Yes, we know why you chose it: The student-teacher ratio. The academics. The art. The music. The thing with the clay. The outdoor ed trip that costs a ton per kid but is “included.” A campus where someone actually learns your child’s name. The whole child.
Well, it’s August 26, and tomorrow, your whole child is still at home when the rest of LA is back at school.
Today is Wednesday, August 26. LAUSD went back on the 12th. Culver City on the 19th. Santa Monica–Malibu on the 20th. Those kids have already lost a water bottle, had a lice scare, and likely came into contact with at least three mild viruses. But not those LA private school kids. They’re still at home, keeping tiny camps alive and driving parents insane during a heatwave that’s preventing anyone from going to the park.
Okay, not all private schools. Wildwood’s middle and upper school went back last Wednesday. Elementary Thursday, with Santa Monica USD. Harvard-Westlake opened a few days ago. JTD and Crossroads, yesterday. Congratulations. But don’t get too excited. Enrichment classes — the things you pay a few hundred dollars for each quarter at private school but are pennies at public that keep kids off the street while their parents work — don’t start for a few more weeks. Good luck explaining to your boss why 3:00pm calls are off the table for the next three weeks.
That’s if the school is back at all. Apparently, no one told PS1 about summer being over. Or the Willows. Or Seven Arrows. Those schools start next week. On whatever random weekday suits them, and frankly, it feels like they picked that day out of a hat. Seven Arrows on Monday. PS1 and Brentwood on Tuesday, a date that feels like a dare. The Willows on Wednesday. Then they close for Labor Day, having been in session for three days. Three days of the whole child, then a long weekend.
And then there’s WNS. And Calvary Christian, still in the Palisades. Those two are on a whole other version of WTF. Perhaps they’re trying to hold out for the solstice because they don’t start until after Labor Day. Calvary on Tuesday, September 8. Noon dismissal. A full month after LAUSD.
And then in June they end for summer at basically the same time.
Harvard-Westlake’s last day is June 2. LAUSD is June 4. Santa Monica hangs on until June 9. Calvary and Brentwood go to June 10 or 11. Calvary started four weeks later than the public schools and will give you six extra days in June. That is not making it up. That is not more academics. That is a coupon.
Maybe the days, when they happen, are longer. Fine. Wildwood elementary goes until 3:15, 3:30. Some of these schools get a two-week spring break and a Wednesday that starts at 9:30 so the faculty can meet about the whole child. That is a nicer year. It is not why the building is dark on August 26.
Here is the mean little paragraph: Harvard-Westlake is $54,900 this year. Crossroads is $49,262 for elementary and $58,541 for 6–12. JTD is $46,096. Calvary, the bargain, is $25,425 for TK–5 and $30,200 for middle school. Call it 170 days, which is generous. That is $320 a day at Harvard-Westlake. $340 at Crossroads upper school. $270 at JTD. A hundred and fifty at Calvary, and they still don’t start until after Labor Day.
Don’t worry. We all know why you chose it. We are not confused. Nobody picks Crossroads for the start date. Nobody sits in a JTD information session and thinks, I would like my child to have a later Wednesday in September. You chose the class size. The writing program. The ceramics studio. The way the kindergarten teacher talks about your kid like a person.
It is also true that kid is still at home. Or at a tiny camp that should have closed two weeks ago. The ceramics studio is locked. The small class is not in session. The academics will start when they start. Until then you are paying private-school money for a school that has not opened, and camp money for the hours in between, and calling it a calendar.
That’s the plot recently: Two Westsiders at the farmers market. One of them goes home and packs the backpacks. One of them preps the zinc oxide and tries to figure out how to block their work calendar without making it too obvious they aren’t working.
“I can’t believe you’re already back!” One says to the other. “I can’t believe you’re still off!” The other replies. Both of you are telling the truth. But one of you is paying for the student-teacher ratio. The whole child. The art.
The whole child who is, tomorrow morning, still going to be at home.