School help please!!!!!!!! (Dallas, Austin, Waco: home, transfer, construction)

[ccoutofsc]

Hell all,
My husbands job will be transferring him no later than December. It was supposed to happen earlier so I have been doing some research. The plant is in Temple and we are looking at Waco in the Midway school district and Georgetown in the Georgetown High school area. Since we haven't visited yet the only way I can know about schools is by their scores. There is a big difference in the schools scores and I want to hear from some people who live there. If anyone has children that attend schools that feed into Georgetown High School will you please give me your opinions on the schools. I have children in 9th, 7th, and 3rd grades right now so I need info on each level of school. If anyone has recommendations on elementary and middle schools I'll take that also. When we do visit we want to have areas narrowed down so any help even if it's another area will be greatly appreciated.

[centralaustinite]

No direct experience with either set of schools but you aren't stuck with just test scores to evaluate. Look at the district website and drill down to find the sites for each school, often the PTA will have a website, they *can* contain good information. Then call each high school explain your situation and ask if there is someone who can answer your questions -- either staff or ideally a parent. You can also follow them on social media, most districts and high schools are on Twitter.

You might want to post this on Texas forum as well as not many here will know much about Waco-Midway other than how their football teams are doing.

http://www.midwayisd.org/
http://www.georgetownisd.org/

[ccoutofsc]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

No direct experience with either set of schools but you aren't stuck with just test scores to evaluate. Look at the district website and drill down to find the sites for each school, often the PTA will have a website, they *can* contain good information. Then call each high school explain your situation and ask if there is someone who can answer your questions -- either staff or ideally a parent. You can also follow them on social media, most districts and high schools are on Twitter.

You might want to post this on Texas forum as well as not many here will know much about Waco-Midway other than how their football teams are doing.

Midway ISD / Home Page
Georgetown Independent School District / GISD Home

Thanks. I have been looking at the websites for each high school. I am hoping that someone will have some experience with the schools in each cluster who can give me some insight. I'll check out social media which I hadn't thought of.

[Trainwreck20]

If I had my druthers, my kids would go to school in a town with one high school, either 4A or 5A. That seems to be a good balance between big enough to have a lot of options, but not a separation between 'haves' and 'have nots'. G'town just recently got a second high school (in the last 10 years?), but Midway has been one of the 'haves' school in the Waco area for decades.

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

If I had my druthers, my kids would go to school in a town with one high school, either 4A or 5A. That seems to be a good balance between big enough to have a lot of options, but not a separation between 'haves' and 'have nots'. G'town just recently got a second high school (in the last 10 years?), but Midway has been one of the 'haves' school in the Waco area for decades.

That's an interesting line of thought! Back in North Carolina, my Mom's folks were in towns that had "consolidated' schools at the high school level...certainly combining the various strata from farm folks to city dwellers.

[ccoutofsc]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

If I had my druthers, my kids would go to school in a town with one high school, either 4A or 5A. That seems to be a good balance between big enough to have a lot of options, but not a separation between 'haves' and 'have nots'. G'town just recently got a second high school (in the last 10 years?), but Midway has been one of the 'haves' school in the Waco area for decades.

This is a very good point you make but I'm also looking at activities available for my children also. For instance my two oldest play travel baseball and are very competitive here in Ga. As I research I seem to only find a few programs in the Waco area whereas in Georgetown and closer to Austin there are many more options. Dallas area would be great but the 1.5 drive that would be necessary for practices just wouldn't work for our family. Do you think that Georgetown isn't a good place to live when it comes to what it has to offer in both schools and community? We have 5 kids and this is going to be our last move so we want to make sure we have our choices narrowed down when we make our visit.

[Trainwreck20]

I grew up in G'town and love it there; however, to be fair, that was many decades ago. I still do think it is a great place, though. I still no a few of the teachers and have former classmates who's kids are there. Two former classmates got married and now have a kid playing VB at aTm . I find that it is a well-balance city and school system, but will never be a 'top tier' like some of the less demographically varied areas.

[ccoutofsc]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

I grew up in G'town and love it there; however, to be fair, that was many decades ago. I still do think it is a great place, though. I still no a few of the teachers and have former classmates who's kids are there. Two former classmates got married and now have a kid playing VB at aTm . I find that it is a well-balance city and school system, but will never be a 'top tier' like some of the less demographically varied areas.

Thanks for your input. Do you think your classmates would be willing to give me some insight. I rather have a good school with diversity rather than a 'top tier' with no diversity. We are an african american family and want diversity and a well rounded school. Our high schooler is in all gifted classes here in Ga and our 3rd grader is in advanced we want to make sure they remain being challenged. On the other hand our 7th grader needs to be stayed on top of. With 5 kids we will have kids in school for some time so we want to make sure we make a good choice.

[Rynldsbr]

We are near Georgetown and several of our children have been attending Gateway College Prep in Georgetown. Personal thoughts are that there will be more options for the kids in general if you locate near Georgetown. Round Rock has an amazing baseball facility for their youth league and Hutto is expanding theirs at multiple locations. Traveling leagues and community youth leagues are plentiful for multiple sports in many of the local communities.

The commute to Temple from Georgetown isn't terrible, particularly if you can get on the northern edge of the city for easier access to I35. Hopefully the majority of the construction on I35 will be done in the next year or so and that will make it much more manageable. If I recall from an earlier post, the commute being up to an hour was considered acceptable (?) so that leves quite a bit of G'town area in play.

[TeamAontheway]

Hi there, sent you a private message. thanks