Catholic church/school in Akron (Cleveland, Cuyahoga Falls: catholic schools, living in, moving to)

[cheftobe]

We are moving to Akron and looking for a Catholic church/school to join. We are a younger family with four kids in elementary school and I want a place where the community is younger and active. Also, it seems there are some private Catholic schools in Akron that aren't associated with churches. What reasons (other than all girls for the Elms) would there be for choosing a school that's different than your church school? And finally, in 1 year we will be looking at Catholic high schools and it seems there are 4 high schools to choose from. What are the different personalities of the school? We are coming from a smaller town where you go to school based on the busing district that you live in. I love having choices, but not when I know nothing about any of the choices!

[adam18629]

what part of town are you living in? I believe that Walsh (in the stow cfalls area) is the most expensive. Then Hiram and SVSM are actually in akron. Then there are a million in the Cleveland area.

[cheftobe]

I will be working in downtown Akron so anything within a 20 minute radius of that area would be great!

[adam18629]

Well I unfortunately am a "wasp" so I cant help you too much
Are you living downtown also or what town are you living in?
I have friends that send there kids to svsm and hoban but I don't think I know anybody that makes enough money for walsh.
If you need any help trying to pick a place to live maybe I could give you better info on that

[SquareBetterThanAll]

Just to correct adam above, he means Hoban, not Hiram.

I won't question your choice for private school but I will throw out this is one area that is inundated with excellent public schools (and free, of course).

On my side of town St. Sebastian is fairly well regarded, as are St V-M and St. Hilary and I also know some people that have had good experiences at Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Falls. There are others but those come up (at least for me) the most regularly.

In my opinion for high schools St V-M and Hoban are top dogs in Akron and the near suburbs. Of course you have the Elms which you mentioned (if you prefer girls only) and I have run into people from time to time that have kids that go to Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy and seem to like it, but that isn't Catholic.

Hopefully that helps a little.

[gentlearts]

All those suggestions are good. If you can afford to live in Hudson, Mary Seton is a nice Catholic elementary school. Hoban high school turns out a lot of nice kids, but it is right in the inner city, as is St Vincent St Mary's, so not as picturesque as some others like the Elms and Walsh. Unless you can afford to give until it hurts, forget Walsh.
As someone mentioned, most of the public high schools in Fairlawn/Cuyahoga Falls/Hudson/Stow areas are very good, so you don't have to go private to get a good education.