English family relocating to Austin (Round Rock, Leander: apartments, how much, house)

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We are relocating to Austin for a 2 year assignment with my husband's job. His office will be on Parmer Lane East. We are deciding on the best neighbourhood for family life, especially good schools/kindergarten (probably private). We have two kids aged 3 & 6. We would welcome advice from other families living in Austin!

[Spookmeister]

I'll take the liberty of assuming that Parmer East has to be either Samsung's new plant or Applied Materials.

Either way, if it's your first time, find a place on Parmer Lane, West of Mopac (State Highway 1) and East/South of FM 620. Lots of neighbourhoods and apartments in the area. Sticking to that general area will mean < 30 minutes commute time to work, options galore on private schools , and if you're a shopaholic, well let's just say you won't be missing Bond Street...

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Thanks for your feedback.

My husband works for Dell.

Have you got any particular recommendations for family-friendly-neighbourhoods within communting distance of Parmer Lane East?
(Up to 1 hr commute)

[gigi927]

Categ,

See my post on the other thread started by Onthemoveagain, on which I posted regarding her son's speech delay and I saw that you posted there with a similar query.

I would strongly recommend you look at some neighborhoods in the Leander School district if you have a child with speech delays. I know you said you were considering private schools; but we have had an excellent experience with the district thus far with our own son, who is almost 4 and has a speech delay and sensory integration issues. Definitely check out the private schools in detail on the speech front before ruling out the excellent public schools here - especially since a very large portion of your income will be going to pay for the public schools anyway

We have tons of people in our neighborhood who commute to Dell. I would check out Avery Ranch, Steiner Ranch and River Place. Avery Ranch is in Round rock school district; Steiner and River Place are in Leander ISD. All can be found by googling the community names. Good luck and PM me if you need any other info about the schools or River Place specifically (it's where we live).

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Thanks gigi927 for this info. Will PM you as offered.

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[Rnelson]

I was born with a speech delay and battled it during my childhood. My parents told me that at first only they could communicate with me and that they were very worried that it was going to impair my life.

Eanes was one of the best school districts for special education in the state at the time. From k-5 I had an after school specialist from the school district come and work with me. In middle school my speech was improving and by high school I had no problems at all.

I really think the personal attention that I received from my school help me so much that I was able to make fast progress and today I thank god for it.

[Spookmeister]

That area has numerous apartments that house newly arrived Dell employees, and some that like the convenience of a <5 minute commute to work, especially if they're on call in case of emergencies. The area itself is nice and I would recommend for those that are young and single, want to be close to everything in Austin while getting to know the area. The areas I mentioned in my earlier post are nicer though.
I know little about the Austin school district, but from what I've gathered from friends that are educators, it's lacking. Private schools are an option but there are other school districts and if you're willing to commute an hour either way, then Round Rock or Leander definitely are your best options. Let me know if you'd like to contact one of the educators and get their personal recommendations, which I would personally take if necessary.

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Yes please do contact your friends in education, on my behalf. Is seems that the US education & special needs system is quite different to the UK!! I'm also interested in understanding what private schools can offer and how this differs from public schools.

We're still narrowing down neighbourhoods -but Round Rock & Leander are on our short-list.

Just a reminder re my kids needs. They are 6.5 (doing v.well academically) & 3.5 (speech delay) and currently attending a very small private school here in England (total school size PK-yr5 of 128) with an "alternative" approach to education.

Thanks!

[Dazed]

I think that the public schools in the central Texas area are really good and there really isn't a need to send your children to private schools. Most of the schools here are neighborhood schools and the neighborhood families send their children to them. You can look up the school's ratings in the area that you are looking at on the Texas Education Agency's website.

The public schools will give you free speech services and they do a really great job with that!

(I'm not a big fan of private schools, you can probably tell!)

[Spookmeister]

St.Paul Lutheran School comes highly recommended amongst the private schools. Two of the educators' kids I spoke to attend the school and plan to teach there, so you can't go wrong there.
The better private schools are church run/associated. You'll hear a lot of negatives regarding that association, but that's politics I'll stay out of.
The public schools and the districts in general are pretty well equipped, however there seems to be a lack of consensus on what constitutes education nowadays. More and more, the kids are being drilled with passing the standardized tests, rather than knowledge, as the goal. First hand experience with my own two older ones 9 & 5, has shown that there's a severe gap in general knowledge and common sense which I attribute to the spoon feeding 'education'. They're beginning to expect instruction and guidance for everything! And they're lucky to have had mummy as their teacher before starting school. I wonder how bad it could have been if she hadn't started teaching them before they started school. What we've ended up doing is let the school do the drills, we take care of the education.
As an example of the loony way this education is dispensed. You would think that there would be a standard grading system. 90% + gets you an A and work backwards for B, C, D, E and F. Well, apparently this grading system is just a suggestion. They do the test, and then the grades are decided based on how they do. So, you can have an A at 60%! Theoretically at least, or they they re-do the tests. Reason? To have as few F's as possible! Competition is scary apparently and would scar the kids for life. I've stopped looking at the grades and actually check the contents of the tests to determine if progress is being made or not. Smiley/frowny faces are not uncommon either, as grades.
We've made the point of discussing our expectations with the teachers at the beginning of the year and made it clear that the standardized tests aren't of any interest or use in our kids' education. They can teach that, but in addition we expect certain goals to be accomplished by the kids for us to consider the year a success. At first, it was somewhat odd to the teachers, but after four years, they know we are serious about it and word has probably spread through the school about what to expect when our kids move up to the next grade. We don't run into any obstacles or resistance from the teachers or administrators. In fact they expect a visit from us when either of the kids send home unacceptable school work or tests. After explaining numerous times that we won't take offense at either of them getting an 'F' for lack of knowledge or application to the tasks, we're taken a little more seriously. After all, the point of the test and grade is not only to point out how much they know, but also help us work on those areas they're deficient in, which are many.
I tend to agree private schools aren't a necessity for most kids. If there's a special need/circumstance then sure, you do what's necessary, but for the most part, being actively involved with the school provides better results overall for all the kids eventually.