Pasadena’s Chandler School hosted its annual Admissions Open House event with student performances for prospective families on October 5th.
The Performing Arts Department presented student performances drawn from Roald Dahl’s “Matilda The Musical Jr.” and musical renditions from the Mariachi Band.
Performing Arts Chair Brandi Williams-Moore said, “We want to present a top-quality performance, but ultimately, for every student, it’s really about building confidence and esteem.”
Over 300 families attended the school’s Open House. Director of Enrollment Management Gretchen Lurie emphasized the importance of showcasing the school’s approach to education.
“Open House performances are one way that we want to demonstrate the different ways that kids can shine,” Lurie said. “We’re primarily known for being a very academically challenging program, but we also lean heavily into being a balanced program. Being able to showcase a lot of the extracurricular things that are equally important in our program helps families understand how we could be a good fit for their child.”
The Pasadena private school claims 80 percent of students are accepted to their first or second choice of high school. Lurie said, “Chandler students and their families are guided through the high school admissions process within the first semester of eighth grade.”
Nearly all graduates attend independent high schools in the local area, including Harvard-Westlake School, Polytechnic School and Flintridge Preparatory School, according to Lurie. This is, in part, thanks to the 10-15 minutes of homework per night for kindergarten students, which increases to approximately two hours of homework per night for middle school students.
Chandler School classes begin during the first week of September and run through May.
The school opened a “Wellbeing at Chandler” booth at the Open House to address concerns about stress among students. Manning the booth was K-8 school counselor Julianna Mendoza who said, “Building that emotional language, social skills and coping skills has been really great for a lot of our students, especially when they’re sometimes struggling to deal with the pressures of school.”
Mendoza said students have described mental wellness resources at the school to be “life-changing.”
Dee T., a prospective parent of two children for the elementary school campus, said the Open House helped her understand the advantages of a K-8 education model. “I found the parent perspectives panel with the Head of School to be really helpful,” she said. “In particular, they talked about the benefits of a K-8 school.”
The benefits of these resources come at a hefty price tag of $29,100 for K-5 students and $29,975 for grades 6-8 – a noticeable increase from 2021 when the tuition was $26,400.
Additional fees can rapidly accumulate, including school and physical education uniforms, laptops for middle school students and outdoor education costs for grade 4-8 students.
The school has a student-teacher ratio of 12:1. Social studies teacher Paul Camargo said that ratio is maintained in all of Chandler’s grade levels.
“We’ve recently done a redesign of our campus to make sure that our numbers and ratios of students to teachers are more in line with the needs of kids in kindergarten,” he said. “That carries all the way through to fifth grade when students get to middle school.”
Chandler School classes begin during the first week of September and run through May. The application deadline for the following school year is Dec. 13th.
