Broomfield - Adams 12 Five Star Schools Vs. Boulder Valley School District

[jmwallace78]

Thanks for your input...

Legacy High School/Meridian Elementary School is actually rated higher than Broomfield High School/Aspen Creek Elementary on greatschools.org however, I get the feeling that the latter will be better from what I am hearing of BVSD.

[contiempo]

That is a good attitude. Just realize that more than a small minority of parents think their kids are gifted. Between the 2, BVSD is going to be the best choice for you.

You would also be surprised at how many parents can put their kids in a supposed highly reputable school district, press play, and zone out. After all, it is a highly ranked district!

[jmwallace78]

Originally Posted by contiempo

That is a good attitude. Just realize that more than a small minority of parents think their kids are gifted. Between the 2, BVSD is going to be the best choice for you.

Yeah... I was being somewhat facetious when I said that, however she is obviously way ahead of any of her peers around here.... We are Mississippi, so.

[jmwallace78]

Originally Posted by brown_dog_us

If everything else is equal, I would recommend BVSD. It's the better district academically. It's the better managed district. It also offers the most and best options if you decided to "choice" your kid into a different school.

What does this mean? I have read "choice in" a couple of other places...

[AceShopper]

Originally Posted by jmwallace78

What does this mean? I have read "choice in" a couple of other places...

I think they are referring to "Open Enrollment"
BVSD Link : About Open Enrollment

When you open the above link, use the additional items on the left to know more about OE.

[scrapper105]

We are moving to Broomfield in one week and our children will be attending Meridian Elementary in the Adams 12 district. I can't speak to the administration issues, but I do my own, independent evaluation of education data to make decisions.

Those Great Schools rankings are RIDICULOUS - can't everyone see that the "score" is based on the reviews and anyone can post any review they want to shape the score.

Anyway, I looked at data from the State of Colorado Department of Education on AP class offerings and numbers of students taking AP classes. I also looked at percentages of free/reduced lunch, school scores on standardized tests as related to state averages, and overall school sizes.

When I went to visit I chatted up children's librarians, the front desk staff at the hotel, and the mother & daughter waiting for their pizza in the pizza place.

Economic and racial diversity is so important to me that I'm willing to send my kids to a school with slightly lower test scores if the diversity is greater there. My kids will do well no matter where they go because I'll make sure of it !

I also looked at this search as if we were choosing a high school, even though my kids won't be there for another 7 years. Alliern and other posters are right in that schools and children can change a lot in 7 years, but I felt like I had to use some criteria to narrow it down.

All this being said, we decided that Adams 12 district, specifically Legacy High School would be the best choice for our kids. I was very concerned about what people had to say about the intense pressure on the kids at Monarch HS. Legacy HS offers great test scores and some diversity.

At the end of the day, the real estate market is SO TIGHT in Denver that it almost didn't matter - we were starting to feel pretty desperate at the end, but it all worked out.

[jmwallace78]

Thanks so much for your replies... We will be visiting the area next week and hopefully I will be able to find out more about the schools in each of these districts on our trip.

I will have to do some of my own research on diversity, etc. I have a feeling that diversity in Colorado takes on a whole different meaning than diversity in Southern Mississippi...

With that being said, since all of the schools in the area seem to be pretty equal academically, my decision will probably come down to the friendliness of the people and the vibe of the different communities--and the availability of a home.

[scrapper105]

So, we've been here a week now. Everyone is so friendly and vibes are good all around.

Perhaps your experience will be different, but for us it came down to where homes were available. We bought in McKay Landing, in Broomfield but pretty close to I-25. We would have preferred to be further west for several reasons, but the top priority was walking distance to a school and a house that was less than 15 years old - it was hard to find a lot of choices !

This is a tight market.