House Buying

[powerfulcheese04]

Ok, homeowners, I have lots of questions!

We are looking at buying a house soon, which is really exciting! There is a house we are in love with. Its further out of the city than we imagined we'd look, but we do like the idea of new construction v a 30-50 year old home.

Anyway, my question is how did you decide that the schools were good enough? I mean, as Lizzy is still -4 months old, I have n idea what her educational needs will be, but I want her to go to good schools! The schools the neighborhood we're looking at are currently zoned to look good, but I don't know! I mean the elementary and middle schools have 8/10 ratings compared to other schools in NC. The high school is only a 5.... which makes me kind of nervous . Reviews online are mixed. But, really as fast as the community upthere is grow:ng that may not still be the high school for our neighborhood. Or it may be that one in even worse shape.


So, how did you weight possible schools into how you picked a house? (The house itself is perfect.(

[Syphon the Sun]

Given the significant amount of gang activity (which has been present for 20+ years) at one of the schools, that was something we tried to look into as much as possible. (Even though we have no children, yet.)

You can never be 100% sure, but I checked old zoning maps to see how the school lines had changed over time. We were pretty safe in that our house hadn't shifted into a different school's zone going back as far as I could find the maps (25-ish years). That may not work as well with booming areas, though.

That said, our school has historically been one of the best performing in the district, but is still below average. There's a good charter school in the district, but it's waiting list is twice as long as its enrollment cap. We're also very close to a few private Catholic schools, which I looked into as a backup plan. I figure we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

[powerfulcheese04]

Yeah, Syphon, unfortunately the whole county is one school district and they periodically change "transportation zones" especially for the rapidly growing suburbs.


To make this a little more open of a thread, what did you look for in a house? What were your must haves? Your deal breakers?

[elfprince13]

Dunno where you are in NC, but neither of my cousins had anything positive to say about their educational experiences in rural Western NC, but as both they and I can attest, parental involvement in schooling/education makes a HUGE difference. My parents carry far more responsibility for my academic success than does anything in my experiences with American primary/secondary education.

What Syphon said about gang activity (also, schools with serious drug problems) would have a much bigger impact on my decision than any standardized testing metrics on school performance. And in some cases that can be hard to predict 20 (or even 10) years down the road.

[powerfulcheese04]

We're in Charlotte. We currently rent just outside of the center of the city. We're looking to move a little further out into more suburb-y type places.

And I know personal motivation and parental involvement have a lot to do with educational success. My brother and I started in the same district and I did fabulously. He coasted through close to failing and my parents pulled him into private school.

[Gravity Defier]

parental involvement in schooling/education makes a HUGE difference

Yes. I was afraid of getting yelled at by folks who know better but I was thinking this when I saw the thread earlier. As long as the school is even halfway decent, this (parental involvement) will make the difference.

I understand why parents are so invested in schools being top notch but it's really the earliest years that I'd focus on (preschool) being concerned with things and even that is pushing it a bit, in my opinion. There are things that just come naturally to a lot of Pwebbers that some parents need help with or pointing out from educational organizations (reading with your kids, doing fun learning activities at home...basically, do anything that Steph does).

I don't know if that last sentence made any sense, ha.

[steph]

(reading with your kids, doing fun learning activities at home...basically, do anything that Steph does).

We're lucky enough to live in an Open Enroll state. We can apply to attend any school we want, (even in other districts!) as long as there is space to accept us. The school that we are in the boundaries for could not give Tyler what he needed, so we attend a neighboring elementary school. The only downside is that I have to drive Tyler to school every day, since there is no bussing for open enroll.

I do agree with what others have said about parent involvement. That part of education was never even a question for me, and I know it won't be for you!! The other crucial piece is the teacher. The school can have a bad rating, but a good teacher can still negate all of that if they can give your child what they need.

In my research experience, there aren't very many high schools that get good ratings. Usually, the ones that do get good ratings are in communities that no normal person would ever be able to afford to live in, or they are specialty high schools (arts or STEM). I'm not sure what we'll do for middle and high school yet. Maybe we'll open enroll to the STEM highschool, but it's a good 1/2 hour drive! Or maybe we'll move and be in the boundaries of a STEM school. Who knows. I just hope I have time to figure it out, since Tyler is 7 going on doctoral thesis.

My opinion would be: If the schools are up in the air anyway (and especially if you can open enroll....I'd look into that), if you love the house that much and the neighborhood is generally a good quality, safe place....Go for it! But make sure that it's something you can comfortably afford. (Even on only one income, if need be, since you never know what will happen.) It's no fun to live and work only to be able to afford the house payment and nothing else!

[buckshot]

I'm shure the states differ but here there was a change of grade school boundary here and the great school that all of our kids went to was too full for our grandkids to attend and they would have to ride a bus for over an hour and then that school has a bad reputation. So Julie went to meet with some folks at the district office and fought it out. Even since we heard there was no getting around the new boundary they still allowed it ,I agree with Syphon too ,the catholic schools can often be a good choice and often an economical one too.