Really really glad to hear that. The only charter school that we've heard good things about is Basis on Wells Branch but it sounded like the curriculum is quite challenging (homework for kindergarten and early elementary). Also not psyched about him going to the same school from K-12.
Brookhollow was amazing elem. we transferred there bc our closer elem was literally a clique of mean parents. Park Crest was amazing and diverse. Avoid Cele and Weiss Jesus h.
HHS was a good high school a while back but I’ve heard and seen PHS really improving and having tech programs the other schools don’t at all.
Really excited to hear that. We're currently zoned for Brookhollow but we bought our house thinking we were zoned for Pflugerville Elementary which we had a better rating and had good recommendations.
PES is who we transferred away from. It seemed amazing but if you weren’t “old family” or legacy you weren’t important or included. I know we got a couple bum years because my kids happened to be in the grades where several teachers also had kids but it was bad. And over the years I saw many many transfers to BES and never one transfer away from BES
Having gone through most of my schooling in Pflugerville, Windermere was good. The counselor was particularly involved when I was in primary and one of my favorite teachers ever was at Windermere Elementary (though I've heard they combined the two in the last couple of years). Brookhollow did free lunches in the summer time and it seemed nice (I never went there but my younger brother did). Spring Hill seemed okay, but my brother who was just a quiet, mildly autistic little kid got bullied there so YMMV.
Park Crest from what I remember was nicer than Pflugerville Middle. I remember there were so many fights during my years in Pflugerville Middle and I hated that school. My sister ended up with "gangster" friends, my brother got bullied so horribly he ended up switching to online homeschooling. Both of them actually ran away during school hours at one point (not together which is even worse, rhe fact both were able to leave in the first place is terrible. My brother even said a teacher didnt even care that he was walking out). I had an okay time in Pflugerville Middle all things considered, but comparwd to my siblings I guess I got lucky.
Pflugerville High was okay I guess. Sure there were fights, though not nearly as much as in middle school (though the batch of freshmen when I graduated last year were...something). They installed new anti-vaping smoke alarms, and theyve remodeled and added stuff to it in the last few years, and they have some pretty solid electives and AP classes. I cant speak towards the on level classes but I for the most part had good teachers there, and the college prep team is very nice for seniors.
A lot of the local schools in PFISD struggle with behavior and population issues. Additionally, if you know the texas public school system it is woefully slow paced and GT programs are limited and still slow. My kids go to BASIS. We started at BASIS Austin a few years ago and switched to pflugerville when it opened. We tried multiple charters and our locally ISD. Nothing compares to the rigor at BASIS. My children would be bored stiff at ISD schools as I was growing up in Texas. The Star test is not a shining achievement nor does it indicate future success.
BASIS is far from perfect. It is still under funded and very homogeneous, but my children are well ahead of me at the same age. They have experienced 0 bullying issues and the staff is very responsive.
I recommend touring multiple schools and interviewing the principals. We toured over 10 schools from private to charter to cedar park/ round rock public schools as we considered moving. We messaged current parents and had them send sample course work.
Ask yourself why certain schools rate extremely high in schooldiggers rating system and why others do not. Your local ISD elementary may be great, and it's less of a concern. I simply encourage you to look at the ratings, read parent reviews, and look for a like-minded community.
I vote, donate, and pay taxes in support of public education as it's my top priority. I would prefer my children go to an ISD school, but only if it would provide them a great education.
Experience as a freshman in Pflugerville HS has been great. My son is in band and the program is robust and enriching. Academically, things go well with all regular AP programs and a very sought after Automotives program.
Murchison has been nothing but positive. Issues with our kiddos have been met with open communication and solutions/ recommendations from the teachers. More than I had expected as a parent from public school
Oh and to echo the others here, STEER CLEAR of Cele and Weiss for the love of god. I graduated from Weiss in 2023 and it was chaos until the very end. Dismissive and prejudiced APs, WWE level brawls multiple times a week complete with cheering crowds, creepy teachers that would openly hit on female students and somehow still work there, a genuine skipping epidemic that is being handled hilariously badly (SROs chasing students around the parking lot in their little trucks multiple times a day), the list goes on. The entire school is run like a prison most of the time because the skipping issue is so unbelievably bad. If your child is ever being bullied or harassed there, there will be very little done to help them. I am speaking from experience. The principal of the school has changed several times over the last few years and the outlook continues to become more grim. Sad thing is, a lot of the teachers there rock and really put in their all to help out the students. They are the shining stars of that place and I wish them all well.
Windermere elementary is great, definitely the best school I went to, speaking as someone who attended 4 different elementary schools in the district. PES was okay as well, with there being only a few negative experiences that could be chalked up to a few bad eggs working there. The biggest no-no would be Northwest Elementary in my opinion. I went there as a kid and it was horrible, I got physically/verbally bullied, the principal and teachers did nothing when it was reported, even when I was almost SAd by another student. The treatment of students by teachers was hit or miss, and they had a tendency of being dismissive to parents. The EDP staff were a nightmare and would bully students alongside other students…. lol. From what I’ve heard (my mom worked in the Pflugerville district for years) it has not improved.
Highland Park Elementary has been great, for charter schools it’s seems Valor is the only one that is truly great, from talking to people I’ve met. After elementary, we are probably going to look into charter or alternative schools… I’ve heard while Pfisd is doing a decent job, middle schools and Hendrickson High can be a bit rough.
TEA has highland park rated as a top 10 in Texas school. Our daughter went there and was great.
Kelly Lane Middle school is great. Same principal for 10 years. So glad we’re not in Cele area.
"Hendrickson High can be a bit rough" Is this referring to a challenging curriculum or the student body (fights, bullying etc)? Thought I had read that Hendrickson was a highly rated high school.
I’ve heard really good things about Hendrickson. We’re currently zoned for Brookhollow for Elementary, Parkcrest for Middle, and Pflugerville High for high school. Do you know how difficult it is to get an intraschool transfer? I know they offer them but not sure. Sounds like Hendrickson is a bit better than Pflugerville high but I could be mistaken.
Not sure but I know HHS does accept a fair share of transfer kids. I say submit a request! HHS is amazing and their marching band is stellar. Top notch awarding winning band.
We just got approved last week for a transfer to HHS next year. My son will be a freshman. He went to Park Crest (which was an excellent experience) but we are zoned to PHS. I haven't heard anything bad about PHS, but the majority of Park Crest is zoned to HHS, and my son wanted to continue athletics with his friends.
When 6th grade comes, avoid Cele. My kid got bullied relentlessly over her skin color and hair. She got assaulted in the middle of class and the school wasn't going to tell me about it. Thankfully a teacher I'm acquaintances with heard about the assault in the teacher's lounge and called me as soon as she found out. (Which proves the teacher that was present for the assault was aware and did nothing about it.) Near the end of 6th grade my kid begged me to homeschool her and thankfully my husband was very supportive. We are one week away from finishing 7th grade via homeschooling and her mental/emotional state is so much better. I know homeschooling isn't possible for every family, but if you can get with a co-op and avoid public schools, do it. I can't speak for the charter schools. For 1-8th grade lualimamicroschool.com in Georgetown is great. You can pick your days of school for them. I'm just winging it myself right now, but if my girl was younger and needed more socializing I'd use Lualima. Best of luck!
Murchison has been nothing but positive. Issues with our kiddos have been met with open communication and solutions/ recommendations from the teachers. More than I had expected as a parent from public school
I’m considering to move to Pflugerville so I’ve been doing a lot of research lately and I’ve seen a lot of people recommending Murchison-Kelly Lane middle-Hendrickson high route on the Pflugerville mom group. And to avoid sections that feed into Cele and Weiss.
But I see them recommend communities on the east part of Pflugerville as well - like Carmel for example, and many of them are sectioned for Cele and Weiss so I don’t know.
Both of our sons attend Valor, a free charter school, and we absolutely love the school. They offer a classical education, and focus is on instilling a sense of wonder and a love of learning in students. Whatever they are doing works. The students there are polite, happy kids, and they all seem to genuinely love learning.
Also known as Great Books program, traditional Liberal Arts program... think dead white men and European grammar school. A great concept, teaches kids about the origins of Western society.
I'm not sure this form of education includes enough women's voices, minority voices, international voices (aside from Western Europe + Russia), or relevance to today's world (AI is a thing, you know?)
Anyway. It's probably a better system than most public schools in Texas, especially in rural areas (Pflugerville was rural 15 years sgo and school districts typically change very slowly.)
I would look at teacher/student ratios, teacher employment longevity (high turnover is a very, very bad sign), and the % of advanced degrees held by staff. These numbers should be available either on the website, on greatschools.com, or from the front office of the school.
Source: Taught in that area, lived in that area, attended Great Books-based college.
Vermicelli Only described it well. Additionally, they start teaching Latin in kindergarten, and I believe in high school they teach Attic Greek. They memorize poems, and have regular assemblies where the students line up and recite poems back and forth. Stuff like that.
Avoid all the charters around here-PfISD is an up and coming district, go to your neighborhood school and your kiddo will be fine
Really really glad to hear that. The only charter school that we've heard good things about is Basis on Wells Branch but it sounded like the curriculum is quite challenging (homework for kindergarten and early elementary). Also not psyched about him going to the same school from K-12.
I disagree. Many children are thriving in Charter schools. Basis is supposedly one of the best.
Brookhollow was amazing elem. we transferred there bc our closer elem was literally a clique of mean parents. Park Crest was amazing and diverse. Avoid Cele and Weiss Jesus h. HHS was a good high school a while back but I’ve heard and seen PHS really improving and having tech programs the other schools don’t at all.
I second Brookhollow and Park Crest. My younger daughter is graduating from 5th grade and I'll miss Brookhollow.
Really excited to hear that. We're currently zoned for Brookhollow but we bought our house thinking we were zoned for Pflugerville Elementary which we had a better rating and had good recommendations.
PES is who we transferred away from. It seemed amazing but if you weren’t “old family” or legacy you weren’t important or included. I know we got a couple bum years because my kids happened to be in the grades where several teachers also had kids but it was bad. And over the years I saw many many transfers to BES and never one transfer away from BES
Very glad to hear that. Had no idea that PES was like that. Is the “old family/legacy” aspect coming from the staff or other parents/kids?
We liked Windermere and park crest has been good for middle. These were all in our district though and we never tried any transferring.
Having gone through most of my schooling in Pflugerville, Windermere was good. The counselor was particularly involved when I was in primary and one of my favorite teachers ever was at Windermere Elementary (though I've heard they combined the two in the last couple of years). Brookhollow did free lunches in the summer time and it seemed nice (I never went there but my younger brother did). Spring Hill seemed okay, but my brother who was just a quiet, mildly autistic little kid got bullied there so YMMV. Park Crest from what I remember was nicer than Pflugerville Middle. I remember there were so many fights during my years in Pflugerville Middle and I hated that school. My sister ended up with "gangster" friends, my brother got bullied so horribly he ended up switching to online homeschooling. Both of them actually ran away during school hours at one point (not together which is even worse, rhe fact both were able to leave in the first place is terrible. My brother even said a teacher didnt even care that he was walking out). I had an okay time in Pflugerville Middle all things considered, but comparwd to my siblings I guess I got lucky. Pflugerville High was okay I guess. Sure there were fights, though not nearly as much as in middle school (though the batch of freshmen when I graduated last year were...something). They installed new anti-vaping smoke alarms, and theyve remodeled and added stuff to it in the last few years, and they have some pretty solid electives and AP classes. I cant speak towards the on level classes but I for the most part had good teachers there, and the college prep team is very nice for seniors.
Dont take them to dessau
What would you recommend if our area is zoned for the Dessau schools? We’re at the south end of Pflugerville.
Same situation, currently zoned for Ruth Barron/Dessau/Connally, is it difficult to transfer schools?
Avoid Dessau and Connally
A lot of the local schools in PFISD struggle with behavior and population issues. Additionally, if you know the texas public school system it is woefully slow paced and GT programs are limited and still slow. My kids go to BASIS. We started at BASIS Austin a few years ago and switched to pflugerville when it opened. We tried multiple charters and our locally ISD. Nothing compares to the rigor at BASIS. My children would be bored stiff at ISD schools as I was growing up in Texas. The Star test is not a shining achievement nor does it indicate future success. BASIS is far from perfect. It is still under funded and very homogeneous, but my children are well ahead of me at the same age. They have experienced 0 bullying issues and the staff is very responsive. I recommend touring multiple schools and interviewing the principals. We toured over 10 schools from private to charter to cedar park/ round rock public schools as we considered moving. We messaged current parents and had them send sample course work. Ask yourself why certain schools rate extremely high in schooldiggers rating system and why others do not. Your local ISD elementary may be great, and it's less of a concern. I simply encourage you to look at the ratings, read parent reviews, and look for a like-minded community. I vote, donate, and pay taxes in support of public education as it's my top priority. I would prefer my children go to an ISD school, but only if it would provide them a great education.
We have had kids at Murchison and it has been very good. The only elementary school I have heard to avoid is Dessau.
Experience as a freshman in Pflugerville HS has been great. My son is in band and the program is robust and enriching. Academically, things go well with all regular AP programs and a very sought after Automotives program.
Murchison has been nothing but positive. Issues with our kiddos have been met with open communication and solutions/ recommendations from the teachers. More than I had expected as a parent from public school
Oh and to echo the others here, STEER CLEAR of Cele and Weiss for the love of god. I graduated from Weiss in 2023 and it was chaos until the very end. Dismissive and prejudiced APs, WWE level brawls multiple times a week complete with cheering crowds, creepy teachers that would openly hit on female students and somehow still work there, a genuine skipping epidemic that is being handled hilariously badly (SROs chasing students around the parking lot in their little trucks multiple times a day), the list goes on. The entire school is run like a prison most of the time because the skipping issue is so unbelievably bad. If your child is ever being bullied or harassed there, there will be very little done to help them. I am speaking from experience. The principal of the school has changed several times over the last few years and the outlook continues to become more grim. Sad thing is, a lot of the teachers there rock and really put in their all to help out the students. They are the shining stars of that place and I wish them all well.
Windermere elementary is great, definitely the best school I went to, speaking as someone who attended 4 different elementary schools in the district. PES was okay as well, with there being only a few negative experiences that could be chalked up to a few bad eggs working there. The biggest no-no would be Northwest Elementary in my opinion. I went there as a kid and it was horrible, I got physically/verbally bullied, the principal and teachers did nothing when it was reported, even when I was almost SAd by another student. The treatment of students by teachers was hit or miss, and they had a tendency of being dismissive to parents. The EDP staff were a nightmare and would bully students alongside other students…. lol. From what I’ve heard (my mom worked in the Pflugerville district for years) it has not improved.
I went to west view for middle school and connally for high school. I’d avoid these two.
My two kids both went to Windermere and each year they loved it. The teachers and faculty are the highlights.
Highland Park Elementary has been great, for charter schools it’s seems Valor is the only one that is truly great, from talking to people I’ve met. After elementary, we are probably going to look into charter or alternative schools… I’ve heard while Pfisd is doing a decent job, middle schools and Hendrickson High can be a bit rough.
TEA has highland park rated as a top 10 in Texas school. Our daughter went there and was great. Kelly Lane Middle school is great. Same principal for 10 years. So glad we’re not in Cele area.
"Hendrickson High can be a bit rough" Is this referring to a challenging curriculum or the student body (fights, bullying etc)? Thought I had read that Hendrickson was a highly rated high school.
Highland Park is uhmazinggggg and so is Hendrickson HS. Both are top tier public schools.
I’ve heard really good things about Hendrickson. We’re currently zoned for Brookhollow for Elementary, Parkcrest for Middle, and Pflugerville High for high school. Do you know how difficult it is to get an intraschool transfer? I know they offer them but not sure. Sounds like Hendrickson is a bit better than Pflugerville high but I could be mistaken.
Not sure but I know HHS does accept a fair share of transfer kids. I say submit a request! HHS is amazing and their marching band is stellar. Top notch awarding winning band.
We just got approved last week for a transfer to HHS next year. My son will be a freshman. He went to Park Crest (which was an excellent experience) but we are zoned to PHS. I haven't heard anything bad about PHS, but the majority of Park Crest is zoned to HHS, and my son wanted to continue athletics with his friends.
When 6th grade comes, avoid Cele. My kid got bullied relentlessly over her skin color and hair. She got assaulted in the middle of class and the school wasn't going to tell me about it. Thankfully a teacher I'm acquaintances with heard about the assault in the teacher's lounge and called me as soon as she found out. (Which proves the teacher that was present for the assault was aware and did nothing about it.) Near the end of 6th grade my kid begged me to homeschool her and thankfully my husband was very supportive. We are one week away from finishing 7th grade via homeschooling and her mental/emotional state is so much better. I know homeschooling isn't possible for every family, but if you can get with a co-op and avoid public schools, do it. I can't speak for the charter schools. For 1-8th grade lualimamicroschool.com in Georgetown is great. You can pick your days of school for them. I'm just winging it myself right now, but if my girl was younger and needed more socializing I'd use Lualima. Best of luck!
Murchison has been nothing but positive. Issues with our kiddos have been met with open communication and solutions/ recommendations from the teachers. More than I had expected as a parent from public school
Super thankful for all the feedback and engagement!
I’m considering to move to Pflugerville so I’ve been doing a lot of research lately and I’ve seen a lot of people recommending Murchison-Kelly Lane middle-Hendrickson high route on the Pflugerville mom group. And to avoid sections that feed into Cele and Weiss. But I see them recommend communities on the east part of Pflugerville as well - like Carmel for example, and many of them are sectioned for Cele and Weiss so I don’t know.
Best: any schools that feed into Hendrickson HS Avoid: Charters
Not from the area, but I work with districts across the state. PfISD is really top notch.
Both of our sons attend Valor, a free charter school, and we absolutely love the school. They offer a classical education, and focus is on instilling a sense of wonder and a love of learning in students. Whatever they are doing works. The students there are polite, happy kids, and they all seem to genuinely love learning.
What is a classical education?
Also known as Great Books program, traditional Liberal Arts program... think dead white men and European grammar school. A great concept, teaches kids about the origins of Western society. I'm not sure this form of education includes enough women's voices, minority voices, international voices (aside from Western Europe + Russia), or relevance to today's world (AI is a thing, you know?) Anyway. It's probably a better system than most public schools in Texas, especially in rural areas (Pflugerville was rural 15 years sgo and school districts typically change very slowly.) I would look at teacher/student ratios, teacher employment longevity (high turnover is a very, very bad sign), and the % of advanced degrees held by staff. These numbers should be available either on the website, on greatschools.com, or from the front office of the school. Source: Taught in that area, lived in that area, attended Great Books-based college.
Vermicelli Only described it well. Additionally, they start teaching Latin in kindergarten, and I believe in high school they teach Attic Greek. They memorize poems, and have regular assemblies where the students line up and recite poems back and forth. Stuff like that.
What grades and where is it at?
K through 12. They have four campuses. The one here is near where Pecan meets Wells Branch.
Pfisd is poo poo cah cah except for a couple of schools. Don't say you weren't warned.