Would/did you move to get into a better school district? - Page 2

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by Coral123 

Our district has curriculum cycles of 7 years, so that means every year one area is under review, and will be changed or modified.

An individual teacher can tweak a curriculum  to make it better.

yes, the review cycle is common and how much each teacher is tweaking is all over the place. I was the parent rep on the math curriculum committee last year, which was fascinating. Our school had very high scores on the state math test and was deciding if they should stick with the current math program or change. During the course of the meetings, the teacher felt the tests results were inspite of, not because of, the curriculum. They were changing things up all over the place, fighting against the curriculum. 

They decided to change, which was scary to the administration.

[Stella_luna]

Well, we moved to get into a better school district, and I'm really glad we did. In our old neighborhood, the parents seemed to always be complaining about the elementary school in particular, and I had heard a lot of bad things about the high school as well, and problems with overcrowding, very large classes, environmental issues, etc. So when DD was 4 we moved about 10 miles away to an excellent school district (very well-ranked but more importantly to me also very well-known and recognized for its arts programs). Before we moved I toured the elementary school. The school DD attends is newer, bright, open, and just has a friendly, happy vibe. (The elementary school in the old neighborhood was very old, small, dark, and dingy.) The district is huge, but there are a lot of schools, and the class sizes are low. We have been thrilled with the school from day 1.

Now, we moved from a suburb to another suburb, so there was no culture shock like you may face. If I were in the city to begin with, and could walk to things, and had friends there, I might have been more inclined to send DD to private school. But I am thrilled with the decision we made and am happy we moved and DD is in such a superb school.

[EFmom]

The school system is the deciding factor on where we live.  I would absolutely move to be in a district where I would be happy about sending my kids to public school.

[Drummer's Wife]

We chose are specific neighborhood and city b/c of the school district and the home school assigned.  However, the boundaries changed about a year after we moved as they built a new school (there is a lot of growth in our area), so we were reassigned a different elementary school.  And actually, they recently built a new high school, too.  It has worked out for the best, b/c the new school is even better with a program to fit our needs, and from what I can tell, the middle and high school we now feed into are highly desired.  So, yes, I would say we would move or choose a new place to live (in this case, we didn't move specifically for new schools - we moved to a new state for DH's work), but there is always a chance that schools could change curriculum/pedagogy/teachers/admin or that the boundaries will cause you to have to switch, anyway.  For us, the area is also really nice, has low crime rates, is convenient to the highway for my DH to commute to the bigger city for work, beautiful landscape/mountain views, and housing is affordable.  It pretty much had the whole package - schools definitely being a big part of the equation when we were searching for new place to live. 

[JudiAU]

Absolutely.

[MomtoDandJ]

Addie -- we are in the same boat!  I live in downtown Chicago with my two kids and I love it!  All my mommy friends from when my oldest son was a baby have either already moved to the burbs or are planning to do so soon.  And we're.... not sure when/if we're moving!  My husband and I both grew up in the suburbs so we're familiar with what that entails. But we love living in the city!  I'm a 5-minute walk to 4 different museums and my husband also has a relatively short commute to work (short enough he could bike, but the downtown traffic is crazy for bikers so he takes the train).

I don't really have any advice, but I did want to say that you're totally not alone in this question.  We ask ourselves all the time if we're being selfish and if we should move to the burbs so our kids can ride their bikes in the street and go to the neighborhood public school.  (Where we are in the city, the public elementary school isn't great.  So if we stay we'll probably have to put our kids in private school which we're not sure about... very expensive plus super hard to get into.)

Anyway, it's really interesting reading what others have replied, so thanks for starting this discussion thread!

[Amys1st]

Originally Posted by MomtoDandJ 

Addie -- we are in the same boat!  I live in downtown Chicago with my two kids and I love it!  All my mommy friends from when my oldest son was a baby have either already moved to the burbs or are planning to do so soon.  And we're.... not sure when/if we're moving!  My husband and I both grew up in the suburbs so we're familiar with what that entails. But we love living in the city!  I'm a 5-minute walk to 4 different museums and my husband also has a relatively short commute to work (short enough he could bike, but the downtown traffic is crazy for bikers so he takes the train).

I don't really have any advice, but I did want to say that you're totally not alone in this question.  We ask ourselves all the time if we're being selfish and if we should move to the burbs so our kids can ride their bikes in the street and go to the neighborhood public school.  (Where we are in the city, the public elementary school isn't great.  So if we stay we'll probably have to put our kids in private school which we're not sure about... very expensive plus super hard to get into.)

Anyway, it's really interesting reading what others have replied, so thanks for starting this discussion thread!

Love this post! You live where DH and I want to live when done with our kids schooling! In fact, we are visiting the museum campus today for dd's school assignment. We loved being in the  city during our college education and living there. DH's  job was in the western suburbs and mine was a territory so we ended up in the western suburbs. Our first home was a great starter home, but you bet we bought in a good school district. We never did use that school, we moved to a larger home right before DD1 started kindy. So we are on the other side of town now in a kid infested neighborhood with a top ranked by Chicago mag school. Yes, we chose the neighborhood for the school. But it tied with a neighborhood full of families, 4 of which have 3rd graders and/or kids going to start school in the fall like my younger dd2.

Its also within walking distance to "downtown" suburbia and the train.  

We wanted a great place my  kids could run up and down the block with other kids, go knock on a neighbors' door and play. We got it. We walk to school with others doing the same etc. We both grew up in  similar neighborhoods so we wanted that for our kids.

OTH, my BIL/SIL still live in the city (both grew up in the burbs as well) and their  dd attends a magnet school PrK-3rd with 2,000 other students. Appllying for that was hell. But they are happy, even with a 30 min drive back and forth everyday to the school. We would love love love to live in the city, but for now, this is how we want to raise our kids so suburbia it is.  We figure in 15 years we can downsize when our youngest is done w the schooling here. Move to the city and let a new family move into the kid infested neighborhood, pay the high property taxes, tend to a house and lawn, and use the schools. Also, it keeps the neighborhood and schools thriving when new people move in and put down roots.

 

[MomtoDandJ]

Originally Posted by Amys1st 

Love this post! You live where DH and I want to live when done with our kids schooling! In fact, we are visiting the museum campus today for dd's school assignment. We loved being in the  city during our college education and living there. DH's  job was in the western suburbs and mine was a territory so we ended up in the western suburbs. Our first home was a great starter home, but you bet we bought in a good school district. We never did use that school, we moved to a larger home right before DD1 started kindy. So we are on the other side of town now in a kid infested neighborhood with a top ranked by Chicago mag school. Yes, we chose the neighborhood for the school. But it tied with a neighborhood full of families, 4 of which have 3rd graders and/or kids going to start school in the fall like my younger dd2.

Its also within walking distance to "downtown" suburbia and the train.  

We wanted a great place my  kids could run up and down the block with other kids, go knock on a neighbors' door and play. We got it. We walk to school with others doing the same etc. We both grew up in  similar neighborhoods so we wanted that for our kids.

OTH, my BIL/SIL still live in the city (both grew up in the burbs as well) and their  dd attends a magnet school PrK-3rd with 2,000 other students. Appllying for that was hell. But they are happy, even with a 30 min drive back and forth everyday to the school. We would love love love to live in the city, but for now, this is how we want to raise our kids so suburbia it is.  We figure in 15 years we can downsize when our youngest is done w the schooling here. Move to the city and let a new family move into the kid infested neighborhood, pay the high property taxes, tend to a house and lawn, and use the schools. Also, it keeps the neighborhood and schools thriving when new people move in and put down roots.

 

Where do you live now??? Your neighborhood sounds great, so I'm just curious since we're planning a move sometime in the next 12-18 months...

[CTH3989]

If we were PCSing I would definitely try to move to a great part of town. Since we are staying put, I researched the best schools in my area and applied for a geographic exception so my oldest could attend school there.