Where to live if job is in West Chicago?

[4122]

Some districts have option areas where if you libe in a section between two school districts, you have a choice of what school to send your child to. Some school districts allow transfers, not many though. Glenbard High School District, the district east of Wheaton, allows transfers to any high school in the district from another high school in the district.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by 4122

Glenbard High School District, the district east of Wheaton, allows transfers to any high school in the district from another high school in the district.

I believe that is just for Special Ed students.

[suzie02]

Any thoughts on district U46?

[aga412]

Stay far far far *far* away from U46. It's godawful.

[knitgirl]

I live in Elgin and it doesn't have a great reputation. However, especially in Elgin itself, it has a very high hispanic population, some of whom are immigrants themselves and a lot of them have immigrant parents, so they don't score well on standardized testing. Seeing as you're coming from Sacramento, that probably doesn't scare you like it does some suburban people here. I've known middle class white kids who have gone on to good colleges. I think people sometimes underestimate how important having involved parents is. There is a great private school (if I remember, you're the private school mom) in Elgin called Elgin Academy. There are some gorgeous vintage homes on Elgin's northeast side. Elgin got hit really hard by the recession and there are a lot of foreclosures, so it will take some time and effort for it to recover. The Downtown Neighborhood Association, Chamber of Commerce and the city do a good job of attracting new businesses. The city is run pretty well and there are some very nice amenities, starting with the Gail Borden library which is beautiful, well-used and runs great programs. The Elgin Symphony is acknowledged to be the second best symphony in IL. There's a nice riverwalk downtown. There's artists housing downtown which is intended to liven up the downtown area. They are converting an old office building to apartments which will bring more residents down there to support the businesses. There's direct train service downtown, as well as being on I90.

If the job is in West Chicago, Elgin itself wouldn't be that great of a commute. Bartlett or Streamwood would be better. I think those towns may be ever so slightly higher income. I don't think they're nearly as interesting as Elgin.

[suzie02]

Now you got me worried. Are there racial issues with Hispanics? We are Hispanic not of Mexican descent though.

[knitgirl]

Totally don't mean to worry you. Some people who grew up in the suburbs in the 60s and 70s didn't grow up around Hispanics and so they are afraid of brown people. My high school which had about 2,000 students, had just a couple of African American, Hispanic and Asian kids then. Things have changed there since then. Honestly, it's not everybody, and it may be more of a class issue rather than a race issue. I have found a lot of middle class people are afraid of poor people and because Hispanic immigration to the Midwest is more recent than it is in CA or TX, more Hispanics tend to be lower income. The other issue with Elgin, is that it was a thriving industrial city from the mid 1800's until about the 1960's or '70's. I didn't move here til 1997, so I'm not sure exactly. It's suffered some since then. I think Elgin is a bit more "urban" and the surrounding area is more typically "suburban". I don't mean anything racial by that, just that some of the surrounding towns were built out later and don't even have downtowns. You should come check Elgin out. I'm not sure of the quality of the Catholic schools, but I believe there are 2 in town. PM me if you have questions you'd rather not address here.

Interestingly, West Chicago is more heavily Hispanic than other parts of DuPage county and gets some of the same type of negative comments as Elgin does. One thing you should be aware of with West Chicago is that at one time they had a factory that produced a lot of radioactive waste, so you need to be careful. Radiation worries linger in West Chicago - Chicago Tribune

[aga412]

Maybe the far east side of Aurora (dist. 204) might be suitable? Might be a little big in school size for your tastes though... Aurora is very diverse.