We're in the Thornhill neighborhood - will we get in?
My oldest will be entering kindergarten in a year or so, and my husband and I have been trying to figure out how the various local/area school v. lottery situation works. We have a general idea of the system after speaking with a few folks, and have determined our local school would be Thornhill. It sounds like in general people do get their area school, although it sounds like last year there might have been some issues with incoming students being placed well outside of their area. I am curious if any families who had Thornhill as their area school did NOT get the school and where they were placed instead. Similarly, if families had any luck with the lottery to get placed elsewhere, how did that process work for you? In general, I'm just hoping we get Thornhill as our area school, but we are curious about Hillcrest b/c of the benefit of the school going through 8th grade.
And along those lines, I'd love to hear about experiences with the Oakland Public Schools, particularly for K-5. I'm most interested in hearing about experiences with Thornhill, but curious about Montclair and Hillcrest as well since we are located close to all three.
Thank you!
[Moderator note] Lots of past advice about OUSD school choice + school reviews here: https://www.berkeleyparentsnetwork.org/advice/oakland-unified-public-school-district
Parent Replies
I believe a few families in the Thornhill zone did not initially get in last year, but got in after the numbers shook out. That's unusual, though, and the first year I can remember it happening. That said, it is always good to have some backup choices. Go visit all three, and you'll get a good sense of how they're similar and different, and which might work for your daughter. Then rank accordingly. (You don't lose your priority at Thornhill by listing it second or third, and that is most likely where you'll get assigned.)
Hello! All of the approx. 22 neighborbood-zone kids who were on the most recent Thornhill waitlist eventually got a spot in the kindergarten class after about 2 months. Re: Hillcrest, my understanding is that your child is only guaranteed a spot through 5th grade. There is a random lottery for the 6th- 8th grade spots at Hilcrest. I would suggest including some charter, parochial, and private schools in your search as back-ups. If your child does not get a spot at Thornhill initially, she will likely be offered a spot in one of the other schools that feed into Montera or another school if you rank it high enough and get lucky. I know that the waitlist kids were offered spots at schools including Piedmont Ave. Elementary, Kaiser, Chabot, Joaquin Miller, and Carl Munck.
We don’t have personal experience but my daughter’s friend’s neighborhood school is Thornhill and she did not intitially get in last year for kindergarten. She was ranked 25th on the waitlist. After a couples months she did eventually get in but by that time they had found a private school they really liked and decided to go there instead even though she had gotten in to Thornhill. She was assigned to a school ranked a 1 initially and it was 20 minutes away from their house. Hillcrest is a great school but it seems most years there isn’t even enough space for the neighborhood kids so it would be a gamble picking that school as one of your top choices. Crocker Highlands is another one that frequently doesn’t have enough space for the neighborhood kids. Any highly ranked school will be competitive but some of the larger ones may have space. In all likelihood your child will get into Thornhill but there may be some initial stress if they are waitlisted first.