Why Does the Solana Beach District Split Elementary School Into K-3 and 4-6?
The Solana Beach district splits elementary school into kindergarten through 3rd grade and 4th through 6th grade for a reason, and it comes from history and teaching philosophy together. The district originally had only one elementary school, Solana Highlands, taking kindergarten through sixth grade. When there were too many students for one school, the district built Carmel Creek and Solana Pacific to split the flow: Carmel Creek takes only kindergarten through 3rd grade, Solana Pacific only 4th through 6th grade, and from then on the district ran on a split system.
After the pandemic, things changed again. Because housing prices in this area are high, fewer young families moved in, student numbers slowly fell, and Solana Highlands faced pressure to cut classes, with some teachers even at risk of being let go. The district decided to make Highlands a full kindergarten through 6th grade school again, starting after the pandemic: first adding 4th grade, then 5th, then 6th, and now it is a complete kindergarten through 6th grade school. But the Carmel Creek and Solana Pacific split remains, and now when children reach 4th grade, they can choose Solana Pacific or stay at Highlands, so parents have a choice.
The district has always believed the split has educational benefits. A lower-grade school can be very protective: the campus is small, children do not face older kids, and they do not have to worry about being knocked over by older children on the playground. When they move to the older children's school in 4th grade, the atmosphere is completely different: at Solana Pacific, every child gets a planner on arrival, and each day they have to note what tests are coming and what homework is due; teachers deliberately train children's time management and writing. One parent we interviewed said her child did not understand at first why he had to write so much, but by 6th grade his writing had clearly improved.
The split also has a cost. When 3rd grade ends, a child must change schools, rebuild the circle of friends, and parents have to adjust to a new school's teachers and rules. Some parents we interviewed said many families who stayed at Highlands for 4th through 6th grade later regretted it, because Highlands has never had many upper-grade classes, seemingly only two, so children have fewer peers to choose from. Children who moved to Pacific in 4th grade instead got to know many classmates from Carmel Creek, and by middle school they knew far more people than those who stayed at one elementary school.
So kindergarten through 3rd grade and 4th through 6th grade being separate is neither a district mistake nor some advanced education experiment; it is simply the history of how this district got here. For families moving in, the thing to know is that a child in the Solana Beach district will face a choice at the end of 3rd grade: Pacific or Highlands. That choice is worth thinking about in 3rd grade, not at the last minute.