Help Us Find a School District, Please! (Columbus, Upper Arlington: how much, houses)

[kwhitney43]

Hi!

My family (Hubs who telecommutes, son entering 8th and daughter entering 3rd) and I will be moving to Columbus this summer. We are in the process of evaluating school districts and are really interested in Dublin and Olentangy. We are specifically looking for schools that offer excellent academic competition teams (Science Olympiad, Academic/Quiz Bowl, Odyssey of the Mind, etc), diverse student body, robust offering of STEM classes and activities, high level of parent involvement is welcomed and encouraged, dedicated gifted/talented program at the elementary and middle school level and foreign language instruction at the elementary school level. My kids are in a private school now and do not want to go that route this go around - my daughter is really looking forward to being able to wear "regular" clothes to school!

Since we both work from home, commute time is not an issue. Our budget is up to 800,000 and I'd love to have some acreage, but finding schools that are a good fit for both of the kiddos is the main priority. Are there any areas we should be looking at in addition to Dublin and Olentangy?

Thanks so much in advance! I'm really looking forward to taking advantage of all the wonderful things Columbus has to offer!!

[SWOH]

I'd be looking at Upper Arlington, Bexley, and New Albany with that kind of budget along with Dublin and maybe Worthington.

All of those places have excellent schools and a number of houses in your price range.

Good luck!

[dxdtdemon]

Olentangy Liberty and Dublin Scioto have had one of the highest rated quizbowl teams in the state the past few years, and have occasionally appeared in the Morlan 200 rankings (which, if you don't know, is a ranking of the 200 best high school quizbowl teams in the US, Canada, and other countries that have teams that do well on American questions). Both of these school districts have multiple high schools, so make sure that you're in the right part of the district. The Olentangy Liberty coach also coached a middle school quizbowl team at Hyatts Middle School in the same district, and they made the middle school national tournament this past year.

[Cbus76]

Upper Arlington, Dublin, New Albany, Olentangy and Bexley are districts you should check out. Grandview Heights is good too, but is quite small, so it may not offer everything you are looking for. Upper Arlington and Bexley are old-money areas, while New Albany, Dublin and Olentangy are new-money.

[osubrett2]

Everyone above has already listed the best school districts. But if you're looking for acreage, your best bet is to check out the Olentangy district. Southern Delaware County has exploded in the last 20 years with developments/subdivisions, but there are still plenty of areas with nice/large homes and lots of land. Dublin has the same nice/large homes, but you're limited as far as lot sizes go.

[Clever nickname here]

As far as I can tell Odyssey of the Mind isn't in Ohio. Our youngest's OotM team out of Texas made it to World's two years in a row.

[Bodycount]

Both work from home and budget up to $800k?

Reminds me of this picture:

House Hunters pisses me off.* - Album on Imgur

[bgfalcons86]

If you're staying public, I would strongly suggest looking at these specific schools (high schools): Dublin Jerome, Upper Arlington, Bexley, New Albany, Dublin Coffman and Olentangy Liberty. Worthington schools are very good, but they are not elite.

If you're specifically considering things like number of National Merit Scholars produced in your search, Dublin surpasses Olentangy... and Dublin Jerome is always towards the very top.

Of note... Each of the districts that have multiple schools like Dublin and Olentangy posts a 'feeder system' of attendance zones on their web sites. Olentangy is going through another round of redistricting as they open a fourth high school next fall.

[kwhitney43]

Thanks so much for the help - especially the reminder about Moran's! I've scoured the internet trying to find rankings for any of the schools and only managed to come up with a couple of local tournaments.

I'm planning a trip next month so we can tour schools and you've definitely helped narrow the list!

How often does Dublin go through redistricting?


Thanks again!

[tripmom]

Definitely put New Albany on your list. We lived for there ten years and really liked it. I prefer one high school towns so my other suggestions to you are Upper Arlington and Bexley.
Not sure how much acreage you will get in any of these towns but all have a great sense of community and very good public schools.