Moving to Dallas Area - which schools to consider (Plano: insurance, how much)

[buy_sell1]

Folks, I am moving to Dallas area soon and want to find out about which suburbs have awesome schools

My criteria is
good teachers/academia - decent student/teacher ratio....good diverse mix of students...
size of school population - I want medium sized districts (I consider Plano large school district. Am I way off base with that?)
Sports - Don't care how the district does in terms of sports....

Does anyone know which school districts in Northern DFW area fit this bill? Is there a way to find out this information from external sources so I can make hard numbers comparison?

thank you for helping me in advance.

buy/sell

[BigDinD]

Part of your choice is going to come down to how much you can spend on your new home. Typically, if you want a good school you are going to pay more to live there.
Richardson usually ranks pretty high, and the district is financially sound. The dallas area is pretty big so we'd need a better idea of your price point and what other things you are basing this move off of. I will caution you that a "diverse" group of kids typically means kids are bused in from other parts of town to meet quotas and those kids generally drag the rest of the kids down.
It's part of why we are moving because once great schools are going downhill because of it.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by BigDinD

Part of your choice is going to come down to how much you can spend on your new home. Typically, if you want a good school you are going to pay more to live there.
Richardson usually ranks pretty high, and the district is financially sound. The dallas area is pretty big so we'd need a better idea of your price point and what other things you are basing this move off of. I will caution you that a "diverse" group of kids typically means kids are bused in from other parts of town to meet quotas and those kids generally drag the rest of the kids down.
It's part of why we are moving because once great schools are going downhill because of it.

Richardson doesn't bus.

[buy_sell1]

Originally Posted by BigDinD

Part of your choice is going to come down to how much you can spend on your new home. Typically, if you want a good school you are going to pay more to live there.
Richardson usually ranks pretty high, and the district is financially sound. The dallas area is pretty big so we'd need a better idea of your price point and what other things you are basing this move off of. I will caution you that a "diverse" group of kids typically means kids are bused in from other parts of town to meet quotas and those kids generally drag the rest of the kids down.
It's part of why we are moving because once great schools are going downhill because of it.

Thanks for prompt reply....
Keeping property tax, mortgage, insurance, HOA, etc in mind, I can afford around 200K home. Maybe you can suggest really good districts based on that price point. However, I was more interested in your comments about diversity. My question is: Who sets this quota? Wouldn't every district have this quota? Do you see this practice of "busing people from other parts of town" in your city/school district? If yes, have you voiced these concerns to the district? How can school district get people out of the district when their property taxes go to other district?

buy/sell

[stephwin]

Where is your job?

[Considering Coming Back]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Richardson doesn't bus.

Right? Who does? That guy claims to lives in Forney, pretty sure they don't have a desegregation program...

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

You can buy a 5 y/o house in the Frisco ISD part of Little Elm for your budget, 3-4 bedrooms maybe 2300 sq ft, I think. Maybe bigger, I haven't looked. The Robertson Elem School is in the subdivision (Sunset Pointe) and my grandkid's 3rd grade class is about 1/3 Af Amer/Asian Amer/Latino Amer. My son's neighbors on both sides are African Americans. Of course, this area won't work if your job is downtown! My son commutes to the Legacy area of Plano when he has to go in, not often.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by buy_sell1

Thanks for prompt reply....
Keeping property tax, mortgage, insurance, HOA, etc in mind, I can afford around 200K home. Maybe you can suggest really good districts based on that price point. However, I was more interested in your comments about diversity. My question is: Who sets this quota? Wouldn't every district have this quota? Do you see this practice of "busing people from other parts of town" in your city/school district? If yes, have you voiced these concerns to the district? How can school district get people out of the district when their property taxes go to other district?

buy/sell

I don't know of any schools apart from the DISD's magnet schools that use a quota system for anything.

I don't know of any school district in north Texas that forcibly buses students. Any student being trekked across town on a bus is doing so by choice.

Originally Posted by Considering Coming Back

Right? Who does? That guy claims to lives in Forney, pretty sure they don't have a desegregation program...

I didn't think any districts in NoTX did anymore.

[buy_sell1]

My job is going to be in Downtown ....

[Considering Coming Back]

The district is irrelevant, you should concern yourself with the school feeder pattern. You haven't listed any housing requirements, but know that $200K is not going to be enough to get into a good feeder pattern and an updated single family detached house.

Except for a very few places out of your price range every district in DFW is diverse. So don't focus on that.

Your best bet is probably one of the Richardson schools, but you might also want to consider the southern sector. There was a thread a few days ago about the best schools south of I-30. Be sure to read that.