Almaden schools are generally very highly regarded. In fact, one of the many reasons the Almaden Valley of San Jose is so popular is the public schools.
Almaden Valley, like the rest of the county, does not have “easy” school district boundaries. Instead, it’s complicated – Almaden schools are within several different public school districts. It can be very confusing for home buyers to figure out which areas belong to which elementary, middle and high schools. Today we’ll address this broad topic, looking at both the districts and some of the individual schools, providing links to both. We’ll include links to district and school boundaries too.
As a quick example generally, there are potentially 5 high schools in 3 high school districts for Almaden Valley alone.
Disclaimers about the Almaden schools of attendance:
First, Almaden schools – especially the most popular ones – are sometimes impacted, or full. If you move into an area it is likely that you can have your students attend the neighborhood school but it is NOT GUARANTEED. For example, if your nearest or assigned school is Williams but it’s full, your child may be assigned to Simonds or some other elementary school. You will remain in the same district but may not have the nearest school. This is particularly a problem when moves happen in the middle of the school year.
Second, sometimes boundaries change between schools within the same district. This usually only happens after a lot of public debate and discussion, but it can happen. (This is also true for some designated natural hazard zones such as flood plains – those maps can and do sometimes change!)
Third, the San Jose Unified Schools in the Almaden Valley did have court-ordered busing from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s to help with desegregation. This mandatory practice ended in 1996 and the court order was lifted in 2003. You can read about the history of the San Jose Unified School District online. That said, some kids are bussed in to Almaden schools from outside of the area.
These are the three broad regions and their schools:
- San Jose Unified School District covers the majority of Almaden (it includes schools at all levels). Pioneer HS serves the northern section and Leland the southern.
- The Union School District and Campbell Union High School District is the next largest school district for Almaden – this is the northwest corner of Almaden Neighborhood in this section include Montevideo and Oak Canyon.
- The Los Gatos Union School District & Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District. This covers just a very few properties on or near Guadalupe Mines Road (Via Saronno, Via Lugano, Via Fortuna, Via Maggiore, part of Campagna at Almaden neighborhood, while the other half has Union and Campbell Union HSD)
The Santa Clara County Office of Education oversees all of the school districts in our county.
Public High Schools serving Almaden Valley, San Jose 95120:
- Leland High School (SJUSD) follows Almaden Expressway and is the school for the southern part of Almaden Valley. Many home buyers prefer to be within this area.
- Pioneer High School (SJUSD) is not located in Almaden, but rather in Blossom Valley, but is the school for a significant number of Almaden homes east of Almaden Expressway. This is also a good school, if not quite as high scoring as Leland.
- Leigh High School and Branham High School (CUHSD) are both options for most of the northern part of Almaden which is close to Los Gatos
- Los Gatos High School (LGSUHSD) serves a tiny sliver of homes just off Guadalupe Mines Road. It must be at least a 20 minute drive for these students to get there, but the school boundaries were drawn long before the city of San Jose and the town of Los Gatos finalized their limits.
Public Middle Schools for Almaden Valley – all of these Almaden middle schools or junior high schools exceed the county’s target number of 800, and most of them can boast API scores of over 900.
- Bret Harte Middle School (SJUSD) – prized school – adjacent to Leland HS
- Castillero Middle School (SJUSD) – a good school, but lower scoring than other middle schools serving this area
- Dartmouth Middle School (Union School District) – highly regarded
- Fisher Middle School (LGUSD) – highly regarded with high scores
Public Elementary Schools for Almaden Valley students: every public elementary school in Almaden has excellent API scores, all over 900
- Williams Elementary (SJUSD) – incredibly high scoring
- Graystone Elementary (SJUSD) – highly regarded
- Simonds Elementary (SJUSD) – another high powered school
- Los Alamitos Elementary (SJUSD) – also a strong school
- Guadalupe Elementary (Union Schools) – very sought after
- Blossom Hill Elementary (LGUSD) – exceptional school
A word about school ranking sites and test scores
When I first wrote this article in 2013, we were using API scores, and I included them in the first version of this post, and those only factored in standardized testing. That was replaced by the STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting system in 2013). The state has a dashboard where you can research school performance in California.
Many parents cared about a broader range of things. While there are many websites that grade schools on performance, the one that gets the most attention is Great Schools.
I don’t love that this one site has so much power or sway, but it has emerged that way. Parents appreciate that it’s not just test scores being considered.
That said, if you use that site, please don’t just take the top number and call it research. Please dig in and read the test scores, the equity scores, and other things. For high schools they include college readiness.
Better than any site is speaking with parents at that school, touring the campus and seeing how it comes across to you. At the very least, check other websites that evaluate learning institutions and don’t rely entirely on GS.
Because scoring can and does change, I’m leaving the GS scores out of this article.
Which Almaden schools are assigned to a particular home?
It can be tricky to find out which property belongs to which district or individual school. Within the San Jose Unified School District (which covers much of San Jose and some of Santa Clara), you can use the School Locator site online to see where an address falls. For other areas, there are maps of school boundaries. This is a cool mapping tool. On the right side of the screen there are layers that you can click through to see the elementary, middle, and high schools.
Regarding the Almaden Valley luxury home market, most are in the San Jose Unified School District and feed into Bret Harte and Leland High.
Which area has the best public schools?
If you are basing the idea of “best schools” purely on test scores, or an overall grade from one particular website, which may or may not be the best approach, the area you’ll be aiming at may include Williams Elementary as it has one of the highest scores in the state, Bret Harte Middle and Leland High. Or you could aim at homes in the little sliver of the Los Gatos schools area.
The next section of this post includes the maps for each of these schools. If you are in the Williams area, it automatically continues on to Bret Harte and Leland (just remember my disclaimer, above, that if those schools are full they could, theoretically, send your student to the other nearby public schools in the district).
I. San Jose Unified School District Area Map:
map with each of these institutions’ coverage area
For these Almaden schools, or schools serving Almaden in San Jose Unified, please use the School Locator. There’s a key on the right side that you can use to check the various levels.
Pioneer High School – primarily the northwest part of Almaden, mostly west of Almaden Expressway
Leland High School – appears to be almost 50/50 on both sides of Almaden Expressway – includes some very nice areas east of Almaden Expressway such as the Shadowbrook area (maybe slightly more homes on the west side?)
Brett Harte Middle School – mostly southern part of Almaden
Castillero Middle School – largely northern and central Almaden
Graystone Elementary – most of the area east of Almaden Expressway as well as the far southern parts of Almaden
Los Alamitos Elementary – north central Almaden
Simonds Elementary – middle of Almaden
Williams Elementary – southwestern Almaden, 100% west of Almaden Expressway
II. Union School District & Campbell Union High School District Areas
USD: Map for Guadalupe Elementary & Dartmouth Middle School areas as well as the rest of the district can be viewed online, but it will take a couple of steps. Please see the Union School District “School Finder” online. From there, look in the upper right corner and you’ll see boundary maps. Click on that and then select Google Maps Viewer.
CUHSD: Leigh and Branham High Schools area map – much of this is a “free area” where students and their families can decide if they want to go to either Leigh or Branham – see bottom right corner of map.
III. Los Gatos Union School District & Los Gatos Saratoga Union High School District
This is the high school district map. Unfortunately it does not show zip codes or anything that makes it clear which portion of this refers to Almaden schools. Los Gatos High (little sliver of homes off of Guadalupe Mines Road). This same area goes to Blossom Hill Elementary & Fisher Middle School.
What about Almaden schools and home values? Does the school impact resale value?
Getting the precise numbers on the price differential between one school area and another is not exact. Most homes are in SJUSD. Far more Almaden Valley houses, condos and townhouses feed to Leland than to Pioneer, so collecting the data is a little skewed. Additionally, some listing agents won’t put into the MLS that a property goes to Pioneer, but instead will elect to simply write in the school district. So it may be that culling the data is somewhat incomplete.
The short answer is that the particular Almaden schools can and usually do impact value. It’s slippery, though. If one year Great School downgrades a school, will the impact be immediate? Could be. We don’t have that data.
As a rough rule of thumb, often, there is a small difference (probably no more than 10%, and possibly much less than that) in pricing between homes in the area served by Castillero and Pioneer versus those whose students attend Bret Harte and Leland High. (Some Castillero homes do feed into Leland, though, so this is not a “tidy” boundary.) The section which goes to Leigh or Branham (CUHSD) has prices similar to those in the Pioneer/Castillero part of Almaden. (Too few for useable data in the LG schools neighborhood.)
When very few homes are selling, the numbers can get slippery and at times a couple of fabulous homes in one area may shake up the usual, small 5-10% range that is often seen. Sometimes there appears to be no difference in pricing at all. At other times, it may exceed the 10%.
In the early 90s, many families preferred neighborhoods like Oak Canyon and Montevideo, which go to Guadalupe Elementary and Dartmouth Middle and Leigh High (or Branham, if they so choose). This was due in large part to the mandatory busing situation, but also because the commute was easier and we did not yet have either Highway 85 or Highway 87.
Today, the Union Schools are all trending upward very nicely, and so is Leigh High, so many parents, guardians and students look favorably upon these regions too. Finally, those areas, and nearby tracts and subdivisions do all have an easier commute than the areas which are southernmost in Almaden. (Some buyers simply will not drive that far.)
Finally, while home values are largely driven by the schools, that is not the sole issue in determining value for every home buyer. Views, having level land, a remodeled house, and many other factors can influence the sale price.
As mentioned, the commute time can be an issue. So can road noise (distance from loud roads may be important), proximity to power lines (further often viewed as better), or closeness/distance to the hills, the golf course, or other places of value (shopping, parks, schools). For each home buyer, it may shake out a little differently. Some may be largely concerned with natural hazards, such as earthquake faults, landslide areas, unstable soil areas, or proximity of creeks. Being in a “walk to school” location may be ideal for some but a negative, due to noise, for others. Home buyers may want to be in an area zoned for livestock – and others may want to be far from “rural Almaden”.
As with the complicated school boundaries, so it is with predicting resale value in the future for homes with Almaden schools. Good schools will always be in demand. Almaden has many good and even excellent schools. But there are many other plusses to living in this scenic valley in southwest San Jose. They will probably continue to take shape – community events and involvement, preserving the natural beauty of the region, and much more. Almaden doesn’t really have any bad areas. I invite you to get to know it better. . . . And call or email me if you’d like help in purchasing a home in Almaden!
For further reading on Almaden Schools and related topics:
Find a list of articles on this site about individual Almaden Valley neighborhoods
Real estate stats from our Real Estate Report (published monthly)
Almaden Valley houses – real estate market statistics and trends
Almaden Valley condominiums and townhomes – realty trends & stats
