All right, my kid hasn't gone here and I don't personally know kids who have. But I've talked to parents and teachers who know the school, read reviews of it and perused their site, and it seems like the perfect private school.
Why? Well, it includes class in diversity and makes a point of setting aside a chunk of its income every year toward scholarships for lower-income kids - which is very rare among local private schools. By contrast, the Mills College Children's School has a comparable tuition but so little financial aid that the highest award they'll give is less than a third of the tuition and fees.
Park Day School offers Spanish as part of its curriculum, which is very important to me, and dedicates a high percentage of its minutes to art, music, science, and PE - the four things that have basically been thrown out of local public schools in favor of Open Court and just desperately drumming reading and math into kids the entire day. They have a special group for parents of kids with any learning issues, and I think a group for the kids too. And they have a really nice campus. Someday, I want to send my kid there... when IEP and budgets allow!
more