Irvine Real Estate Blogger

Five Irvine Unified School District schools scored in the top ten for all of Orange County for API results in 2009.

Turtle Rock, Bonita Canyon, Canyon View and Alderwood Basics Plus Elementary Schools ranked #2, #5 ,#6, and #7 respectively, and Rancho San Joaquin Middle School ranked #9.

Turtle Rock elementary is the district school for the part of Turtle Rock village located in the 92612 zip code as well as the University Town Center. Bonita Canyon elementary encompasses homes located in Turtle Rock within the 92603 zip code.

Canyon View elementary is located in a newer part of Northwood villlage in the 92620 zip code.

Alderwood Basics Plus elementary, located in Quail Hill, serves Quail Hill and the Spectrum area residents.

Rancho San Joaquin Middle School is the district school for the villages of Quail Hill, Turtle Rock, Turtle Ridge, Rancho San Joaquin, University Park and University Town Center.

To ensure that the desired school falls within your neighborhood, please look up the street address at: http://www.iusd.org/asp-bin/whichschool

To see how your schools rank among all of Orange County, go to:

http://school.hiwhy.com/orange-county

First published yesterday in http://robin4homes.activerain.com

Twenty-seven out of 33 Irvine Unified School District elementary, middle, and high schools placed in the top 10 percentile statewide, and approximately 82% of Irvine public schools earned the highest possible ranking on California’s Academic Performance Index or API, as compared to all schools in California.
In Orange County approximately 19% of the public schools earned the highest score of 10 out of 10. The figures released today, May 22, 2008, published in the Orange County Register, are updated scores for the 2007 Academic Performance Index first released in August of 2008.

The Academic Performance Index is a composite of standardized test scores and other measures used by the state to rate student achievement. These tests include the California Standards Tests, the California Achievement Test and the high school exit exam. Students in grades 3 through 11 undergo testing each spring.

Click here to read the article in its entirety.

Click here to see the complete list of Orange County public school rankings.

Not all city of Irvine addresses are served by the Irvine Unified School District.

The question arises time and time again: If I buy such and such property in Irvine, will my child be able to attend X elementary, middle, high school? The answer is: Don’t assume anything! If you want your child to attend a specific school within the Irvine Unified School District, the best course of action is to check, and then, double-check again!

All too often, buyers do not verify the school boundaries prior to purchasing a home. They assume that if a particular school is within a few blocks of the property they wish to purchase, then it follows that the school is within the property’s school attendance boundary. Wrong! In fact, a school can be within walking distance of the property, and still be outside the school’s designated attendance boundary.

I’ve seen real estate agents make the mistake of inputing the wrong school in the multiple listing service. In so doing, they are unwittingly misleading prospective buyers. For instance, today I had a prospective buyer e-mail me regarding whether University High School is within the attendance boundary of the high-rise condos in the 92612 zip code. This would include the airport area’s mid and high-rise condos of Watermarke, Avenue One, the Plaza, and the Marquee–all of which happen to fall within the Santa Ana Unified School District, not the Irvine Unified School District. There are some buyers (and, indeed, even some real estate agents) who are under the assumption that just because these condos are located in the city of Irvine (92612), that they necessarily fall within the Irvine Unified School District’s attendance boundaries. Not so.

One other caveat: Be sure to check the attendance boundary changes for future years. Just because a school is located in an attendance boundary for 2008 doesn’t preclude the school from a future boundary change. Again, in the airport area, the Metropolitan neighborhood used to be within the Irvine Unified School District’s boundary. However, now the attendance boundary of the Metropolitan falls within the Santa Ana Unified School District. Similarly, the neighborhood of Las Palmas, within the village of Westpark, used to be within the University High School attendance boundary. A homeowner of a Las Palmas condo wound up selling her condo and moving to the University Town Center just so her daughter would be able to attend University High School. She sold her condo because University High was removed from the attendance boundary of Las Palmas a few years ago. To her chagrin, her former neighborhood was recently re-installed and is now again within the University High School attendance boundary.

Therefore, I always recommend that if parents are bent on having their child/children attend a specific school, then the best way to verify if a particular school falls within the desired attendance boundary is to go to the Irvine Unified School District’s web site and check. This is very easy do. Scroll down to Enrollment, and then over to Assigned Neighborhood Schools. Click on this and it will bring you to an area where you can type in the address of the property, and it will display the elementary, middle, and high school attendance area for that particular address. You may also wish to click on the Irvine Unified School District’s School Boundaries. The site also provides a future map indicating boundary changes.

Currently the attendance boundaries for University High School include the villages of Quail Hill, Rancho San Joaquin, Turtle Ridge, Turtle Rock, University Park, and University Town Center.
Better to be informed than sorry!

Two elementary schools within the Irvine Unified School District were named a California Distinguished School for 2008, the state’s top honor for individual schools. Based on the results of test scores, only 5% of all schools statewide are awarded this prize, and the award rotates between the elementary, middle, and high school campuses each year. This prestigious prize was awarded to Alderwood Basics Plus elementary school, located in the village of Quail Hill and Canyon View elementary school, situated in the village of Northwood in Irvine, CA.

1. Irvine, CA named Safest City in U.S. for Population Over 100,000 by F.B.I. for 3rd Straight Year in the fall 2007.
-Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2007-
2. Irvine Unified School District has six of the top elementary schools, five of the top ten middle schools (including the top two), and four of the top ten high schools in Orange County
-California Department of Education, 2007-
3. Irvine’s University High School ranked #76 out of the top 100 high schools in the U.S. for 2007 and Irvine’s University of California, Irvine, ranked the 13th best public university in the nation by U.S. News & World Report

4. One-Third of the city of Irvine is set aside for parks, trails and permanent open space, as Irvine voters approved an Open Space Initiative back in June of 1988 which was a collaborative effort involving the city and The Irvine Company.

5. 37,000 acres have been designated by the federal government as The Irvine Ranch National Natural Landmark (NLL), offering a protection to a wide variety of plant and animals, some of which are on the endangered species list. The areas include Bommer Canyon in Irvine, as well as Limestone and Fremont Canyons north of Irvine, Crystal Cove State Park and Laguna Coast Wilderness Park south of Irvine.

One of the first questions that buyers ask at Open Houses relates specifically to whether a home or condo falls within a particular school boundary. There is indeed a correlation between home values and great schools. It goes without saying that parents begin worrying about their children’s education as early as preschool. As more students vie to secure a spot in the top colleges and universities, the competition has become greater to give one’s child an edge and at an earlier age than in years past.

Prospective homeowners research schools when they begin to think about starting a family, and it is a driving force in the purchase of a home whose neighborhood falls within the boundaries of top-scoring schools.

One of the primary reasons we decided to move to Irvine was because of the great reputation of the Irvine public schools. When families have to decide whether to pay thousands of dollars for a private school education to ensure that their children receive the best education possible, we realize how blessed we are that we have a fabulous public school system. Indeed, great schools not only benefit our children’s education and opportunities to succeed in a competitive world, but a school’s reputation can add thousands of dollars to your property’s value.

Here in the villages of the University Town Center and Quail Hill in Irvine, we are privileged to have Turtle Rock Elementary and Alderwood Basics Plus elementary schools, respectively, both of which have been named California Distinguished Schools, as well as University High School, which is nationally-ranked among the top 100 high schools in the United States (#76 in 2008 according to the U.S. News & World Report). Moreover, in 2008 there were 31 students named National Merit Semi-Finalists, and University High continues to rank among the top high schools in Orange County for SAT scores. We are also fortunate to have one of the top rated universities in the University of California at Irvine also named as one of the top 100 in this year’s edition of U.S. News & World Report (#44 ) for America’s best colleges.

So irrespective of whether or not you have children of school age, you will be a seller at some point in the future. And the people to whom you will more than likely be selling will ultimately care about the quality of their neighborhood schools and the value they add to their children’s and grand children’s future educational success as well as the added value to the properties in which these schools are located.

For more information on the local schools go to the Irvine Unified School District. For more information University High School, see SchoolMatters.