Carondelet High School

Initially my daughter did not want to go to Carondelet. However, once there, she quickly integrated into the school and made herself at home. She received a well-​rounded education, good enough to get her into UC Davis and graduate with a degree in Finance. Now she has a family and a great job in her field. The real effect of Carondelet can be judged many years after graduation. I found that she received an excellent foundation for success in life.

Carondelet High is an all girls catholic high school in Concord (SF’s East Bay). It is next door to the all boys catholic school De La Salle and to the co-​ed public school Ygnacio Valley.
Tuition is $ 16k, and from what I can tell accept 200 female students a year. If you’ve got good grades and go to a catholic middle school you’ll probably get in. The diversity of the school reflects this wealthy East Bay community with about ²⁄₃ of the students being white and the other ¹⁄₃^rd being everything else.
Last year’s menu choices for Black History month made the press, and I’m sure it made the 3% of the school that is African American angry, but hopefully it was a teaching moment and a call for bringing more cultural diversity to the campus through out reach, scholarship and cultural sensitivity training. I know the school takes the job of educating young women seriously, now they just need to expand it to women of all colors.
Their Carondeltter publication is worth a read. I like how they detail the graduation outcomes of their students and list all the awards and scholarships they’ve won. It goes to show the hard work that has gone into making their student successful.

I think as I get older, I start to appreciate more and more how lucky I was to have attended Carondelet. This school provided me with an excellent education and taught me invaluable skills that I was able to apply to college and beyond. There is a great sense of community spirit here, but I felt the school tended to fall short on the religious end of things, much of the learning in this area was «watered down».

An all girls’ school can be a social nightmare because of the inevitable cattiness and cliques, and I had the misfortune of experiencing this firsthand. CHS is also EXTREMELY sports oriented. If you do not play a sport, you are considered a bit of an outsider. There is no instrumental music program here for strings, which is also a huge drawback.
The best thing I can say about Carondelet is that they have an AMAZING faculty and staff. I formed close relationships with more than a few of my teachers while I was there. The retreat program for seniors, Kairos, is incredible. Memories of this experience stayed with me for years. I learned so much about my faith and my fellow classmates. In some ways I really wish this retreat was offered FRESHMAN year. It might really help to cut back on some of the bullying and create a more unified student body.

After I just learned about the manner in which this school chose to «celebrate» Black History Month, no parent should send their daughters here. What idiotic Administrator approved this racist act? Shame on you! Someone should be fired for this irresponsible act!

Daughter is attending the FastBreak Girls Basketball Camp. Getting some great learning skills and basketball fundamentals from one of the best B-​ball coaches in our area.

The students, faculty and staff of Carondelet along with the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano and the Monument Crisis Center did their part to help end hunger today by wearing orange (the color of hunger relief) and spelling out «End Hunger» in the amph for a photo op. The school responded quickly to the request and made the photo happen with only a couple of weeks notice. Thank you Carondelet High School!

yes, yes. i went to an all girls, private catholic high school. are you done smirking?
all jokes aside, I loved it from day one. i know that’s not the case for everyone, but i really did. i didnt miss having classes with boys (of course there was an all boy school right across the street in which we shared most lunches and breaks) nor did i mind wearing a uniform. it really eliminated the worry of what i looked like in the morning.
i was the «poor kid» in my class. i attended only because of scholarships and work grants (working in the cafeteria and cleaning classrooms sure wasnt fun, but it was worth it!) but it never felt awkward. i felt right at home. i really felt like everyone who graduated did their best to reach their full potential with the guidance of incredible teachers.
and the cookies in the cafeteria? i mean COME ON! if you went to carondelet, you know what i’m talking about! DELISH! =)

See those scratch marks at the front sidewalk? Those were made by my fingernails as I was dragged in here my freshman year by my mother, who was fed up of the local public schools and threw me to the nuns. Me at 13: «Um, uniforms? No boys? As if! I’m sooo outta here!»
Now, many (MANY) years later, I can see that a single-​sex, religious education was the making of me. I can’t say enough good about that. I didn’t realize at the time how unusual it was to get the kind of education I did there. I realized soon after graduation that my negativity towards CHS while I was there was more general teen angst and that I didn’t really have any well-​founded criticisms of the school.
The academics were good, but probably no better than some of the schools in local wealthy areas (I went to college with kids from Northgate and Acalanes and it seemed like we all got about the same level of education). But the focus on community service, on developing our own set of values, on Christianity as social justice, on our roles as women in the world and in the Church… these were unique experiences to CHS. also, the teachers and staff are some of the most dedicated people I’ve ever met. They really get to know their students. It is really hard to «slip through the cracks» here.
Now, about the stuff that’s not in the brochures:
As a lower middle-​class kid in a school full of rich kids, I felt a lot poorer than I really was. To the extent that elitism is a problem, it really originates with the parents and not with the students. Some people send their kids here because they want to tell their golf buddies that their kid is in private school. That side of things left a bad taste in my mouth for most of the «CHS alumni pride» stuff.
It was already almost totally white when I went there, and the few minorities hung out together. Plus, from the recent pictures I’ve seen, they appear to have eliminated all the minorities from the student body. Hopefully that’s not true.
The school is not large enough to have special programs for students who need extra attention in the classroom because of academic or behavioral isssues. If your kid needs a highly remedial program or is an emotional train wreck, this is not a suitable place for them. There are not enough resources to provide that kind of specialized support. Try to get an intra-​district transfer to one of the larger public schools or look into smaller private schools.
However, if your child has a physical disability and they are getting shut out at the public school, I think this is a great place for that student. I was horrified to learn about the way students with physical disabilities are excluded and tormented at other schools. If that had gone on here, the students would have been as quick to react as the staff.
Lots of parents want to send their kids here. It’s one of the few feeder high schools for many local Catholic K-​8s. Don’t amble up to the school 2 days before classes start with your tween in tow and then be pissed that you can’t get in. If you are interested in sending your kids here, start getting involved early.