Kingman AZ? Is it really that horrible? (Sedona, Page: relocating, house)

[Pippi333]

Moderator Cut: personal i never said ALL schools there were bad, i was very specific about which schools we had had experiences with, and what those experiences had been. Moderator Cut: personal

i didn't live in a bad part of town, lol! there are actually very new homes and brand new housing developments in the neighborhoods slated for cerbat. we lived in a newer home on a new street (on Mcvicar) with other very nice, new homes. it's ridiculous to imply that the problems we encountered were due to students who attend that come from homes with less money. the problems were due to the fact that the school staff and admin did not do their jobs in supervising, teaching, or dishing out acceptable consequences to their students.

it's funny that you have referred to hualapai elementary as "top notch", when, if you were to simply view their report card for last year, (available at http://saturn.kusd.org/drupal/public...lapai/2007.pdf ) you would see that their AIMS scores last year were far from "top notch". according to these scores, only about 50% of 4th graders in hualapai elementary are meeting standards set forth by the state in reading, writing, and math. for those who may not be familiar with these reports, each subject is broken down into various elements..like spelling, comprehension, computational skills, etc. and for some of those elements, only 30-40% of the 4th graders at hualapai are scoring at expected level. that is a long way from "top notch", as though that even needs to be said.

however, if you are happy with the school and feel your children receive a good education there, then good for you and your family.

Moderator Cut: personal making comments as though the problems within the middle and high schools are due solely to the "cross-pollination" of kids from richer or poorer areas? wealthy parents don't automatically make good parents, i've known many who were not. and a lack of financial affluence does not produce worthless children. your ramblings about having the financial capacity to live "anywhere", and letting us all know about how your family members attend higher education (which could simply mean that they take typing courses online, lol) only sound like frustrated attempts to "prove" to us all that you are somehow better than the rest of us.

Moderator Cut: off topic

also, my info was not extracted from a single data point, lol!! how do you consider two separate schools, and asking specific questions personally of the asst. superintendent and two principals, a single source of information?

Moderator Cut: personal it's not hard to get in, i mean, all you have to do is move into the neighborhood, which is NO bel air or brentwood, to be sure. my husband and i (who have been married 15 years, just to smash your other insinuation that any kid with a bad experience in a kingman school must come from a broken home) looked at homes in the hualapai district, in fact. want to know why i didn't want to move there? i saw cars parked ON front lawns, cars pulled up to within inches of the front doors of homes, and thought it looked tacky.


Moderator Cut: personal/off topic

[kdog]

Originally Posted by Pippi333

i never said ALL schools there were bad,

Oh really? How else would you expect people to interpret this remark?

Originally Posted by Pippi333

...i lived in Kingman twice, from '93-'95, and again from '03-'05. just wanted to state for the record, that we had pretty extensive dealings with the schools, and found them to be really quite bad.

This is the message that you've repeated over again and you're still at it.

Let's face it, you hate Kingman. You said that right here.

Moderator Edit: personal

[sablebaby]

I think this thread needs to calm down a bit.

[haymann]

The crying about Kingman and crime is nonsense. The crime may be magnified because it's a small town. If you want to talk crime go to Las Vegas. The scum there is dripping all over the place, as Michael Savage, of the Savage Nation says, diversity is perversity. and Vegas as well a SoCal are perverse. Southern California is the same way, crime and scum every were. Guns being shot off by Mexicans all over. There are exceptions, Newport Beach and the like.
People also like to cry about the traffic on Stockton Hill Rd.; more nonsense. If you want to know what traffic is go to Vegas or worst yet California. It takes about 5 mins to get from Northern to I-40, you call that traffic. What the heck? If you want to separate yourself from what people might call problems there are plenty of places and areas to move to. Live out by the HaulapiaMt. area or RitaValley area or out by Southern slightly to the east in Kingman, there are great neighborhoods there.
Kingman and the surrounding area are great. There are 'cry babies' who want Kingman to stay the same, and not grow, but it will grow. Growth is life, no growth is stagnant death.
So if you want to be a part of something new, something that's growing, this is the NEW FRONTIER. Not only Kingman, but the whole area from White Hills, to Yucca, from Laughlin to East Kingman.
When the bridge is complete people will move here in droves. Its cooler, land is cheaper, taxes are much cheaper. Companies also will be clamoring to get in here; they already are, for the same reasons. Energy plants are being built in the Griffith Industrial Corridor on I-40 in South Golden Valley, right now to serve the major growth that will take place here.
Things to do. A person can get out a stretch. You can search of gold, meteorites, horse back ride, go offroading of all kinds. You can join the mining club in Kingman where you can meet people; you can go out on outings and learn to find gold, check out equipment. The membership fee is about 30-$50 a year. Join Mohave Sportsman Club for $50.00 a year and go to the shooting range. This is a 'right to open carry state' if you are a sportsman.Take a CCW class at the range. The Colorado River and Laughlin Gambling and entertainment are 30 miles away. There are also movie theaters and shows. Learn to kayak at the river.
There’s a new hospital in the planning stage, and the current hospital is under going extensive remodeling.
I will say that if you don't care for the wide open spaces you may want to stay close to Kingman and the local shopping like Wal-Mart, Smith's Food's, Office Depot, Starbuck's, Home Depot, etc. I REMIND you there are great places to live at in Kingman.
[color=black][font=Verdana]Go to some websites that will help you understand what the area has to offer. Moderator cut: Advertising I hope this was helpful.

[haymann]

Originally Posted by SummersEve

I am trying to find out info on Kingman and it sounds pretty bad from the posts. Is the crime horrible? Meth drugs all over? Is it ugly? People unfriendly?What types of stores? Where does everyone go to shop?

I had heard from a friend it is an up and coming city for those who don't want to live in Las Vegas, but the posts sound pretty bad.

Thanks!

NO, IT'S NOT read my post on page 15. hope it helps you.

[haymann]

Originally Posted by Pippi333

i'll apologize ahead of time for the length of this post, but thought i would give as much info as i personally can concerning the schools in Kingman. i lived in Kingman twice, from '93-'95, and again from '03-'05. just wanted to state for the record, that we had pretty extensive dealings with the schools, and found them to be really quite bad.

my five year old was seriously assaulted not once, but twice, on his third day of Kindergarten (cerbat elementary). during the first instance, his head was repeatedly punched against a ceramic tile wall in the bathroom...no adults anywhere to be found, despite the fact that he said he was crying and screaming for help.

immediately after this incident, he walked out onto the playground, and was thrown/pushed off of the play structure, and then a group of boys took turns jumping on his stomach, telling him, "next time, we're going to kill you".

now, if anybody is really interested in the long story of how the school staff/principal/asst. superintendant would not do anything to remedy this situation (at one point, the teacher actually blamed it all on my son, saying, "well, he WAS bouncy in line earlier"...), feel free to PM me and i'll be happy to share the story. it's really long to post here. suffice it to say that we felt strongly that he would be no safer if he returned to school the next day (no adult supervision in restrooms for kindergarteners? playground "supervisors" paying so little attention that my son could have been seriously, seriously injured - when he came home he had red tread marks from the kids' shoes on his little tummy! and no willingness on the part of school administration to apprehend and/or deliver appropriate consequences to the students who attacked my son...), and the only response we got from the asst. superintendant was "well, kindergarten isn't required in AZ, so you don't have to send him back". Needless, to say, we pulled out to homeschool.

on the upside, arizona is a very homeschooler-friendly state, so it worked out.

we had other quite negative dealings with schools there as well, as my older daughter attended while we lived there, as well. (cerbat elementary and the junior high).

i have heard that hualapai and manzanita are both good...however, what are they being compared to? we tried to enroll in both of these schools after the trouble with cerbat, the next school year. manzanita practically threw us out before we were even all the way through the door (the woman working the office that day was incredibly rude). hualapai actually accepted my son's transfer, however in the end, we decided against it (my son was still extremely afraid to go to school because of the violent incidents the prior year and the threats that he would be killed...he was only 5, it was extremely difficult to try to convince him that although these things were said, it would not happen...he just wouldn't believe us.), and when i explained this, i was basically told that we had been "graced" to have had our transfer request accepted to the holy hualapai school, and in so many words, told that we would not be welcome to apply for a transfer at any time in the future.

in search of better schools, we moved to boise, idaho. i would say that we definitely did find better schools here. however, after the years of homeschooling in AZ, we found that homeschooling is actually a better fit for us. my son attended a very happy 2nd grade year in public school here, a decent 3rd grade year, and we went back to homeschooling this year.

we have actually decided to move back to kingman to be closer to my mother-in-law who has had major, life-threatening medical issues in the last couple of months, but we will be homeschooling.

i had spoken personally to the assistant superintendant before moving to kingman in '03, as well as emailed with at least one school principal....and was told how "wonderful" and "flexible" the schools there were. i bought it hook, line, and sinker. however, i found the opposite to be true.

i guess it depends on what you are looking for in a school. oh yeah, the kindergarten there was a 7 hour day, and after three days of asking my son, "what did you do today?", running down a list of things like "did you paint? did you sing? did you hear a story", etc., and hearing nothing back from him except, "we colored", i thought maybe he was just forgetting what they had done in class? when i would ask even more specific questions, he would say "the teacher leaves a lot, there's another lady there and she just tells us to sit down and color". out of curiosity, we requested all of my son's classwork for the days he had attended....lo and behold, what we got back was a folder with about 5 coloring sheets in it, and nothing else. when my husband looked at the teacher and asked, "is this everything he did during the 21 hours he spent in your class?", she just looked at him and wouldn't answer. that was answer enough.

so personally, for those planning on coming into the kingman school district with young school aged children, i would be VERY careful and do everything in your power to really, really know what you are getting into before you do. maybe things have improved in the 2 years since we left....but it's still the same superintendent, the same assistant superintendent, even the same principal at cerbat. so, my guess would be that, chances are, not much has changed.

What the heck is going on in schools. It is not only in Kingman it is all over, atleast in the west, Vegas, and So. Cal. Was this a minority issue! It was in CA. where mexicans were constantly harrassing a white girl in one particular instance. Oh well as I said this seems to be happening all over.

Sorry to here that this happened to you. It's just terrible.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by haymann

What the heck is going on in schools. It is not only in Kingman it is all over, atleast in the west, Vegas, and So. Cal. Was this a minority issue! It was in CA. where mexicans were constantly harrassing a white girl in one particular instance. Oh well as I said this seems to be happening all over.

Sorry to here that this happened to you. It's just terrible.

Had to shake my head at the 'Mexican-White' thing.

Not so long ago; the 'Italians' used to mix it up with the 'Irish' in New York City, etc.

The more things change; the more they remain the same

[haymann]

Originally Posted by ArizonaBear

Had to shake my head at the 'Mexican-White' thing.

Not so long ago; the 'Italians' used to mix it up with the 'Irish' in New York City, etc.

The more things change; the more they remain the same

By making your statement you have take this to another level. All I wanted to know was if this was an illegal alien issue since I have seen many. I may have mis-spoke when using the word minority. If it doesn't pertian so be it. Recall though that blacks, the so called jena 6, severly beat a white kid almost to the point of death, and this kind of thing does hang with a person. It is not new, that is minorities ganging up on whites. The child in the "comment" was ganged up on according to the writer. Since gangs are more associated with minorities,especial people from south of the border, more than whites, it was a fair question to ask; who they were.

Now to move on.

Your sophomoric thinking, your wise 'ism', is, profound in it's simplicity.

My simple response is; what you have said should be offensive to all those who have come here to build this country legally.

The long responce:

Apparently you have not been in the mix, and or, you are so steeped in the politically correctness; you are unable to see the truth of the matter. I've been there. I've grown up in the good, the bad, the ugly. Most all that has happened since Ronald Reagan; the bad, and the ugly.

As for Italians, Irish, etc., the difference is that they, were separated by the Atlantic Ocean. They were not able to flood, into, invade, and in fact colonize the United Sates of America the way illegal aliens have.


Please wake up to all the realities. Hospitals, schools,gang's, prisons over running our society. These things are common knowledge, those who reject them are "burying their heads in the sand".

Another difference is, when these other groups came here, there was little or no work for them, they resorted to crime, etc., to survive. Illegal aliens come here, to plenty of work, and experience great enrichment at our expense. So don't try and lay that weak BALONEY on me.

I have my opinion based on empirical knowledge. I stand on it. If you don't like it that's OK, keep it to yourself. On the internet I've picked up on a few different things. Don't step on people, state your own side, AND leave it at that.

You have your opinion apparently guided by political correctness, or I would say political incorrectness.

State your opinion. That's ok. But don't try and attack me or enlighten me with your political correctness. It's not smart, it's rude, and uncalled for. I may be rude back. It will turn into internet bickering,that will probably go no where.
People are beginning to stand up to political correctness, face it, keep your head out of the sand and in the light.

Have a nice day.

[Pippi333]

haymann, thanks very much for your concern. it really was an awful thing. to answer your question, the first boy who beat my son's head into a tile bathroom wall repeatedly was in fact, hispanic. i don't know, if he was here illegally, or if his parents were, either. i will note, that when i went to the school to pick up my son before i knew what had happened to him, the same little boy had him on the floor trying to take his lunchbox, while a hispanic lady who worked at the school just stood there watching them and laughing. when i barked at the little brat to leave my son alone, she looked at my son and said, "like earlier, remember?" i of course, didn't recognize the significance of that statement until later when i learned what had happened. i told the principal about it but obviously, she defended the employee.

the second assault was carried out by several students, and a little more than half of them were hispanic. although, again, i don't know if they are here illegally.

i am a southern california native, and understand the issues caused by the huge influx of hispanic illegals. it's tough sometimes not to feel frustrated and wish a lot of them would go home or stop coming, when their behaviors are violent or even criminal. however, in the end, i don't think any of us will move forward until we learn to live together. although that will mean that they (immigrants) will have to put in their share of the effort too.

and i'll agree with you that bad things happen in all schools, but to varying degrees. i mean, we had NEVER encountered anything like this before, and my older daughter had been attending public school for 7 years (in southern california - and one of those was a huge school attended by nearly all minority children, many illegal hispanics - this, surprisingly enough, was the best school we've EVER had any of our children in) by the time this happened to my son. and our experience has been that good schools, when bad things happen in them, are staffed by people who will address the problem sufficiently. at cerbat elementary, and even at the level of the assistant superintendent, we encountered nothing but stupidity and a complete lack of willingness to address the problem appropriately. bad things are going to happen, but most of us with children would agree that we need schools staffed (and supervised) by people willing to do their jobs properly when problems arise.

hopefully at some point in the near future, there will be a new superintendent and supporting staff which will lead to positive changes for the entire district. until then, it's sad to think about how many children are really being failed by the system when it it so unecessary.

[tkfan]

Originally Posted by rambrush

Welcome aboard! glad to see more moving to Kingman

The loop I mentioned is over on the New Mexico Border and is best done on a long weekend. The other loop that is great with Aspens is over to Williams head North Like heading to the grand canyon the turn right (east) on hwy 180 into Flagstaff then back on I-40 through Ashfork catch Crookton Rd old route 66 into Seligman,Peach Springs, Truxton on through Hackberry and into Kingman.

I missed the Aspens and it looks like we will only be here for about another month. Rambrush, or anyone else that can help, I want to make a trip thru southern Utah and back across AZ. Kinda circle the Grand Canyon if that makes sense. I have heard that it is too late to visit the northern rim and I plan to make the southern rim and Sedona on another week. We will have 6-8 days to spend. Can you tell me the "don't miss" spots? Thanks for any help, Jerry