Vista Del Mar Elementary School

Great school that promotes great values and excellence in education.

We had our twins go to K last year and we learned a lot from the experience. We choose private school this year for several mean reasons: VDM is overcrowded school ( 32-37 kids per classroom), high stress drop and pick ups (mad house), shorter school hours per day (too many breaks, Tues very short day) and most important our kids are happier. At VDM Parking/drop off and pick up is absolute nightmare for parents and kids . Almost every day, VDM principal is at the parking helping out by opening the car doors to let kids out...very nice thing to do, but as a parent and part of Talega community I would rather see him at our Capistrano district trying to improve school entrance and parking structure. We have these beautiful rolling hills but very bad school design for such a large school. We did it for a year and survived it but after a year we all said lets try something else. Try it and if you find it is too much for you or your kids, there are many other choices.

Over-crowded and over-rated. I can't say that our experience here has been smooth. Communications have been missed or have incomplete information, the traffic around the school is an absolute nightmare, and attending any special functions is dreadful... big crowds, no parking, disorganized madhouse.I'm trying to remain positive, but compared to my experiences over my 20 years of parenting, VDM needs an overhaul.

We have had our kids at two different private schools in the neighboring area and have to say, Vista Del Mar blows them all away in terms of competence of the teachers and academics, as well as day to day instruction. We are in our 3rd here now and have been extremely happy with the school. The only negative might be the size of the school as it is large, but we have not found this to have disrupted the day to day instruction our kids receive and if anything, has been a significant positive socially, compared to private school experience. We will stay at this school the next 5 years without a doubt.