Peninsula School Systems - tradeoffs and lived experiences?

We have a young family and are trying to decide where to live long-term within a reasonable commute to Stanford.

What has been your experience with the Palo Alto, Menlo-Atherton, Los Altos, Portola Valley, and Woodside public schools systems? What are the tradeoffs between each of them? What has your experience been with the ones you have kids at? Are there private options worth evaluating, on top of the insane cost of living/property taxes funding public school systems? Or gems of public schools further away that would motivate a longer commute?

I've been worried reading about public school systems holding kids back on topics like advanced math, instead of maximizing progress and learning for each kid. And is there flexibility to take the kids out for a week to go on vacation?