Balboa School - Escondido, California

Michelle P.

I have known many people who have sent their children to Balboa City School. This school has always gotten rave reviews. They encourage students to learn modern technologies but also take care of the fundamentals. Their writing classes and math classes are excellent! What my friends tell me is that their children really enjoy school and the smaller classes. This is a modern school with a sophisticated, positive educational philosophy. It is a very safe school where bullying is not allowed.

Malcolm T.

Balboa School is revamped and right on track to become one of the best! Great potential here. The faculty really care about their students and their awesome student to teacher ratio helps the kids to engage and learn effectively and my son has been improving tremendously. As a parent, I am excited to see what’s in store for these students. Great job Balboa!

Han P.

I graduated from Balboa school last year, and it was such a fulfilling experience! I started at Balboa school 2 years ago and at first it was very difficult for me. I moved here from Vietnam and my English was not great. The teachers, who sometimes spent after hours to help me achieve my dream to study Medicine really were amazing . Now I am a college students at ONU following my dream to become a Pharmacist. I couldn't have done it without the amazing teachers at Balboa School and I am very grateful for everything.

Nancy C.

I am very pleased with Balboa City School. My daughter went to an exclusive private school in Australia and it was a good school. Balboa City School has given her much more confidence; she is learning a lot more in math and English. She is also doing many creative things. She has learned how to trade currency on a Forex Simulator and for her senior project she is going to manage a portfolio of currency trading. The school has encouraged her to study hard for her SAT. This summer for two weeks she will also be studying how to make, by actually making, artificial bones with robots that the students build and program themselves. I am confident she is going to be accepted to a good college.

Hazel B.

We are so grateful to have found Balboa School. Our daughter receives such personal attention from teachers and administrators, the teachers are very nice and even the students like them so much! Our daughter is getting an excellent education, it's a diverse educational environment and she is being supported and encouraged by the staff. If you are also looking for a good school, I highly recommend this school!

kenneth O.

I will have three kids at this school. All three scored highly on the STAR test while in the public schools. For issues related to ADHD the public schools were not equipped to handle them. MY oldest has been there for 3 years now. Just finished 9th grade and is taking Japanese as his foreign language. Less an emphasis on a ton of homework and more on actual learning. A friend of my son's who's father was in the Marines had to move to NC. When she was back for a visit she raved about how much better Balboa was for her kid than the school on the military base.

The school is very accommodating to each kids issues. Much more cultural diversity than many schools.

Mikel C.

While preparing to teach American Literature at Huashan High School in Korla, China this Fall, I have a had the unique opportunity to do my prep work at Balboa City School, a college preparatory K-12 school on the western border of Balboa Park in San Diego, California.
Each day I have observed students engaged in small classes, working with their peers and teachers who do not just disseminate information or “teach to the test”, but are emphasizing the importance of questions such as “....how, why and what if...”. This type of teaching encourages students to expand their minds and critically and think about how to arrive at logical solutions. In my opinion, this style of teaching is becoming more and more rare these days, with many schools focusing on test results only. Balboa City School encourages its students to use their Critical Thinking skills to solve real world problems such as which engine to use in a rocket and bookwork too. This higher form of critical thinking is very important for the future of our children as they navigate through their school career to college and into their chosen careers.

While working in many schools for the last 12 years, I have seen the decline in using interesting education activities, such as Balboa Park, Old Town, local museums, etc. At BCS the students are exposed regularly to Balboa Park, Old Town, museums, the world famous San Diego Zoo among other educational resources that enhances their education experience while at BCS. Examples of this “think outside the box” teaching is seen everyday, the BCS classroom doesn't stop at the four walls of the classroom, the typical BCS classroom extends beyond the four walls. Going into the community and using all that San Diego has to offer, whether its studying in a museum about an era in history, or observing animals at the world famous San Diego Zoo, in a way much like Socrates taught his students. The students study for the SAT, build rockets for national contests, study robotics, develop original video games, among other many interesting and compelling subjects.

BCS is a uniquely different school, it focuses on the student, not only as an individual, but also as a team member in the classroom, the classroom experience extends beyond the brick and mortar of the school building. The staff constantly is encouraging the students to explore “outside the box” in their way of thinking, which better prepares them for the world.

Timothy G.

We placed our son in this school based on a referal from our home district. It was the worst decision we ever made; Dr. Parker had around 5 meetings with us and everything he said he was going to do to help our son never happened. In fact, the school staff set up our son for disaster, which lead to them having to call my wife & I out of work to rush to the school along with San Diego PD.

The school was taking the kids over to the park for a water balloon fight during the summer; the asked my son to assist with filling the water balloons and then once the whole school was getting lined up to go, they pulled our son out and told him he would have to stay at the school in the office for something that they again set up a few days prior. Then the school staff and Dr. Parker wonder why they need to call out the police.

We pulled our son out that day. Once he reached the high school age, his new district told us that they used to send students to Balboa. After they completed a few follow-ups on their students in this school, they could not believe the POOR teaching and mental treatment of the students and pulled all of their students out of the school. The district said they would never advise this school again.

Both my wife & I saw this in just the year our son was enrolled in this school, now his elementary home district advised us they will never use this school again either. Be very careful when looking into this school, they promise a lot, deliver little, and when talking with Mr. Parker, be ready to take a journey into some weird place beyond your wildest dreams.