Parkmead Active Learning School (PALS)

Feb 2013

Re: Moving to WC in July, looking for great K-5
My kids went to Parkmead Elementary in Walnut Creek, specifically the PALS program (which pulls kids district-wide (though mostly the Parkmead area), parent participation program). My family loved it. Since you are moving in July it will probably be too late to enroll -- admission is through a lottery in the springtime -- but if you can get in, do it. It requires 60 hours of parent participation per year, but the opportunities are not all during school hours, and lots of working parents are in the program.

All the WCSD elementary schools are good; my 'favorite' ones (from knowing people in other schools) are Walnut Heights and Parkmead.

The added bonus of the Parkmead area is that it's very easy to commute west on 24 from there since it's the furthest west itself and it's a quick hop on to the freeway. Avoid having to drive down Ygnacio Valley Rd. to the freeway at all costs -- the traffic on that road is a nightmare and can easily add 20 minutes to your commute. WC Mom

Dec 2003

K-5, (Parkmead Active Learning School), Walnut Creek (There is also a Parkmead Community School = ''regular'' public K-5). We're in the Murwood area of Walnut Creek. There is a raffle to get your first child into PALS. We made it into PALS and I can't say enough good about their program.

Our two children (a boy and girl) both went through PALS, and all I can say is, it's the ''private school'' education I had, that I can't afford for my kids. A lot of it is parent participation (a contract of 60 hours for the whole year), but there were also field trips, older kids helping younger ones, two grades per classroom, great teachers and support staff and lots of other goodies, all within a ''public school''. Our kids had ''Allen bill'' classmates from up to 20 miles away.

They evaluated becoming a charter school, and decided against it.

Feel free to email me with any further questions. Bob