How did you pick a school?

[chelsmat]

I know school is probably the last thing on everyone's mind with summer break starting, but I'm curious how you decided on a school for your kids. DH and I have a couple choices for next year and we're trying to weigh our options. If you just went with the neighborhood school, did you pick your home because of it?

[nicolewi]

My kids are going to public elementary. We are in a strong and very desirable public school district. We purposely stayed in this district when we bought a new house when DD1 was in 4K. We didn't even seriously consider private school even though DH went to Catholic when he was little. I went to public, also in a very strong district. Private here isn't necessarily "better," just different pros and cons, and it's mostly either Lutheran or Catholic.

However, DD1 had a rough start to kindergarten and I was really unhappy with a number of things. So I belatedly looked into Catholic school in a panic a couple weeks in and we considered moving her. We had three Catholic school options. One, frankly, was way too early of a schedule for us. We are not morning people and my kids are up late. The other (DH's school when he was little!) is nice but had no room left that year, and also we would have to drive her, which is a giant PITA with three other littles at home. The third, the closest to us and the one affiliated with our parish, had a kindergarten program that I just loved. Everything I thought kindergarten should be, wonderful teacher, and I'm sure DD would have had a way better kindergarten experience there as compared to at the public school. BUT, we decided to leave her where she was b/c:
1. We ARE in such a strong school district..it's well regarded and hard to make the case to pay way more out of pocket. We are close to the elementary school.
2. I loved the kindergarten at the private school, but the school only has about 14 kids per GRADE. That is just too small for me as the kids grow. I couldn't imagine her continuing there all through grade school with only that many kids in her whole grade. But yet, I didn't want to send her for kindergarten only to uproot her again for first grade. The school is likely to grow (they are recruiting and doing a big building project) but for now it's just too small.
3. With four kids, if we started one in private school we were likely to continue with all four, which means thousands of dollars over time. Tuition is reasonable, but still a lot when you compare to public school being virtually free. Figured we could always move them later if we felt the need.
4. The bus schedule! We have an awesome bus that drops off and picks up right at our house, with really nice drivers, at good times. With four kids, again, it's huge to have that and not have to pack kids up and drive them around all the time.

For now it's been a good call. I'm still not thrilled with kindergarten, but DD1 had an awesome first grade year. UNFORTUNATELY, that teacher retired! Shoot! Second grade was fine..not bad; nothing spectacular either. DS's kindergarten year was much better (different teacher) but still I just don't love it compared to the old-style kindergarten with much more play time. Overall, though, as we have gotten more involved I do like the school. There are a lot of opportunities for family involvement and it has a warm community feeling. A big plus to me is how many families we've gotten to know through the school, since most people in our area do choose the public school.

[cabbagecabbage]

We looked at houses focusing on a couple excellent high schools in districts we could afford knowing we'd be purchasing a family home.

[erbear]

Well the school where I teach starts at Pre-k and it's awesome and free so no brainer here.

If I were looking, I'd go to a school when there are kids there and check it out. Do kids seem happy and engaged? Are the teachers happy? Is there a calm energy to the place? Are there arts and music and lots of outside time and free time? Is there something other than desks in a row? That's what a good school looks like to me.

[momin2013]

We actually picked the neighbourhood where we wanted to build first. Before we signed the final papers I looked up which school choices we'd have, and they looked fine, so we went ahead with building.

Last September, we put DS in the preschool program that's located in the school he'll go to, to get him familiar with the school, etc., and we've been really happy with it. He'll start full-day junior kindergarten in the Fall.

[lala]

We just chose to look at houses in decent districts and that was the end of it. We had no interest in anything but public schools. They go to the school we are in the catchment for.

[expectantsteelerfan]

When we were moving for dh's job, we knew there were several public schools in the area that were outstanding, so we limited our house search to a school district we were happy to send our kids to (we grew up in the area so that helped with feeling comfortable in our decision). Where we are, you have no choice of schools within the public school system, you go where you are slated to go based on where you live. Because the public schools are so good, there aren't many private options (a few Catholic schools, or charter schools), so we didn't even consider those. So once we bought our house, there was no decision to be made really.

[Deleted]

We actually moved about 25 miles away before ds turned 2 because although our first home was great, the schools were terrible. I grew up in that same school district and knew first hand about them and the private school options are pricey and also not strong academically. We jumped on a house that had been listed for awhile and got a great deal in our new neighborhood where all the public schools are 9s and 10s. Our plan next year is to tour the 3-4 public schools in our area to see which one will be the best fit. We are school of choice and have good options thanks to moving!

[mamaalysson]

We bought in the location we did because of the school(s) it feeds to. We did look at our neighborhood parochial school because DH went to parochial school, but our neighborhood school is great and we are very happy there.

[lala]

Also re: "ratings" Great schools is pretty much a joke, IMO. Niche is a little better. But you simply can't use one ranking to determine if it's a good school district.

[hocus2]

My kids go to the local public school. There are parochial options and some private options in the area, but private is very expensive. There aren't really charter other other choice based options in my area.

We're currently at public and for my daughter it is working out fine. She's a well rounded student and generally takes direction and feedback well. She's a bit weaker in reading and stronger in math and appears on balances to be at grade level. My son had a truly rocky Kindergarten year. Some of that has to do with who he is, but I've been profoundly unimpressed by the school's response to his struggles. I'm going to be working with them a lot next year to ensure that he gets the help he needs. If not we might have explore other options. I'd consider asking for a spot in a near by local public school over private if we can do that. I think his needs could certainly be met by public education.

[abs]

Jun 12, 2017 11:27:38 GMT -5 lala said:

Also re: "ratings" Great schools is pretty much a joke, IMO. Niche is a little better. But you simply can't use one ranking to determine if it's a good school district.

Yes, this.  Great school ratings pretty much mean how much money does the school have.  There are many other, more important, factors to consider. If you can take a tour of the school or talk to the principal I would start there.

[Deleted]

Jun 12, 2017 12:02:02 GMT -5 abs said:

Jun 12, 2017 11:27:38 GMT -5 lala said:

Also re: "ratings" Great schools is pretty much a joke, IMO. Niche is a little better. But you simply can't use one ranking to determine if it's a good school district.

Yes, this.  Great school ratings pretty much mean how much money does the school have.  There are many other, more important, factors to consider. If you can take a tour of the school or talk to the principal I would start there.

Since I'm the only one that mentioned school ratings, I assume this is in response to part of what I said above. I wasn't aware that ratings were based solely on how much money a school has; regardless, the schools with the higher ratings in my particular neighborhood are California distinguished schools (I see now this might just be coincidental) and have a good student teacher ratio and have art and music, so to me, all that is really important too.

To the OP, I mainly moved because the schools are good quality, not over crowded, have good ratios, great programs and yes, well funded (I.e. Have more money). I grew up going to some of the worst schools in terms of being over crowded, having improper security (we are talking gangs and bathroom fights), and sorely underfunded and without good art and music programs because resources were lacking. It wasn't easy. But yes, clearly, the decision we made was not simply based on a "rating."

[lexus]

Jun 12, 2017 22:59:29 GMT -5 @itsbritt said:

Jun 12, 2017 12:02:02 GMT -5 abs said:

Yes, this.  Great school ratings pretty much mean how much money does the school have.  There are many other, more important, factors to consider. If you can take a tour of the school or talk to the principal I would start there.

Since I'm the only one that mentioned school ratings, I assume this is in response to part of what I said above. I wasn't aware that ratings were based solely on how much money a school has; regardless, the schools with the higher ratings in my particular neighborhood are California distinguished schools (I see now this might just be coincidental) and have a good student teacher ratio and have art and music, so to me, all that is really important too.

To the OP, I mainly moved because the schools are good quality, not over crowded, have good ratios, great programs and yes, well funded (I.e. Have more money). I grew up going to some of the worst schools in terms of being over crowded, having improper security (we are talking gangs and bathroom fights), and sorely underfunded and without good art and music programs because resources were lacking. It wasn't easy. But yes, clearly, the decision we made was not simply based on a "rating."

It's not that they are based solely on money it's that schools with more money do better on standardized tests. Those scores are based on API, which relied heavily on standardized test scores.

OP I know that there are good teachers (and bad) at every school regardless of income or tests scores. I think community is important, safety, and if your child has a specific talent or interest that should play a part in your decision. It was really hard for us to decide where we wanted to live- in a more diverse urban area closer to work but further from our "village" or surrounded by family and people very much like us in the suburbs. We chose the latter but sometimes I wonder if we made the right choice. It is great having people around to help us in a pinch though.

[honeydew1894]

Jun 11, 2017 14:40:16 GMT -5 nicolewi said:

My kids are going to public elementary. We are in a strong and very desirable public school district. We purposely stayed in this district when we bought a new house when DD1 was in 4K. 

This was us, except we moved into the district last summer so DS could start K this fall.  DH and I are both public school teachers so while our area has some really great alternatives, we felt the kids would be very well-served with our public school system.