Good schools + South Asian Presence
Hi,
We’re a South Asian American family looking to move to the East Bay. We’re looking for a school district with great schools (well-rounded education with high academic rigor) and some south Asian population. We’re moving from a town in the Midwest with very little diversity where no one else in our kids class looks like them. We’d love for them to go to a school where there are at least a few (2-3) kids in their class who look like them. We’ve heard good things about Piedmont, Albany and Lamorinda school districts but not sure if there is much south Asian presence there. We know that some towns in the South Bay (Cupertino, Palo Alto etc) and the Tri-Valley area (Fremont, Pleasanton etc) have a very large south Asian community but we prefer the Berkeley-Lamorinda area as a place to live. Would be very helpful to hear from parents living in Berkeley, Albany, Piedmont, Lamorinda about south Asian presence in their kids schools.
Parent Replies
We live in Berkeley and we're only at the preschool stage so I can't speak about school district but I assume there will be some correlation. Our preschool, which is pretty large, has quite a few South Asian families as well as a lot of families with kids who are half South Asian/half white (our 4-year-old is half South Asian/half white). Also just from looking at the older kids in our neighborhood and at the park, I am pretty confident your kid would have other South Asian kids in class.
Hi, Piedmont has a diverse community. As a Piedmont resident I vouch it is a gem. I would highly encourage you to consider it as a potential. Small town feel where the kids feel safe walking to school, rec activities and riding their bikes around. As a south asian family, we have not felt left out neither do we feel the crush of a monolithic South Asian community as in the South Bay. I feel families in the south bay get comfortable living in their community cocoon and lose the opportunity to integrate and benefit from living in this wonderful country and community.
Are you considering only public schools or are private schools an option? There are wonderful private schools in the East Bay area, some bi and tri lingual. Good luck in your relocation!
My daughter started at Albany HS last year. We are a Black and Latina family. I was pleasantly surprised about the diversity of Albany HS, as I knew it to have a reputation of mostly Asian and White. However, Asian is quite diverse at this school, including many South Asian. When we met with the school counselor for a school tour, she was quite aware of and happy with the diversity, and it felt comfortable in the hallways. My daughter is quite sensitive to socio-emotional atmosphere, and she is very happy with the comfort and frienships at the school. Her friend set is quite diverse. It seems to me that the students don't separate by ethnic group. However, there are affinity clubs if students are interested: South Asian Student Union, East Asian Culture Club, Nepali Student Association, Mongol Club, Himalayan Culture Club, Tibetan Student Union, AAPI, Asian Student Union (Our goal for this club is to create a strong and close knit Asian American community for AHS while educating, fighting for rights, spreading awareness and helping others understand the many different Asian Cultures.). I don't know, but my guess is that if you are interested in talking with another South Asian parent, if you call the counseling dept of Albany HS, they may be able to connect you with someone. Staff at the school, as well as the town in general is very friendly and safe on many different levels.
As a south Asian parent, berkeley school district would fit your desire for other south Asian students, and the school district itself is quite well run. Other things to consider would be your commute distance - Berkeley and Albany are closer to SF than lamorinda, though Albany has no BART stops while berkeley has many. Overall I don’t think the lamorinda school district or piedmont are very diverse - at least historically they have not been. Good luck in your hunt.
We are a South Asian family living in Berkeley and I have seen very few South Asian kids in the Berkeley public schools. In my kids' classes, they are the only South Asian kid and there aren't many more in the overall school.
We are relatively new to Berkeley, so my experience in limited. There is a lot of diversity in Berkeley but it doesn't seem like there are many South Asian families in Berkeley with school-age kids. I have been told that there is higher South Asian population in Albany.
not a huge presence of south asian (were filipino) in private school in general-- but the advantage of that is that you would most likely qualify for financial aid. My kids went to EBI- escuela bilingue and now my son is at bentley where they were all offered a great financial aid package. They were never made to feel out of place and I am sad that this is my daughters last year at EBI and weve been at the school going 14 years now. Happy to discuss with you if youre interested in finding out more --im not sure if private school is something youre interested in and can demystify the process if you want more information :)