Palmas Academy in Palmas Del Mar - Anyone with experience?

Calling anywhere is always a roll of the dice. Did you try calling between early December and mid January? If so you called during the holiday season and will probably not be able to reach anybody. It's hard to get anyone on a Friday or a Monday. They don't do daylight savings time so you may have called them during their lunch hour or after the close of business day and not realized it. Truthfully, if you really want to get anything done, take a trip down and go where you need to go personally. As the man I once was having a verbal conflict with on the island said to me "we do things differently here.".It could also have been that their phone system was down at the time. Utilities are less than reliable on the island. How's your Spanish? Does your 14 year old speak any Spanish?

firefly1 wrote:

I've read the school's website and tried to call them - they do not answer their phone and have not replied to my emails. Thanks for your help.

It is also Semana Santa this week so they may be off. (My daughter's school is off as I think are many others.) Good luck!

Hi Firefly
we are moving to PR in July and going down this next week for our kids to take their entrance exams for school.  We toured through Tasis and although the grounds were beautiful we didn't feel like it was a good fit for our kids.  We asked locals about Palmas Academy and we even had an appointment to tour.  We decided it would not be a good fit, 1. due to the location and how far it would be from San Juan 2. The few locals we talked to who send their kids to private school said it was not up to standards as the other private schools on the island.  We have chosen to live in Guyanabo and send out kids to Commonwealth-Parkville School.  Although it's not the prettiest school on the island it seemed the friendliest and very similiar to the school my kids attend in the states.  Good luck on your search.

When are you moving?

Anolis - Thanks for your comments, it was last week and they were off for holiday as I discovered when I called Tasis.  The Tasis staff was there so maybe Palmas Academy is just smaller and closes completely on break. BTW - I tried 3 x daily for 3 days so it was not just a lunch break or time difference. I understand not being there and not answering the phone is normal at times for the culture. But, I am in an "evaluation mode" and so I am looking at each behavior for signs to help me make a decision.

Marathomama - that is really helpful info. I am moving in June with my daughter coming in July. We are doing the inspection trip next week. I work from home so I can live anywhere so I was thinking of avoiding the congestion of San Juan and live in Dorado or Palmas Del Mar. Did you choose Guyanabo over the resort communities or do you need to be in San Juan? I would appreciate your take on Tasis verses CPS. Did you consider Baldwin? Many thanks again.

We are enrolling our kids for this fall.  It is quite a process including hundreds of dollars for psych testing which we were not expecting.  They will not give you an "official" place in the school without every placement test, psych test, various forms and health exams etc. which is frustrating.  Exams given in the US will not work - you must make new appointments at Puerto Rican drs.  We had a lot of success with the Dr. at Palmanova Plaza.

@Firefly1 Did you settle on a school/location?  Would love to hear more about what you found out!

I know this is an old thread, curious who of this group moved to Palmas del mar and went to their academy.
I am making the same decision now.
Thanks

We would not do it again. Our kids were there for one school year and it took hustling the next year to make up/catch up to their peers in the states. If your children are older and self motivated, home schooling from Palmas would be an excellent option. Several families we knew started at Palmas and ended up homeschooling. We were also disappointed that the school is almost entirely English (language). Our kids learned about 10-20 individual Spanish words, and one of our main goals was to have them immersed into the Spanish language for at least part of the day.