Harrison, Allatoona, Kennesaw or Hillgrove HS

[ashleyh87]

Originally Posted by kg23

I think I posted this earlier today in the wrong forum.

Moving to the Marietta area this summer and we have 3 boys (1 yr old, 9 yr old & 17 yr old) so schools are an extremely important factor in our decision on where to live. We've decided to pass on the East Cobb area(too expensive), but still want to find good schools in the area. We think we'll like the Kennesaw / Acworth area and I've heard good things about Harrison and Kennesaw Mountain HS, but would really like to hear from someone familar with the new Allatoona & Hillgrove High Schools. They both sound like good options, but I'd like to hear someones firsthand impression now that those schools have been open for almost 1 school year.

Is there one school predominantly better between Allatoona, Kennesaw, Hillgrove and Harrison or a reason to select one over the other?

What about feeder schools for these high schools...are there any specific ones we should target or possibly avoid?

Also, any recommendations on subdivisions in the area...looks like there are several homes for sale in Camden Pointe...Is there a reason behind that or just the effects of todays economy?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as we will be househunting soon. There are so many options, we just want to narrow our choices.

I attended Harrison from 2001 - 2005, and I really enjoyed it. It has great academics, a great music program, as well as a great athletics program. Our test scores are comparable to East Cobb schools that are known for their academics. However, as people have said earlier, it is an expensive district, and not very diverse. Also, it is CROWDED! Way too many kids squeezed into one building, but that could have changed due to the new schools being built since I've left. There are five different lunch periods, and none of them last much longer than 20 minutes, and most of that time is spent waiting in line to get your food, which is expensive! As for scheduling, we have four classes per semester, with each class lasting, if I remember correctly, about an hour and a half with the period with lunch lasting slightly longer.

Kennesaw Mountain is located a few miles down the road from Harrison - technically, they happen to be located on the same road, but there's a name change almost exactly between the two schools. They have a great magnet program, and their music and athletics are good also. It is a slightly more diverse school than Harrison, and slightly cheaper also - you are a lot more likely to find a good house for 250K in the KMHS district than the Harrison district. Drawbacks - also crowded, and (according to my dad, a Cobb County police officer) may have a gang or two due to the inclusion of a few low-income areas in the district. Nothing to be worried about though.

Also, like everyone else has said, Hillgrove is the most diverse of this group and probably a lot less crowded. However, I just want to throw in that none of these high schools are really diverse... Academics are not as on-par as HHS and KMHS, but still a good school.

Not familiar with Allatoona. Located in a good area, so I'm sure it is a good school.

As for feeder schools? There aren't really any horrible schools that feed into those high schools, but I can probably tell you to avoid Pine Mountain Middle School, which feeds into KMHS. I went there for 6th and 7th grade and I really enjoyed it, but it has gone downhill since KMHS was built and the school was redistricted. Lots of fights and rude students. Durham and Lost Mountain are two great middle schools. Due West is a great smaller school with some excellent teachers. The only subpar (and I really don't like using the word supbar!) elementary feeder school in this group is Hayes, which feeds into KMHS. Test scores are not as high as other elementary schools into the area. Still, you can't really go wrong with any school in this area.

You should go to greatschools.net to research schools. It gives you statistics on diversity, teacher-student ratio, test score, teacher education, number of students, etc. There are also parent reviews for lots of the schools.

Here's a link for the feeder patterns: Cobb County School District - Feeder Patterns

Good luck!

[allcoed]

One thing to consider with Allatoona being a new school is that they have not had a senior class yet. All new schools in the area for the most part start out with mainly freshman and sophmores and a few juniors. Might make the transition of a new school a little easier for your 17 yr old. I believe next year will be the first graduating class. The Acworth area also probably has one of the best parks and rec programs for your younger kids definetly better than Kennesaw by a wide margin.

[Move to Atlanta]

Not any mention of the Science and Technology magnet school at Kennesaw Mt. High School. Their music program, as well as several others in Cobb are nationally known.

For $250k, you'll get more house for the $$ in Hillgrove. I'm a real estate agent, so I know the market very well. Kennesaw Mt second, and Harrison 3rd. It seems that housing values go along with the school rankings.