[carli]

Yes, historically there’s been a better than 90% chance of getting in to CCA through the lottery. In this year’s lottery (for next 2013-2014 school year), it was reported that there were 138 who did not get in. Since total enrollment is a little less than 1900 students, that equates to about 7% if I did my math correctly.

Students who have a sibling at CCA are guaranteed a spot, but only if both siblings would be enrolled in the same school year. For example, families who have an 8th grader wanting to enroll at CCA next year as well as a graduating high school senior do not gain any advantage for their 8th grader/potential freshman. But if your kids are close enough in age, it works out nicely if the first gets in and the rest want to follow.

[carli]

Yes, Rhett, absolutely right, thanks for pointing that out. It becomes very confusing, but some areas in Carmel Valley (mostly around Del Mar Heights Rd) are actually in Solana Beach school district for elementary and then starting in middle school, the kids merge back together and all of Carmel Valley goes to SDUHSD mid/high schools. Even some realtors don’t know this and I’ve heard of houses sold to people who thought they were in DMUSD and were actually in Solana Beach elementary schools…not that it makes a big difference as both districts are excellent.

Here’s a boundary map of elementary schools within the DMUSD: http://www.dmusd.org/cms/lib02/CA01001898/Centricity/Domain/49/Boundary_Map_-_District_Wide.pdf

[carli]

Just wanted to clarify/correct some info that the realtor, Ryan@LaJollaAgent, posted above. Carmel Valley residents are covered by two different school districts, depending on grade level of child. Since your kids are still in elementary school, if you move to Carmel Valley, they would not attend San Dieguito Union High as Ryan mentioned, but would attend schools in the Del Mar Union School District (known as DMUSD) through 6th grade. From 7th grade through high school, they would then attend schools in San Dieguito Union High School District (known as SDUHSD), not be be confused with San Diego Unified School district, which covers other parts of San Diego, including La Jolla.

The websites for Carmel Valley school districts are DMUSD.org and SDUHSD.net, and I’d encourage you to visit those sites and familiarize yourself with the various school attendance boundaries. Depending on which neighborhood you settle in within Carmel Valley (or if you land in Del Mar), your children would attend various elementary schools in DMUSD. When they get to mid/high school, their “default” schools would be Carmel Valley Middle School followed by Torrey Pines High School; however, they would have the option of applying by lottery (pure chance, not based on academics, etc) to Canyon Crest Academy or other schools within SDUHSD for high school.

For differences between schools and reviews by local parents, visit greatschools.org and enter the zip code of the area (92130 for Carmel Valley) to view the various schools’ API scores and parent feedback. Schools in DMUSD and SDUHSD have stellar API scores which are, generally, the highest in San Diego county.

Our kids have attended DMUSD schools for elementary and SDUHSD schools for middle and high school (Canyon Crest Academy), and we’re extremely pleased. We live in Del Mar, after moving from the NYC/CT area 10 years ago, and we love it here and feel our kids are getting good solid educations. Feel free to PM me if you’d like more info. All the best to you!

[carli]

spdrun,

Yes, there are better/cheaper health care plans for those who are self-employed. But there are few options for those of us who retired early (before being eligible for Medicare) but haven’t formed a business, or are still looking for employment after COBRA runs out, etc.

Also, I believe CA does have what’s considered a community rated plan options but since that plan is the last resort for many, the community pool has become expensive and the broker told us it would be way worse than what we pay (just under $600/mo for a family plan w/deductibles around $5000/each or $11,500/family – no picnic but doable).

We’ll see what Obamacare brings – could be more (due to richer mandated benefits and introduction of higher risk pools), could be less (due to having more people to spread the risk around). But, I’m a believer that something had to be done and his plan is a good first crack at it so kudos to him for making it happen, even if we do end up personally paying more than now.

[carli]

Yep, I have recent experience with this. We applied for a quote on the Costco/Aetna individual (family) coverage as soon as it was available in late Jan, as our current policy through Anthem/BC renewed us for Feb 1st with a 28% increase (same increase I believe went to all individual policy holders). We only want high deductible health insurance to cover catastrophic care…we go into it knowing we’re going to pay for all else out of pocket and just search for the lowest premium and highest deductible.

This year, we shopped it around by getting quotes from a broker, who told us that in his experience, the Health Net policies offered through the Farm Bureau (yes, you have to join the CA Farm Bureau to get them!) were currently the lowest cost. In addition to his Health Net quote, we got the Aetna/Costco quote so that with our Anthem/BC renewal, we had a total of 3 to compare.

For all 3 carriers, we went with their highest deductible plans, which were all $5000-$6000 per individual or $10,000-$12,000 for a family. We basically just compared the worst-case scenarios for each plan and took at look at our out-of-pocket maximums. Plans had minor trade-offs in coverage but all offered one full physical per year w/out incurring deductible or coinsurance but the rest was subject to deductible/coinsurance. I can’t recall what the various prescription drug coverage options were, but very similar (I think all were subject to deductible/coinsurance).

So the way it turned out was that it was basically a wash between all three. The new Aetna/Costco plan was the most expensive, believe it or not, but I think it was only by about $40/mo.

For all these plans, you get a quick estimate up front, which usually looks decent, but then you have to spend quite a long time (especially if you have 4-5 in your family like us) filling out extremely detailed medical info for each person going back 5 full years in medical history (UGH!) and afterwards, the simplest issues can cause their underwriters to rate you up. One of our kids was rated up for infrequent visits to a dermatologist. She’s a typical teen who wants to keep her skin flawless so she takes Retin-A to keep pimples at bay and they came back with a 30% increase in her rate with a diagnosis of acne. It’s all so silly because with a $5000 deductible, the insurance company never pays out on any of these minor claims anyway, but you still have to report them, of course.

So in the end, it made most sense for us to just stay put…we could’ve saved $30ish a month to move, but in my mind, it’s better to build a longer track record with one insurer as the underwriters do consider longevity of policy when they rate you in the future. Also, it’s the old adage of staying with the devil you know versus going with the devil you don’t know.

One more thought…you probably know this, but if you form an LLC or S Corp for any type of business and buy the insurance through the business, your rates will be substantially lower.

We’re going to be interested in seeing what the new federal health care laws will bring next year for individual policies. Health care in our country is one of the biggest conundrums ever – seems almost too complex to solve for so many reasons (let’s not even get started on that!)

Good luck finding decent options.

[carli]

Just went through the college application/financial aid process last year w/one of my kids. Be skeptical of the sales pitch in many of those financial aid workshops, which emphasize that private colleges may cost less than a UC in the long run, due to the privates’ huge endowments and the amount of aid they have to give.

Our kid was admitted to many top tier private colleges, as well as a few UCs, but none of the privates gave us any aid at all, not even a token amount, probably because we have a decent (not exceptional, merely good) financial situation and they knew technically we could come up w/the money (even if it meant putting a huge dent in our retirement savings). But, strangely, we ended up getting hefty scholarships from both UCSB and UCLA.

So you can throw out the whole spiel we heard from the financial aid pros because, by far, the best aid we got both on a percentage and total dollar basis, was from two UC’s, which gave almost a full ride. And it was “merit aid”, which is what we’d been told the private colleges had more of to give, not “need-based” aid, which we’d been told is the only kind the UCs have to award in this tough economic climate.

We also know many friends whose kids were good students (most had 4.0+ GPAs) and are financially able to pay, but to their surprise, they received pretty nice aid packages from a couple of UCs (around $10,000) while not getting any aid from private colleges. Makes me wonder if those financial aid “pros” are just reeling parents in with the hope that there’s big money out there just waiting to be granted to your well-deserving child. Didn’t happen to anyone I know, including many superstar, unique kids…but then again, we’re not ethnic minorities (and if I sound bitter about that, I’m not because I believe it definitely benefits students at small private colleges to be in a more ethnically and socio-economically diverse community).

The other thing we found surprising was the complete inaccuracy of the EFC (“expected family contribution”) calculators found on each school’s website, including UC’s, which are there to help families understand what they can expect to pay for the college, including aid. You plug in a few key numbers from your tax return, answer a few questions about other kids in your family in college at the same time, etc, and theoretically, it should provide what your contribution to the school’s cost will be. Ha! Our EFC numbers were not even close to what each school’s tuition estimate ended up being on their offer letters.

I used to chuckle at friends whose kids would apply to a dozen or more schools, but now I see why. It’s such a crap shoot, not only with admissions, but also with aid, and the stakes are so high that you have to cast a wide net hoping to come up with the right combo of admission to a school that’s both a good fit for your kid and also “affordable” (which makes me choke since the UCs are all well over 100k, including room & board, for an undergrad degree, not exactly affordable for most).

[carli]

I second the recommendation. Just saw it a week ago. It’s astounding and fascinating.

[carli]

Dr. Theresa Dailey, who’s another provider in Dr. de Freitas’ practice, is a super smart, caring person. I’ve never used her as a pediatrician but know her and admire her as a person and wonderful mom to her 4 great kids.

Dr. de Freitas runs a program called “Healthy Chats” and as part of that, she spoke to my daughter’s Girl Scout troop around the time they were hitting puberty, with the basic “birds and bees” discussion, in a small setting in someone’s living room with moms and daughters.

When questions about sex and babies came up, Dr. de Freitas’ responses included statements about her own conservative religious views, and not expressed as opinion but stated as fact (e.g., marriage works best when it involves a couple from the same religion and background). I remember there was a lot of back-pedaling and explaining that needed to go on w/our kids on the car ride home since many of the girls in our troop are a product of two different religious upbringings (or no religious upbringing), two different cultures/races/ethnicities, etc. Dr. de Freitas made it clear to us that she is a conservative Catholic and didn’t shy away from expressing her religious views while dispensing health care information, which seemed inappropriate to me. But some people may gravitate to her for that very reason.

An outstanding pediatrician in the area is Dr. Suzanne Mills, who has a reputation as one of the best diagnosticians around. Her patients rave about her knowledge, warmth and responsiveness. If my kids weren’t as old as they are, we’d be going to see Dr Mills, but our relationship with our long term pediatrician (one who’s not mentioned here) has been fine – not outstanding, but fine – so we won’t switch now that they’re older.

[carli]

We have a kid at UCLA…got an email late last week offering students $25/ticket for the first 500 who respond (don’t think they ran out yet) and $65/ticket for family/guests, plus they waive the $15 handling fee. It got charged to our UCLA bill so it looks like you’d need to have a student account.

Ticket buyers choose seats together when they show up so seats aren’t assigned but are probably in a pretty good UCLA student/guest section.

If you know a UCLA student, maybe you can ask him/her to buy your tickets and you’d probably be in a good section and you’d waive the $15 handling fee. Or maybe it’s worth a call to the Bruin ticket office (310-UCLA-WIN) to find out more, although that’s probably the same as Ticketmaster.

[carli]

So sorry about this. We recently dealt with a similar situation with a relative. Found out a few things –

1) Medical insurance carriers distinguish between coverage for medically necessary care (which is covered according to the terms of the policy) and assistance with “activities of daily living”, referred to as ADLs (almost always not covered by a medical insurance policy). This is where a long term coverage plan is needed, but most people don’t have one so they end up paying for ADL care out of pocket. It’s such a conundrum because it’s essential care yet it’s considered non-medical…it’s disturbing to find out that this huge gap in our health care exists.

2) Usually there is a social worker or someone at the nursing home/rehab center who helps families segue to the next stage of care before discharge, even/especially if the next stage is not covered by insurance. We found this person to have a lot of good contacts and was a great resource for our situation. Maybe there’s a social worker at your friends’ facility who can help them?

3) They’ll probably want to consider either a stay in an assisted living center or else use an in-home provider. We found a great in-home provider for $25/hr. She is the caregiver while the spouse was at work. This person bathes, dresses, makes meals, takes walks/drives with the recovering person, sits and reads, whatever is needed/wanted. Lots of advantages to this, and it’s way less expensive for our relative than being in an assisted living facility, also much more comfortable. But, there are disadvantages, most significantly, the spouse is “on duty” when he arrives home and is without help during the night, and as such, there is never any down time for this person. Also, some homes are just not set up for this kind of care if the person has mobility issues.

In any case, it’s very difficult for all, but so important and nice that you’re helping them out. They need you now! So sorry. Best of luck.

[carli]

Hey, BG, if you’re implying that SDUSD is too savvy to ever be duped by one of these bond debacles, think again – http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/education/article_3f780860-e0b7-11e1-821b-001a4bcf887a.html

Also, here’s a very interesting piece that gave national exposure to the Poway story via CNBC – http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000107811&play=1

What I don’t understand is, are the bond ratings agencies asleep at the switch on this? If not, why haven’t they lowered their ratings based on this gigantic future debt? Are they counting on increases in real estate values plus inflation to save the day? Crazy. So many questions still unanswered.

Bonds were just approved last week to be placed on the Nov ballot for both Del Mar Union School (encompassing Carmel Valley/Del Mar) and San Dieguito Union High School districts. Gee, I wonder if those will be successful now, especially because those districts are using the same Orange County financial consultant as Poway. Hopefully the voters will have their eyes wide open.

[carli]

We used Carmel Valley Collision on Sorrento Valley Rd three times in the past 3 years (yep, we have a teenage driver who did damage twice, and then another, unrelated, teenage driver scraped one of our cars in a parking lot). We’ve been very happy with their prices and quality of work. Small, un-fancy shop run by a guy who definitely takes pride in his work. http://www.carmelvalleycollision.com/

[carli]

Thanks, sdrealtor. I know you’ve sold lots of homes in this area.

And, yes, Torrey Pines golf is a plus although I’ve never checked it out.

As you mentioned, this neighborhood is technically City of SD although our address is still Del Mar and zip is the regular DM zip of 92014, for whatever that’s worth! Carmel Valley with 92130 zip starts once you cross east of the 1-5.

[carli]

1.Carli

2.We live in Del Mar, west of 1-5, in the neighborhood north of Del Mar Heights Rd, south of the San Dieguito lagoon, about a mile east of the beach. This area of Del Mar is not to be confused with “olde Del Mar,” which is the village area bordering the beach. Our neighborhood is in between Carmel Valley and Olde Del Mar…still a Del Mar zip code, Del Mar in name and considered Del Mar, but most don’t realize that our services are provided by City of San Diego. Downside is that our neighborhood lacks much of the charm of olde Del Mar, but upside is it’s much more family friendly in terms of housing size and number of kids in neighborhood. Old Del Mar is filled with retirees and vacation home owners, with only a smattering of families.

3. 3 kids – 1 in 8th grade at Earl Warren Middle School, 1 in 10th grade at Canyon Crest Academy and 1 who just graduated from Canyon Crest Academy and is headed to UCLA in the fall.

4. Love that I can walk out my front door and go for a run or walk to the beach through the canyon trails or the village streets (also have the option to drive there in 5 mins if we need to load the car w/surfboards and beach gear), near enough to walk/run to Torrey Pines State Park hiking trails, love the San Dieguito Union High School district schools, where my kids have received outstanding middle/high school public school educations (CCA has highest API scores of any public high school in SD County; I’m not saying API scores or rankings are the only factor to consider, but do know that our kids have received exceptionally high quality educations at CCA, similar to privates), I love that our ‘hood is filled with families and friends for our kids so they can walk out the door and ride bikes or hang out w/friends w/out relying on me to drive them somewhere.

5. Don’t like that much of the architecture in my ‘hood is lacking in charm and good classic design (spent most of my life in New England, too, and miss good architecture with clean lines, not hodge podge style). Our neighborhood is full of dated-looking and poorly constructed 60s-70s style homes (not mid-century modern cool stuff but boring old tract or tacky big homes with wild angles and stained glass, built in late 60s-70s). Hard to believe that they still go for between $1-2 mil, but it’s all about location. Many, like us, focus on finding a good lot on/near the canyon and do a remodel of the existing house.

We moved here from Fairfield County, CT about 10 years ago and much as I miss a lot of things about the east coast, we love it here and can’t imagine going back. I did a very thorough search of San Diego areas when we moved here, and we even rented for a year to check it out (which I would highly recommend). We found a lot to like about many other sections of San Diego and other north county coastal towns, but for us, Del Mar has been a great fit, mainly because of quality of schools, space for kids and proximity to beach. Also, we’ve found other residents of Del Mar to be, despite its cost of living, relatively laid back (doesn’t really have the “keeping up w/the Joneses” mentality that people may think it has or that may exist in more cookie-cutter communities), or else maybe we’ve just met up with really great people.

I’m very familiar w/the lovely towns around where you are outside of Newport, having spent many summers there. Feel free to PM me if you’d like more opinions. You can find some workable homes in the $1-1.5mil range around here these days, but at the higher end of that range. Best of luck!

P.S. Note to FLU – sorry for my long-winded commentary. Couldn’t resist! Next time, will try to stick to bullet points. 🙂

[carli]

Go to European Bath Kitchen Tile Stone in Solana Beach on Cedros Ave and see Suzi Banks. She knows about all things bitchin, especially sinks, and has done tons of high end homes. 143 S. Cedros, Solana Beach, (858) 792-1542.

[Author]

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