moving from Toronto to Dallas Area (Plano, Richardson: how much, new house, established neighborhood)

[Elizabeth924]

My Husband has an opportunity in Duncanville that is very hard to resist. I was told to post this in the Dallas section as it is closer. We live in Toronto, have 4 children, 2 daughters in University and 2 sons in High School. The most difficult will be for my son who has been in his current highschool for 2 years already, to pull him out of it will be torture I think.
I have been looking extensively on where to live. So far this is what seems to appeal to me, but really I haven't a clue, Addison, University Park, Highland Park and Plano. (I was also told that I'm looking at over 1M for houses in Highland and University Park...yikes)
Maybe if I could find an area that I love, this transition will not be sooo difficult for our family. I really would love to have an established neighborhood, looove trees, an old house would be ideal. I saw some beautiful craftsman houses. A new house in an established neighborhood would be fine too. I would like to be able to walk to places and not have to be forced to drive the car everywhere. A pool would be wonderful. Price range would be approx. 450k to 550k. (possibly 600K)
Any information would be greatly appreciated. It's all very exciting and scary, we haven't even made a decision yet as to whether or not my husband will even accept this position.
(hey, just because we're Canadians doesn't necessarily mean we play hockey, so we don't have to be close to a rink, however my sons are solidly into sports...just not Hockey...surprised?) Actually my son loves football so I'm hoping I could convince him how much the Americans appreciate football (oops, stereotyping) ...there is no football team in his highschool.

....Thanks : )

[FarNorthDallas]

How did you come up with Addison? It doesn't exactly have a family residential type vibe to it although there are some residents who live there. A lot of Addision is in the Dallas Independent School District (there is no Addison school district) and is mostly bars and restaurants and liquor stores, office buildings, retail and a few residents (not literally a few, but not that many compared to other places).

Duncanville as you can see on a map is south of Dallas. These locations you are looking at north of Dallas, way north of Dallas, or going to create quite the commute. Have you thought about just living in Duncanville? Duncanville has a really big high school. Football is big anywhere at any high school in Texas just about.

Highland Park and University Park are very nice in a lot of ways but I don't think your housing allowance will get you in there. Don't stretch too much due to electric bills and property taxes.

Plano is nice, too. Also ginormous high schools. They have split them up. Five are grades 9-10 and they feed into 3 senior highs grades 11-12. BIG schools. It's a long way from Duncanville though.

[Big G]

Honestly, Duncanville is so far from all the choices you mentioned that I would rule all of them out.

Lakewooder, you're a big proponent of Dallas and the DISD. Maybe you can jump in and list some of the good neighborhoods and DISD schools on the south side.

[Elizabeth924]

What is DISD?
I'm looking for highschools that offer grade 9 and 11 for both of my sons...or is it totally different in the US? Junior High? is it from grade 7 to 9? I have so much to learn.

[PlanoGirl]

DISD= Dallas Independent School District

Some school districts have a junior high (grades 6-9 or 7-9) and then a high school (grades 10-12 or 9-12). Some districts have a junior high for 7 & 8th, than an in-between school that they call a "high school" that is usually 9th & 10th, and then the last two grades (11th & 12th) are at the SENIOR high school. I know, it is all very confusing. Each school district is different.

[FarNorthDallas]

Only a couple of districts have 9-10 in one school and 11-12 in another. Plano and Carroll are two districts (ISD's) that have that. Most have regular high school of 9-12, although in some cases the schools have gotten so crowded they create "Freshman Centers" or "9th grade centers" and pull the 9th graders out and have them in a different school. Years ago there were "junior highs" of 7-9, but there are very few of these type schools left. Richardson ISD was one of the last ones to take their 9th graders out of junior highs and put them in the high schools, or in one school's situation, had them in a 9th grade center. Richardson still calls those schools junior highs, but they only have 7-8 grades. Grade schools can be K-1, K-3, K-4, K-5, K-6, 5-6, really anything. Some district has all of their 6th graders in their own school, another has all the kindergarteners in one school.

School districts here are independent. They can do what they want. They aren't tied to any city or county, even though they may carry the name of a city. They all end with "Independent School District" or ISD's. I think we might be the only state with Independent School districts. Other states have "Unifed School Districts" or "County Schools."

Since we have ISD's we have lots of different school districts - over 100 in the Dallas Ft. Worth area. They can make local decisions, like whether to have uniforms or not, which days to have teacher in service days, how much to pay teachers, how the schools are configured, what time school will start in the morning, etc. Used to they could also pick their own start date and some started in very early August. The state changed that last year and now everyone starts on the last Monday in August.

You have to be really careful when picking a place to live, because the schools may be different than what you think they are. You can live in one city but be zoned to a school district (ISD) of another city's name. The schools are not run by the cities though.

[nsumner]

The areas where you may have seen the Craftsman homes is probably Lakewood or Oak Cliff. Lakewood is a highly desirable area with lots of trees, very close to White Rock Lake (White Rock Lake Photo Essay) has great pics.

Other posters are correct, Addison and Plano would be a long commute to Duncanville. If your kids are bilingual, may I suggest the International School of Dallas as an alternative too.

Here's the link to the Dallas School District http://www.dallasisd.org/

Naima

[Acntx]

You may also want to look in the Cedar Hill/DeSoto area. Both cities border Duncanville and have nice homes within your price range.

[Elizabeth924]

Yes they are bilingual, well they went to french immersion here and that was one of my concerns, I didn't want them to lose that. What is International school of Dallas? Do I have to be in a particular district to have access to that school? Is it a private school?

Thank you all for your responses.

[Elizabeth924]

I looked it up, yes I see it is a private school. For both of my kids, it will be about 30,000 a year. I have 2 daughters in University as well. I would love to but for that expense, I might as well stay in Canada and take the lesser income. Thanks for telling me about it though, nice to see all the options.