is which location is closer to work and the rest of your other friends, and whether you like being closer to the ocean or further inland because there’s probably a 5-7 degree difference between Carmel Valley and 4S…. Both great areas to live… both with tradeoffs. Public school isn’t really one of them. Many of the parents in Carmel Valley that I’m friends with who really have gifted kids post elementary school ended up sending their kids to private schools like Bishop school. Yes, they spent a considerable amount of money to live in the areas with access to the best elementary schools (Sage Canyon, Ocean Air) and then decided the schools weren’t good enough and took them out of those schools because they weren’t challenged enough and sent them to private schools. And of course there are the kids that were once gate/gifted in elementary school, that drastically took a u-turn in middle school and decided that being popular and dating and partying was more important…And many of those kids now are excellent C average students, many of them will probably end up being excellent managers and directors…

I remember back when my kid was in elementary school, all the tiger parents were so uptight about trying to get into the best public schools in Carmel Valley: Sage Canyon and Ocean Air. Everyone was so convinced, based on the test scores, that the education in those schools was so much better than other schools such as Ashley Falls or Sycamore Ridge or Torrey Hills… It was the most ridiculous thing, because once all the kids ended up in the same middle school, most kids that were good academically well grounded ended up doing the same regardless of which school… And the ones that didn’t, well it didn’t matter what school they went to also.

If you want real proof… Take a look at all the standardized test scores from all the elementary schools in the district, and filter the scores out and select only the “asian students”… You’ll notice the average test scores are almost the same (maybe the difference between the average being 999 versus 980 versus 990….Data doesn’t lie. there is no better or worse teaching staff at any of these schools. The reason why all these kids scored the same is because most of them probably have parents that are all heavily involved and invested in their education well beyond what the public school offers…just like I was…