Lakehill Preparatory School

My two children are thriving at Lakehill. They have been enrolled six years now. My junior in high school son and ninth grade daughter have learned many valuable social, emotional, athletic, and certainly educational lessons. Moving them from Lamplighter was very timely as they were craving structured environments that had rigorous academics. I am thrilled that they have been able to pursue their passions — including theater, sports, volunteerism, so many clubs, and leadership opportunities. Don’t let the small class size fool you, it is a blessing! There are tons of opportunities for growth and they encourage the students to shine based on their own merits.
Contrary to that negative Unilocal post from way too many years ago (P.S. You can’t blame a child’s drug habit on the school. That’s called observant & disciplined parenting), the administration keeps a close eye on the students and alerts the parents quickly to concerns or behavior shifts. I can confidently say that we have parented in partnership with the school to raise smart, respectful, creative, athletic, well-​balanced students. And Lakehill’s focus on college prep is indeed a strength. The college counselor Ms. Dondis is a highly acclaimed professional — even a sought after expert speaker in her field.
We specifically looked at Lakehill because it offered nondenominational education with so many opportunities in a nurturing, structured environment with a solid academic track record. 5 Stars for great academics, sports, a great community of involved parents, and a caring administration!

My 7^th grade nephew currently attends this school, and he has since he started kindergarten. He is very happy to go to school, participate in sports and service projects, and make and keep what are sure to be long time friendships, all of which are long term benefits of a smaller, private school education. I feel as though he is a mature, respectful, well-​prepared middler who I expect to achieve a very sold, college readiness experience.
In terms of technology, the school does use lots — iPads, laptops, labs… fairly typical of what I expect from a school such as this. The most important part of my observation is that he is happy and likes to go to school. I’m impressed.
When I lived and taught in Dallas, I had no idea what this school was until a colleague left my school to teach there. That was 1997 — and he is STILL THERE! Since then another friend left his school to teach there. At this point it got my attention.
Then they hired a marketing director, and the school started appearing more and more in the paper — like a LOT. Service projects became popular and a mainstay, and it was clear there was a strategic plan executed that included some serious «play,» which has paid off; all of these things, my nephew participated in. It’s a best kept secret for sure.
From a community member perspective, living in the Lakewood area was a good experience, and I was able to participate in their fund raisers (Trek For Tech, among others), even though I didn’t have kids in the school.
Overall, if you are looking for a private school, you may be immediately enamored with the «big 5 (St. Marks, Cistercian, ESD, Hockaday, and Ursuline), and there are HUGE merits to each of them, but Lakehill prep is not to be missed.

Our daughter just graduated from this school (May 2011). She attended grades 6 – 12. The school is pricey and I am not convinced that the price is worth it. We paid 16K for her senior year, plus books, plus assorted other fees that inevitably arise. The teachers are nice, but not rigorous and are too easy in my opinion. Unfortunately, our daughter developed a drug habit thanks to another Lakehill student – who subsequently went into rehab and dropped out. The Lakehill administrators, who are much too lenient and totally PC (politically correct to a fault) tolerated this and did nothing to stop it or to evict the addict. Our daughter basically stopped going to some of her classes. For one of her classes she received an A– for the semester even though she missed the last month of class. The school is too interested in padding its college placement stats. I am not convinced that the pricey private school was that much better than one of the free magnet schools. The school’s admin is just too lenient and soft. More generally, it seemed as if the school had an inordinate number of holidays. I would not recommend this school and would have not sent our misguided daughter there had I known then what I know now.

This was a great private school when I attended from 4^th to 6^th grade. I have happy memories of kickball at recess, gym class, and our music teacher’s wig. I learned to play the recorder at this school. That has helped me in so many ways througout my career.