Relocating to the Wilmington, OH area. Advice on best school districts? (Cincinnati: fit in, transplants)

[FaithfulMarineWife]

Hello! We are a family with young children moving to the Wilmington, OH area in a few months. My husband recently accepted a job in Wilmington, OH so we are starting the search for a new home in the area. We are unfamiliar with Ohio and do not have any connections there, so any help is appreciated!

We are looking to live in an area that is within reasonable driving distance (no more than 30 mins) away from Wilmington. We currently live in a small rural town in KS, that has a tight-knit and welcoming community, very friendly people, safe, and family friendly. So we are looking for something with a similar feel. Our children are still young, preschool age, but we desire to be in a good school district that is both safe and has a quality education program. We are also looking for a school district that has a quality gifted program and AP courses available. While we are open to living in Wilmington and would love to learn more about the town and their schools, we are also open to driving up to 30 mins away if there are better school districts in the surrounding area. Thank you!

[SWOH]

30 minutes would put you in Morrow / Little Miami Schools which is probably the easiest to recommend choice.

The downside of that area is school overcrowding due to rapid growth, and with that, any other consequences of a rapidly growing school district.

Which leads me to what I think your best choice would be - Waynesville.

It basically hits the nail on the head for your current town description, although suburbanization is happening there, and the pace might start to pick up soon.

[woxyroxme]

You may have been able to get better response if you posted this in the Ohio forum then maybe someone else that used to live there may see it.

I lived in Wilmington a long time ago and it is a fairly nice small country town, over a quarter of the residents of Clinton county live in Wilmington. The Wilmington school district is the biggest and there are 3 others, Blanchester, Clinton-Massie and East Clinton. Clinton-Massie would probably be the best.

Wilmington is the only actual city in Clinton county and there are several small rural villages there. Clinton county has not had to suffer the ravages of out of control sprawl like my area has, but if you were to be on the eastern most area of the Waynesville school district the 30 minute commute would be doable but any differences in school quality may not justify the drive.

The small districts may not have AP courses or gifted programs but they do make the kids learn and no one falls through the cracks.

[FaithfulMarineWife]

SWOH - Thank you for all the helpful information! Yes, Waynesville is one of the school districts that has caught our eye, as well as the high ratings for living in the area. How urban would you say Morrow is? I share similar concerns as you with schools that are experiencing overpopulation due to rapid growth. I would definitely prefer to avoid that, if at all possible. How much at risk do you think Waynesville is for experiencing that level of growth?

[FaithfulMarineWife]

woxyroxme - Thank you for sharing your experiences with Wilmington and the surrounding area! When I look up the ratings and reviews on Greatschools and Niche, the Wilmington school district tends to have fairly low ratings, which was a bit concerning. Although I'm never sure how much the ratings are due to the school itself, the teachers, or the student body. I have seen many people post good reviews on the Clinton-Massie school district, so perhaps that is worth looking into as well, especially since it neighbors the Wilmington district.

I tried posting this thread in a few other areas, too, but I ended up getting a pop-up box that said it had to be reviewed by the admin before it would post. I haven't seen them post yet, only this one has. This is my first time posting on this website, so still trying to figure it all out Thank you!

[woxyroxme]

I did see that 75% of the Wilmington graduates go on to college which is not too bad for a public school but that would most likely mean that anyone who grew up there would be working somewhere else.

As far as Morrow/Little Miami you may want to cross it off your list. There is too much sprawl in the area and Little Miami schools have had financial emergencies in the past. The problem with Warren County where I live is the developers have been able to do whatever they want whether the infrastructure could handle it or not. Schools are over crowded, there are traffic backups on some roads, the county is spending $50 million on an expansion of the county jail. If you are looking for something more rural you would be a lot better off in Clinton county.

[wrightflyer]

I'd agree with the assessment of Little Miami not being a good fit. It is a decent area, but as woxy noted, it hasn't been able to keep up with the growth. So roads and schools can get bogged down under over-utilization fairly easily. I wouldn't say Little Miami / Morrow is urban. Coming from a small Kansas town, that might appear to be the case. For the most part though, I would call it low-to-medium density suburban. Lots of homes on 1/4 acre lots. Most are cheap(er) than surrounding districts. This is mainly due to the school funding/overcrowding situation, commute distance to the nearest major metro (Cincinnati), and homes being smaller/cheaper quality than say, Mason.

I would stick to trying to find a home in one of two areas. Either in Waynesville itself, which is a charming small town. It's growth tends to concentrate in the semi-rural township, but most of the building there is low density. However, the homes can be labeled McMansions in some cases, but the lots tend to sway towards .75-1 acre or more in size. This would put you squarely in the Waynesville school district, near the schools themselves, which can be a plus when children get older and have after-school activities and busing may not be an option.

The other area(s) I would concentrate on would be those semi-rural to rural areas esentially between Waynesville and Wilmington. The goal would be to stay on the (south)east side of US-42. I would try and stay, on a north-south boundary, between Wilmington Road (east of Lebanon) on the south and New Burlington Road on the north. Along New Burlington, you may find some portions in Xenia schools. While OK, I would think Wilmington schools would be better (despite the districts probably being roughly on par) due to less commuting time.

In the area I have outlined, you will find Waynesville, Lebanon and Clinton-Massie schools. Of these three, I think Waynesville or Lebanon would offer more gifted and advance courses just due to the sizes of the communities and money available from the local property taxes. Clinton-Massie, while a good district, is relatively small and rural. Not as many programs, but as stated earlier, hard to fall between cracks.

Personally, I would focus on Waynesville east of US-42, then Clinton-Massie and finally Lebanon, looking again east of US-42, north of Wilmington Road. Wilmington Schools would be convenient, but I think there are better options inside your commute time.

[SWOH]

OP, I figure others (i.e. realtors) will recommend Little Miami to you because of the large number of transplants moving to the city, which is why I noted it in my response. For the average transplant that is willing to deal with school overcrowding etc. for the tradeoff of living in a place that has a lot more newcomers it might be a good fit but for you I suspect that is not the case.

I would strongly disagree with previous notes to write off Warren County entirely. Admittedly I'm not a fan of sprawl at all (I'm an urbanist) but Waynesville is undoubtedly your best bet, and it is in Warren County. I've not heard much about Clinton Massie but I suspect it is good, definitely better than Wilmington Schools. I should note that Wilmington is in a tough place economically at the moment, the former DHL air hub is there, and when it left during the recession years about 7000 jobs left with it. The town has not recovered, and in turn I would not expect the schools to be good.

I would steer clear of Xenia too. It was noted above, and I would take the note as it being a good place to avoid. It's a city that has issues, some of which are caused by two F-5 tornadoes hitting the town since the 1970's, some of which are described in the movie Gummo and the book Ohio Town, and some of which are just inherent to being a place that has a bit more Appalachia mixed in than the rest of the cities in the Dayton region. Either way I'd save yourself some trouble as a new transplant and avoid anything in the Xenia school district.

Lebanon would be an interesting choice, given your criteria I'd also avoid anything within its boundaries because the school district is large and likely will be growing exponentially very soon if/when Union Village gets built. Also, it's possible that someone could bring back San Mar Gale, another mega development that'd probably double the school population there within ten years. Waynesville is not as likely to see this kind of growth because of its topography and relative isolation.

If you would like another option to consider, look into Bellbrook. It'll push the range, and it's growing a lot faster than Waynesville, but if you find a house there you like better I wouldn't hesitate to go for it. A lot of WPAFB and other military professionals are choosing Bellbrook if they work on base because there is no local income tax, which gives them a 2.5% pay increase, essentially. The downside of such a setup is city services aren't going to be as good as other cities once growth stops.

[FaithfulMarineWife]

Thank you so much for all the helpful and detailed information, everyone! This really gives me a good idea what to expect and helps narrow down what areas to look for a new home. I realize some of these other school districts are small, but are any of you able to give me more information on Greeneview schools near Jamestown, East Clinton schools near Sabina, Miami Trace near Washington Court House, Fairfield schools near Hillsboro, and Blanchester schools?

SWOH - Approximately how far a drive is Bellbrook to Wilmington? We’re former military, so we would likely fit in well in that area. There are some nice houses located there, too. Thanks for the recommendation!

[SWOH]

^Happy to help!

For the smaller districts it'll be hard to find a qualified base of people to talk to about them. And the most recent changes to the Ohio school district report cards are atrocious, which makes it even harder to evaluate schools (the most recent changes focus less on "achievement" and more on "no child left behind", which puts smaller, high performing but poor districts at a disadvantage. The district I attended years ago is now being heavily penalized because they don't provide a number of special needs in house, the students in need of those services are instead bussed to a neighboring school. Additionally, because the facility is old and not fully ADA compliant that's another F in the ranking it receives...).

So because of that I'd recommend calling up the smaller schools and asking specific questions about their programs like sports, AP options, etc. Hopefully their answers, tone of voice, etc. reveals a lot about where is good and where is not. A visit would be even better if possible. For Bellbrook, you should get some solid answers here, I know I for one can help out and say it is a great school district.

Depending on where in Wilmington you are coming from it's around 30 minutes, give or take 5-10 minutes. The best route to take would be US 68 north past R+L trucking out to Spring Valley Paintsville Rd into Spring Valley and on to Bellbrook. That'll get you around most of the hills and curvy roads in the Little Miami River valley. Because traffic isn't bad around here for the most part, Google Maps is decently accurate.