Moving Back to Dayton Area, Need Some Advice

[merewenc]

For us, the issues with Centerville actually revolve around the schools. The impression I get from online reviews and talking with local friends is that the school system, while one of the top in the area, is overcrowded and tends to focus on the highly gifted academic achievers and athletes, leaving the other students in the background. Their school system website and the sites for each school barely mention their special education policy at all, let alone give any sort of structured program description. Looking at their gifted and athletic programs, though, you'll see multiple pages and many details. All of that gave us grave doubts that our daughter with ADHD would get the kind of support we want for her. Out of the local "good" to "great" school systems, we narrowed it down to Kettering, Tipp City, Beavercreek, and Bellbrook as seeming most supportive of students who aren't academically or athletically perfect and need more support. In the end, I think Tipp will be a great choice because of the size and how supportive they've already been when answering questions.

[merewenc]

Originally Posted by wrightflyer

FWIW, Troy has the best "downtown" of any of the older suburbs. The popular Strawberry festival helps this. I think I would throw Miamisburg third for its quirkiness and different small businesses and Centerville third for its charm, though it is a little small and right on top of busy roads (OH-48 and OH-725).

Further out small towns with cute charm that also might be worth exploring include Yellow Springs (hippie vibe and active granola crunchers) and Waynesville (antiquing and Sauerkraut festival).

Yeah, I remember the Strawberry Festival from when we were here before. We actually considered Troy because downtown is awesome, but the schools don't seem to be quite as good as Tipp. Living in Tipp, we'll be minutes away from downtown Troy while in a better school system. I consider it a win.

We'll definitely want to check out that Sauerkraut Festival! I didn't hear about it last time. For some reason, I love sauerkraut even though I hate every other type of cooked cabbage!