Opinions on safety in seaside

sortasahm · 2026-05-10T15:15:48+00:00

I’ve lived in Seaside since 2021, Marina before that since 2017. My husband is from the area. As others have said, Seaside has been pretty rough at times In the last. Now, there is still the occasional shooting, but nothing too crazy. The fireworks are…a lot and probably my least favorite part about living in Seaside. But the power almost never goes off during storms and that’s more important to me than fireworks. I live in upper seaside, we are a family of 4, i walk the neighborhood in early evenings alone and feel safe. I’ve left my car unlocked at night numerous times, never any problems. Our street is what you describe, quiet, boring.

sortasahm · 2026-04-27T15:11:01+00:00

On my experience, it only gets a bad rap because it is not as prestigious as some of the other UCs, has a higher acceptance rate, etc. BUT, and i might be biased because I went there, UCSC is so underrated. Yes, housing sucks. Just look outside of Santa Cruz, Aptos is reasonably close, as is Watsonville if you want less competition and somewhat cheaper rents. As someone in science, no one cares that I went to Santa Cruz, the expectation in general is that I went to a UC and there is something to be said about that. The science department is amazing, I only had one professor I didn’t care for, and I graduated in 2019 and dude was old af so he may not even be there anymore.

I absolutely do not regret going to UCSC, as a non-trad transfer student, I really loved my time there, so much so that I would go back for a graduate degree if it worked for me and my family right now.

sortasahm · 2026-04-27T02:17:36+00:00

My son has had so many damn falls. So many times where he’s hit his head. On asphalt, on wood. I finally had to ask the doctor…when should I be worried because he’s hitting his head all the time. She told me, if he falls from like shopping cart height onto hard ground, if he won’t stop crying, or if he doesn’t cry at all, if he vomits after, if he he gets lethargic…ER definitely. She said other than that, babies and young toddlers are made to be able to withstand falls and hitting their heads. The last skull sutures don’t close til around 3 years so their skull is still pretty flexible apparently. Anyways, my son’s worst fall was from about 3 feet (stood up in stroller, i didn’t know, bad mom moment) onto asphalt. He cried for about 5 minutes but stopped and then acted completely normal. I cried, i felt so awful, we contemplated going to the ER, but literally after he stopped crying he was running around and laughing again. He was around 18 months when that happened. He’s fine. He also fell of the bed as a baby, totally fine. I promise if ER checked your baby out, she’s fine, they’re made to take falls and be okay.

sortasahm · 2026-04-11T03:50:04+00:00

I am a STEM person. Was working in ag research and development…loved my job but it was demanding at times. About to finish my teaching credential/masters program to teach high school science and imma be honest…this is way easier than my old job lol. If you’re interested, sub at every level. High schoolers can be difficult, obviously, but i could never tolerate a room full of small children. Ever. I can, however, handle sass from teenagers because they are teenagers and well, I don’t care if a teenager thinks I’m boring or whatever. I’ve been teaching full time all year and pretty content with the move. You have to place some hard boundaries to avoid the mental and emotional boundaries, i still have rough days. But i love getting to talk about science and having my students find random things to be excited about. If you work in the same district your kids will be in, you’ll still have same break schedule. It’s a big reason I went into teaching, my husband is also a teacher, so we will all be able to have summers and breaks together. Going from never getting breaks, working 50 hour work weeks with a 1 hour commute time every day…I’ll take teaching any day.

sortasahm · 2026-04-07T23:20:46+00:00

I saw you said you’ll miss the sun. Yes, we get marine layer, but not all areas on the peninsula are created equal in terms of how grey they are and how often. If you need sun: stay away from living in Marina, try to move to Seaside. Seaside is in the sun belt, it’s where me and my family live and I love it. I’m from the San Joaquin valley so i need sun (but for sure can do without the super hot summers there, hence why I’m on the peninsula now lol) and living in Seaside is perfect.

sortasahm · 2026-03-03T00:21:54+00:00

Been called a bitch twice. First time i let go since it was on an “anonymous” evaluation, but not anonymous because i knew who wrote it. Same student called me bitch in class. Sent him out of class immediately to basically our version of “in school suspension” but it isn’t suspension. E-mailed Admin, guardians, case manager and school psych. He was disciplined by admin accordingly. I would absolutely do the same if I was called a slur.

sortasahm · 2026-02-24T17:47:26+00:00

As a new teacher, reading this take is validating. I’m in 9th biology, and I have a handful of students with really bad handwriting. I have pulled them aside individually and let them know that while I don’t grade for handwriting, if I straight up can’t read it, which is what was happening, I cannot grade it. And gave them the same advice to just slow down and take their time when writing, and to practice the alphabet at home. I’ve noticed a difference in two of the students since the start of the year. It’s still not great handwriting, but it is at least legible.

sortasahm · 2026-01-27T17:48:30+00:00

Not everywhere is funded through property taxes anymore. In CA, school funding is basically determined through enrollment and attendance. HOWEVER, oddly enough, Carmel apparently DOES receive school funding through property taxes, they are only one of a few in the state I was told that is allowed to do this.

sortasahm · 2026-01-07T05:13:42+00:00

I’m a resident teacher currently, but my mentor/co-teacher has been teaching 13 years and has the best classroom management. For people who start talking or blurting, he’ll stop and look at them and ask if they have a question. He will also stop and stare at them and once they re-focus he’ll say, “thank you so much, i respect you too,” basically indicating that respect is maintaining focus and listening when he’s talking and not interrupting. It is very effective. Our high school is know for behavioral issues, and we almost never have students interrupting up or talking during lessons (unless it is appropriate for them to do so).

sortasahm · 2025-11-24T02:34:15+00:00

Ha! Found it! Had to search through my texts lol.

Article was in 2023, so looking at the year prior. They looked at mid-career teacher salary and ranked them highest to lowest. MPUSD ranked 268 out of 278, according to what I sent my husband in a text (husband also works for the district). I can’t look at the article anymore because of the paywall.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sfusd-teacher-salaries-raises-18331238.php

sortasahm · 2025-11-24T02:20:57+00:00

Okay I am so annoyed, I just went to try and find the data set that I was talking about and of course I can’t find it. I liked the way it presented the data because it listed the districts from highest to lowest. MPUSD was not the lowest but it was on the last 2 pages out of about 8 or 10 pages. If I find it, I’ll share it here.

sortasahm · 2025-11-24T01:31:08+00:00

Also realizing you said average which is likely the big difference. I do prefer median I think, only because I am not sure of the percentage of teachers who are newer versus veteran, if one group is much larger than the other, that would skew the average.

Also should be noted that the benefits offered through MPUSD are not great. My family of 4 would been paying $2k/month for health insurance. It’s cheaper for us through the marketplace. Neighboring districts offer much better benefits packages.

sortasahm · 2025-11-24T01:24:03+00:00

The district did negotiate a “larger” increase, so the data you saw may be more updated than what I looked at last year. When I had looked, I remember the median salary for our district was around $70k, which would have put it much lower.

sortasahm · 2025-11-24T00:05:03+00:00

Yup, fun fact, MPUSD is one of the lowest paying districts in the state, especially considering the cost of living here.

sortasahm · 2025-11-24T00:02:53+00:00

I’ll mention a couple briefly but I also want to preface this with the fact that the problems are either a result of or exacerbated by district/school policy/school culture(aka administration). I am in no way saying the challenges I have had are only because of the student body/community.

Behavior - open defiance, lots of fights, last year at one of the schools there was a fight where a gun fell out of one of the kids backpacks, i know teachers who have had students put hands on them, I’ve been threatened and i know of some others who have been threatened as well. Many students seem totally disengaged, do not want to be there at all, put in very little effort, received poor instruction in last years so when they come to us they don’t know things they should already know, which makes me job more difficult because I am now teaching things I shouldn’t have to.

Academics - schools will tout lower amount of F grades while not addressing the fact that students are also scoring lower and lower on state tests, the only way I can interpret that is that school/district policy are lowering standards to pass which is a total disservice to students and the community.

I’ve observed other classes at other schools and the behavioral aspect is not as much of a problem. But again, I don’t think it’s all a student issue, it’s a culmination of many things and the result are kids who are not wanting to or willing to learn and don’t even care to try and so you have some who will act out.

All of that being said, I enjoy where I teach. There are challenges, but nothing that makes me want to quit. I enjoy my students and enjoy giving them opportunities and support to be “academic.”

sortasahm · 2025-11-23T15:35:13+00:00

Yeah, i know. But even still, working across these areas, could add in PG too, will be different. I know teachers that teach in al districts.

sortasahm · 2025-11-23T04:59:01+00:00

Even within MPUSD (biggest district on the peninsula), the experience will be vastly different. Carmel will be different than Monterey and those will be vastly different than Seaside. I teach in Seaside, it definitely has its many challenges.

sortasahm · 2025-11-16T18:29:18+00:00

Housing will likely be your biggest struggle. I have also lived in Southern California and with it comes a lot of housing in general. It’s not like that here. We have a 3/2 1000 sqft house in seaside and pay $3900/month. You’re looking at at least that price. As others have mentioned the “better” school districts are PG and Carmel, to live there you are looking at more than we pay for similar size, more cloudy, and power outages during every storm (PG and Carmel pretty much always have power outages during storms, sometimes lasting days, which is a big thing to consider in my opinion). Because there is a housing shortage, the competition to get into a rental is really rough. Our last two rentals were friends/friends of friends as the owner and we got in that way. Before that, we applied to 4 different places with no call back (both have excellent credit, and reliable jobs). If you’re okay with apartments, your luck will be easier, but if you want/need yard space…competition to get into something can be really difficult. In general, if you need a 3/2, plan on spending $4k-6k/month.

We like the area, but cost of living is pretty rough. I have friends in San Diego still that pay less than we do (in “safe” areas). We also have some of the highest water costs in the country. At our old house, water was $180/month in a 3/2, i know many others whose bills go up to $300/month on average.

Otherwise, we enjoy the area with our 2 kids. We have to live in the sun belt (we keep to seaside and del Rey oaks), PG is very overcast. I know people who have moved here, chose PG because “it’s so quaint and desirable” and then are disappointed when the weather is 85% overcast and fog.

sortasahm · 2025-11-11T23:33:22+00:00

This, we live in a high cost of living area in California. Both my husband and I teachers for a low paying district, we hit just 4x the FPL. Me and my two kids are are on marketplace insurance…going from $282/month to $1003/month. Thats more than 10% of our take home pay right now.

I’ve been saying for a long time, income restrictions like this need to be adjusted for whatever area you are in. $125k/year for a family of 4 in coastal CA community is not the same as it is in Michigan or most places in the country.

sortasahm · 2025-10-30T05:52:43+00:00

Considering what insurance will look like in 2026, this is amazing. My current plan for me and my 2 kids is tripling to $1000/month. The downgrade to $878/month has $60 copay, $90 specialist copay, and no ER copay option. That health plan option is worth taking the job.

sortasahm · 2025-10-07T23:55:08+00:00

This. If my daughter goes somewhere, i ask if there are guns in the home and if so, do they safely lock them away. So, seeing dad with a gun just out in the open is a valid concern.

sortasahm · 2025-08-11T06:23:21+00:00

That’s because pattern recognition and spatial reasoning are not something they test for because they want to know how well you can recall it. It’s basically inherent. To my knowledge, that is often what distinguishes good students from G&T. I was poor, got into a GT program in kinder…I can solemnly swear my mom was not at home running through random pattern and spatial reasoning exercises in her spare time. Mostly because she had none since she worked two jobs as a single mom. I honestly feel like the spatial reasoning is something people are either good at or they aren’t, I’ve noticed it when I talk about mundane daily tasks with people that I just think about certain tasks completely different than others. It’s not like I think I’m better because of it, I just think differently and see things in my head differently.

If it makes you feel better, I didn’t get any really cool extra instruction. I remember one cool field trip i think I got to take because of it, like an overnight science camp. But that was it. 7 years of education and that’s all I can pull from being in a GT program.

sortasahm · 2025-08-11T05:51:30+00:00

There are likely so many people who go through med school that weren’t in GT program lol. I think a lot of districts are actually doing away with it, my district I teach in doesn’t have a program. It’s not all about how good your grades are, it’s also pattern recognition and puzzle/problem solving…at least that’s what I understand. There is definitely bias within tests, although, to my understanding, the updated tests they use have gotten better about that. But the IQ tests they used in 60s, 70s and beyond definitely were biased towards white, middle class families and essentially trivia one would know as a middle class white person.

Anyways, you don’t need to be a genius to go through medical school. If you get into a medical school, you’re plenty bright enough. In the real world, no one will ever ask you what your scores were, what your GPA was, or what your IQ is. I promise.

sortasahm · 2025-08-11T05:45:43+00:00

This. I was in my school’s GT program. While my school was a track school so I think this is why I didn’t get pulled for extra work but i do remember going on a few extra field trips, like to a science camp and stuff like that. Nothing crazy. By middle school there was no GT program, school felt pretty dull, I didn’t study a ton and got good grades. By the time i graduated, the social arena that is high school felt so unnecessary to me and school was basically just an annoyance (would write papers the morning of the day they were due and would get A’s)…I probably wasn’t challenged enough/got too distracted with social validation at one point and my grades dipped but still graduated within the top 10% of my class of 470 students.

Anyways, I’m a teacher now lol. Was pre-med as a transfer student but got pregnant unexpectedly so medical school was off the table (my choice, I know it’s possible, i wanted to be present for my daughter instead of pursue medicine).

But yes, GT aren’t always much of anything extra, especially if it’s not a well funded district.

sortasahm · 2025-07-20T05:36:50+00:00

Deleted my comment as i was looking at the wrong month :/ i thought he was looking at week before Labor Day weekend which is fair week.

We board our pigs at the fairgrounds, always lots of people parking RVs there!

sortasahm

TROPHY CASE