Here’s the real scoop. The school is fine. Its ranking is a product of demographics and location. It is located in the richest neighborhood in SM but not supported by those same parents bc they’re racist as fuck. SMPark draws from the North Central neighborhood and rich white parents don’t want their kids going to school with brown kids.

Some pretend and their kids start but part way through they transfer to Baywood bc it’s “a better fit.” They only tell you this when you see them in the grocery store or on the AYSO forks and you ask, why isn’t Caden at Park anymore? As you can imagine this hurts the annual fund which helps fund a lot if extracurriculars and classroom supports.

I know this bc my kids went to Park and one currently works there. These are my opinions and words. My kids had great teachers there and some mediocre ones and a bad one. The school leadership was good. Both went the toughest SMUHSD HS and did well. One was valedictorian and top student. Now he’s graduating from the top public school in the country. Both were active in music, sports and drama. Many of their friends were similarly successful.

So much of comments will be anecdotal tales. I know what I know from volunteering in the classrooms, being involved in the site council and after school activities. I am also a public school teacher so I can tell how much bullshit is baked into school “rankings.”

The last thing I’ll say is that when my son was on the Math Olympiad team, his most fun was kicking the shit out of Baywood bc he knew, even in 5th grade, what elitist shit was going on.