For San Franciscans whose children are about to enter kindergarten, March is an anxious time. While their childless peers are eagerly anticipating St. Patrick’s Day, city parents are huddled around their mailboxes, waiting. On the advice of their child’s preschool head they’ve applied to five independent schools an entered the San Francisco Unified District lottery. Just like in college, thick envelopes mean success, thin ones mean failure. When will they arrive?
To most Peninsula residents, the twin realities of independent schools (with their steep price tags, $27,740 for kindergarten at the San Francisco Day School this year) and confusing weighted public school lotteries are science fiction. In their world, you choose a city and/or neighborhood based in part on its schools. In San Francisco, families navigate a maze-like process of interviews, screenings and lengthy applications (independent schools) or simply roll the dice and hope for the best (public). You mean living in Pacific Heights doesn’t mean you get to go to school in Pacific Heights? Welcome to the big leagues.
It’s enough to drive a family out of the city, and it does, each year, in droves. Sunday open houses in San Francisco are a study in current four-year-old bedroom design. Each open house has one, it seems.
For families choosing to avoid the challenges of in-city education – or for those whose mailbox fills up with the wrong kind of responses in March – there are other options. Some head east for the wide open suburban spaces and highly ranked schools of East Bay cities like Orinda and Walnut Creek. Others prefer the more laid-back rustic vibe (and no less well-regarded public schools) of Marin County. With so much of our region’s industry located south of the city, however, for many families, The Peninsula is the best – and only – option.
Families in Peninsula cities, specifically those living in Burlingame, Hillsborough, San Mateo, Belmont and San Carlos, place a high premium on solid public schools, donating their time and resources to make sure their children are in good hands. Cities have a long track record of passing school bonds, ensuring that what are now considered “extras” in some schools – art, P.E. and music – remain a vital part of their public schools.
This isn’t new knowledge. The home-buying public is already quite aware of San Mateo County schools’ reputations for excellence, which is why each spring brings with it a run on homes in Peninsula cities known for their schools – I’m talking about you, Hillsborough and Burlingame. These cities often experience a surge in buyers in April, May and June.
As we discussed recently, for-sale home inventories are at all-time lows in many Peninsula cities. Add to that the urgency of buyers fleeing San Francisco, looking to get into houses and into schools before kindergarten begins in the fall and you’ve got increased pressure on what was already an overheated market. For many, even that is preferable to hanging out by the mailbox, hoping for thick envelopes.