Rhett said: “I know people that live on Winstanley Way (which is north of Del Mar Heights) that have kids attending Ashley Falls, which is Del Mar Union. I think that anything east of Torrey Pines High is Del Mar Union, even if it is north of Del Mar Heights.”
If you zoom in on either map, you’ll see that the DMUSD district truly DOES NOT extend north of Del Mar Heights Road (once you’re east of the I-5), as I stated before. I hate to keep pressing the issue, but I just want to make sure the OP doesn’t get further confused. It’s simple enough to just go to the source (the boundary maps on each district’s website) to confirm.
As you can also see from the maps, some of the streets behind the Highlands shopping center (even though they’re south of DM Heights Rd) are also outside of DMUSD, and those kids attend Solana Pacific (the Solana Beach district school that’s next to the Carmel Valley library) or Carmel Creek (another SB district elementary school that’s smack in the middle of Carmel Valley). In addition, residents of Pacific Highlands Ranch (EDIT: the NEWER section of Pacific Highlands Ranch), Fairbanks Ranch and other developments in the northeast part, basically bordering on Rancho Penasquitos, also attend Solana Beach school district, not San Diego Unified.
The boundaries seem very random now but maybe made sense at some time (probably before Carmel Valley was built up). In any case, these boundaries are clearly tricky for anyone to know, but must be even more bizarre for a newcomer, who may not even know to ask.
As flu mentioned, both Solana Beach elementary school district and DMUSD are equally excellent, and once 7th grade rolls around, they’re all in the same middle/high school district so for most people, it’s probably not an issue. But, if someone has their heart set on sending a kid to DMUSD, it would be a shocker if they bought a house in Carmel Valley and then realized their kids would go to the Solana Beach district for elementary school.
