School recommendations for Santiago - bilingual/Spanish as 2nd language

[lagugu]

Hi Everyone!
We're planning to move to the DR in the summer of 2021. My husband is from Santiago and I am from Indiana. We have lived in Indiana for the last 18 years. We will be living in Las Charcas area (south side of Santiago). We're looking for recommendations for schools for 9 and 13 year-old's. They have attended English only schools in Indiana and are both good students. They have had no formal Spanish classes. They understand Spanish well but respond in English mostly. We are hoping to find tuition/fees under $500 USD/month each. We would like to find a school that offers Spanish as a 2nd language. Our goal is to get them a good education that will allow them to go onto university in either Spanish or English in the future. We appreciate any recommendations or advice.

Thank you,
Renae

 

[bob saunders]

I don't know the price but I know a number of graduates of this school and they have all been fluent in both English and Spanish. A christian environment may not be your cup of tea. https://www.scs.edu.do/academics/second-language-acquisition

 

[caribmike]

The price per month per student may not be the cup of tea for everyone too: 700 USD per month, admission fee 7500 USD.

 

[lagugu]

Thanks for the replies but Santiago Christian is over our budget. Do you know anyone with experience at New Horizons or St David and their costs?

 

[Hillbilly]

There is Saint David School; New Horizons, ?Holy Trinity? ( I am not sure of the name, but it is over by Iberia)
Of course, living in Ls Charcas is going to hinder you a lot. You will have to cross a lot of the city very early in the morning to get you children to school.
Then the same to pick them up.

If you want to reconsider your location, life will be much much easier for your family.
If it is written in concrete, then you have no option, but to get a good vehicle, lots of insurance and a ton of"Patience Pills" since driving around here will not get better by 2021.

Of the three schools I mentioned, the closest to Las Charcas is New Horizons. The others are out east of city center.

Truthfully, I cannot think of a single educational institution on the south side of town that is worth attending, especially at a bilingual level.

Cordially, at least for today,

HB, who is generally the curmudgeon of these pages..


I went on Google Earth> You are not going to like this: Las Charcas is on the Santiago--Jánico road; it intersects the Yapur Dumit on the west side of the river.
You have to take the Yapur Dumit Av. north, all the way to the Hotel Gran Almirante, take a left and all the way down to the New Horizons School. At any our after 7:00 in the morning, that is about an hour's commute. Much earlier, it will take 30 minutes. There are at least 6 traffic lights, one of which is at the intersection of the Circumvalación Sur and Estrella Sadhala, next to UTESA. That light can take 10 to 12 minutes to get through, at least. The next light is at the exit from the Villa Olímpica.. Only taxi drivers from Hell feel good about that place.

That said, the other two schools are way over an hour away..\
Sorry for the bad news but better now than when you get here.

Just in case, I will send out feelers for the area... this is the DR and anything can happen.

 

[lagugu]

Hi Hillbilly...

I appreciate your response and offering to put out feelers. I came across some of your previous responses here when researching. We are locked into the location and are building next to my husband's sister and mother. The urb is Brisas del Valle and is close to the intersection of Yapur Dumit and Nunez de Caceres near the bridge. My mother-in-law is a "tigere" driving and will likely be the one taking the kids. (I still have to "relearn" to drive there.) Looking at a map and talking to my husband, the distance seems doable for New Horizons or Saint David. Please let me know if you come across any expats with kids there and could provide some experience. We have family also asking around but haven't found anyone with kids in the bilingual schools. I'm now also wondering if we should consider a Spanish school but my main concern is that their English wouldn't be good enough if they would later decide to come back to the US to study but maybe I'm wrong.

Thanks again...

 

[bob saunders]

I have heard good things about Colegio de La Salle in Santiago, which is not bilingual but Hillbilly would know more about that than me.

 

[LaTeacher]

You won’t find anything close to las charcas. New horizons and Saint David both have their advantages and disadvantages. If you’re willing to travel the city you could consider colegio dominicano as well which is primarily Spanish with a decent English language program.

New horizons and Saint David are deficient in reading comprehension skills but I’ve found that Saint David has made far more effort to get North Americab teachers in for their upper level classes making it more first language friendly Than new horizons. Also you could cross the red bridge into town and get to NH faster than using the yapur dumit

Sincerely la teacher who disappears from these boards for months at a time 🤷🏼‍♀️🙈

 

[lagugu]

Thanks for the advice! We will continue our research and contact schools on our next trip.