Area w/ good schools, neighborhood 4 daughter, artsy area of Charleston? (North Charleston: to rent, homes)

[mosaicgirlie]

I love city-data and was hoping someone could direct me as I am looking at the Charleston area to relocate from Connecticut.
I am getting divorced and am looking for a more laid-back area and love Charleston, but do not know the city well enough.
* I have a 7-year old, so school is a priority, but by looking at greatschools.net, most of the schools are fabulous!
* It has to be a community or neighborhood that kids are around and can walk to each other.
* If it were an Artsy area, that would be great, as I am an artist and a yoga instructor.

I am going to be looking to rent a home preferably under $2000/mo.
I would love for the area to be cottage style or florida style homes, instead of new pre-fab homes.
If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
Thank you very much.

[moss015]

I am actually a teacher relocating to the area. I will hopefully be employed with Dorchester District 2 very soon and all I can tell you is that their schools are awesome. I had the opportunity to meet with each middle school principal one-on-one so I really learned a lot about DD2. All I can tell you is that teachers really work their butts off for the kids so you can't go wrong with DD2. Also, Berkeley County Schools is a great district as well. They have a wonderful staff all over the county that work extremely hard. Schools in Mount Pleasant and the James Island area are also very good from what I hear. Hopefully this helps!

[laughterqueen]

I have lived here for almost 6 years and when I moved here everyone told me that Dorchester 2 had the best schools. This is pretty much Summerville. It's a great family raising area and we love it. Stay away from North Charleston. I'm surprised that you say "fabulous" because the school systems in South Carolina are actually pretty bad. They scored 11 of out 25 in the nation for worst schools in America.
Fort Dorchester Elementary is awesome though and I would recommend it. I think Wando High School has been recommended also but that would be in the Mt. Pleasant area of Charleston.

[mosaicgirlie]

Thanks for the great information. I am going to plan an extensive trip soon, but was researching a little first. What about the West Ashley area? I think it would be a good fit? I just am looking for a nice neighborhood for my daughter. The kind of neighborhood where the kids are running around after school and on the weekend to each others house. Then, the rest will come....
Actually, most of the public elementary schools in the area score pretty high, by greatschools.net.
Thanks