Question: Home is Hilliard but Columbus Schools (Westerville, Upper Arlington: buying a home, transfer)

[knux11]

I will be relocating to OH soon with my employer. Can anyone tell me if the home that I have fallen in love with is worth having or am I over reacting?

My fist priority is my children's education. I was told the development I was looking at was located in Hilliard but my children would attend Columbus schools. The look on the realtor's face said it all but no words were spoken. Is this a bad decision for us to make? How bad at Columbus schools compared to Hilliard? I can pull data on this subject all day, but I want to hear from others who may know more personal information.

[streetcreed]

Okay, first off Columbus Public schools cover a huge geographic area. The suburban school districts have the pleasure of covering smaller areas with mostly all medium-high income students, though most suburban school districts have some low poverty.

However, in columbus the school district covers every type of neighborhood and person you can imagine. You simply canno say "are the columbus schools good or bad?"

The Answer: some are rated good some are rated bad. I grew up in columbus and I have just graduated from college. Many of my friends did attend some of the better Columbus schools and they got a great education.

Some of my friends from suburban schools actually choose to go to some of Columbus' special schools for special programs, like Columbus state of the art, arts high school.

So yes, you can get a good education in columbus, however, you must do research on which schools are better and usually might have to do some requests to send your kids to those schools unless. In general the Columbus schools on the near west side are not known to be so great.

The better schools are Columbus Alternative high School (N/central columbus, close to Clintonville, near Linden)

Clinton Elementary (Clintonville)
Winterset Elementary (NW Columbus)

Whetstone High School and Centennial High Schools are known for being better

For specific programs those exist at these schools:
Fort Hays Arts high school (very good arts oriented high school)
Arts Impact Middle School (state of the art)
THe Spanish and French immersion schools
The Afrocentric high school
and the cities career centers

Of course there are many other elementary and middle schools which perform better, but the ones i listed above mostly reside in the columbus communities which use the public school and are known for being better off and nicer (Clintonville/Beechwold/NW columbus) thus their schools are better. So many transfer their students into those schools are elementary.

[streetcreed]

To help your further, and to sum up my above post, you can get a good education in the columbus district, and there are many great possibilities in Columbus if your child wants to study a specific area.
However, it takes more research, and because the west side columbus school district is known for being poorer and not as up to par you need to find out exactly what columbus school they are speaking of that your neighborhood attends.

Is it the same school as the blue collar hilltop? Or is the school district building a new school or sending the kids to a different school just for this newer area of columbus schools?

Also, as you can guess, a lot of well off families send their kids to private schools in columbus or do private schooling for a period of the schooling before using a specific high school within columbus later.

Also, another example of a great assest to columbus students is the new METRO HIGH school, the school has a very fact accelerated program that is offered to any student within Franklin County (includes all columbus schools.)

Here is an article from the Columbus Dispatch about the new metro high school:

Science school showing promise
Metro freshmen liked tough classes
Thursday, June 28, 2007 3:43 AM
By Charlie Boss
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Moderator cut: copyright

[yet_another_cmh_guy]

Reading your question, I can't help but wonder: what part of Hilliard isn't covered by the Hilliard school district? That would be a good question to ask your realtor. From the CPS rather involved website (lots of PDF files), looks like you would be in the area covered by West High School. As mentioned, there are alternatives within the district, here's the main website:

Columbus Public Schools

[LancasterNative]

Howdy knux11, and welcome to Ohio!

If your top priority is your children's education, then you do NOT want them in Columbus city schools! Statistics can be massaged and exceptions can be found, but by and large, Columbus' schools are typical of any big urban system: horrible!

Any central Ohio suburban school district (with the possible exception of Southwest, which has constantly struggled) would be FAR superior to the one in Columbus.

Hilliard is pretty good for schools, although rapid growth has caused crowding to be a concern at least in the short term. Worthington has long been known for its excellent schools. Dublin, Grandview, Olentangy local, and Upper Arlington are also very good for school quality.

Best of luck to you in your upcoming relo. Sounds like you've got a sharp realtor!

[bgfalcons86]

We live in Hilliard proper and have been very happy with the schools. A few years ago, we ran into a family that lived in City of Columbus, but with a Hilliard ZIP Code. They were in the Columbus CSD. I don't know if they had assumed that since the ZIP Code was Hilliard that they would be in Hilliard schools. Suffice it to say, they were unhappy in Columbus CSD.

Also, the latest preliminary test scores are out and Hilliard met 21 of 23 indicators, with Columbus meeting 2 out of 23 indicators. They're certainly is a danger in over-emphasizing test scores, but this is just more food for thought.

As for crowding... Another elementary school and a third high school are being built. The overcrowding was mostly at the high school level and that will be alleviated with the opening of Hilliard Bradley HS.

[streetcreed]

Here is a map that shows where Columbus city schools boundaries are
Notice the areas of yellow way outside of the traditional school boundaries, you can see on the west side the area of Hilliard city limits and Columbus city schools that is new and growing that this poster is talking about:


Many do not realize that there are sections of Columbus city school district OUTSIDE of the suburbs like Hilliard, Dublin, Westerville, and near New Albany.

This happened because the school district agreed to send areas of Columbus annexed from townships before 85 to the suburban school district. Thus, anything annexed after 85 goes to Columbus.
Therefore there are pockets outside of the suburbs that are Columbus city and now Columbus schools, as of now the kids are being bused into schools a mile or so away but Columbus is starting construction on new schools in these neighborhoods, a new school is being built for the area of Columbus city schools New Albany that is growing, it will be called Pilgrim Elementary.

Once again I have known many happy in Columbus city schools, but mostly in the schools on the NW side and north side or far east side, or the career centers, or art school just north of downtown. The French immersion school near riverside hospital on the NW side is supposed to be a good elementary. When looking at the schools it is better to go by school by school rankings than district overall rankings, as Columbus is large urban district. And columbus has open enrollement so you can send your kid to another school in the district, and busing is provided, there is talk of not providing busing for high school students soon though to save money on transportation costs.

[DonnaTate]

You can always register your children at a school other than the one they're assigned. I think with Columbus, in order for schools to keep their funding they have to meet certain criteria. It's likely that your children would be assigned to random schools all over the place, just to keep a good mix of students. I'd definitely go through open enrollment

[musterion]

If I can discern the location you were looking at, which sounds like just off of Hayden Road, I'd avoid it. The closest Columbus High School is Centennial--not close, and the closest elementary school is not close either. Both of my kids went through Hilliard City Schools, and I think they are pretty good. It is a big school district with growing pains, but generally I think they do a good job. More on the conservative side than Columbus. Hilliard is more affordable than Dublin

[DonnaTate]

Another thing to think about. Parts of Hilliard can be pretty redneck. I'm not saying it's a bad thing - I live with one, BUT it's something you should know BEFORE buying a home maybe??