Best Schools Near Denver (Boulder, Littleton: buying a house, established neighborhood, buying)

[rlattanzio]

Hope to be moving near Denver soon, with two kids 8 and 10. Which communities fairly close to Denver have the best school systems?


Close would be 45 drive during rushhour, 1/2 drive non rush hour...

thanks

[gpraceman]

What would you define as fairly close? The Denver Metro Area has lots of suburbs that are close. The better school districts are Douglas County and Cherry Creek, but you can find good schools in other districts.

[2bindenver]

a commute depends on where in Denver you are going to. SE Denver is in the CCSD. And would offer the best schools and easiest commute.

[mom2thrie]

Hi! We made the move several years ago, with kids only slightly younger than yours at the time. We found that the top rated elementary schools, with a manageable commute to downtown, were in the Cherry Creek School District. But, it's a huge district, and all schools are not created equal within it.

At the time, we visited Cherry Hills Village Elementary, Greenwood Elementary, Belleview Elementary, and Cottonwood, all fairly close geographically. I don't think you would make a mistake enrolling your kids in any of those schools, and the main differentiating factors were the price of homes, and our desire (for resale value) to have an official Cherry Hills Village or Greenwood Village address. I loved Greenwood Elementary, and I think class sizes might be a little smaller there, but the Greenwood Village homes that fell within that school's boundaries were out of our price range, and we didn't want to move outside of the Greenwood Village borders. Cherry Hills Village was simply too expensive, unless we went the fixer-upper route.

We bought in Greenwood, and our kids go to Belleview Elementary. We are quite happy with it. We love Greenwood Village, and there are a lot of perks to living here.

Many say Cottonwood is a comparable school, although I don't believe that it has the high level of parent involvement that Belleview does, and their afterschool care program is not of the same caliber as Belleview's.

Greenwood Elementary and Cherry Hills Village both feed into West Middle School, while Belleview and Cottonwood feed into Campus Middle School. This is something to consider, as your 1 year old will be there soon. They all share the same high school, Cherry Creek High.

If you move south, into Douglas County, there are good schools, but the commute is more arduous, and over-crowding has led to year round schedules in many schools.

Your realtor will tell you about Colorado's law that lets a person opt into a different school than the designated home school. This is a worst case scenario, because in district kids always get priority and every year, there is the risk that enrollment will be high and your kids will be booted out. It happens frequently, and leaves the parents in the position of either moving, or sending their kids back to the sub-standard neighborhood school they were trying to avoid.

I hope this helps, and let me know if you have questions!

[rebeccatx]

We too are considering a move to Denver this summer..we have narrowed our search down to Belleview Elementary. Greenwood Elementary looks great, but homes out of our price range. Are the neighborhoods Kid friendly and kid "fun" in this area? We have 3 children ages 9, 5, and 3 and definitely want classmates close by and lot of things to do with the kids.

We are also considering Lois Lenski in Littleton...seems like a solid school and feeds into a good middle/high school.

I'd love some opinions on whether or not Greenwood Village and that immediate area is a great place to raise kids.

Thank you!

[Katiana]

I can't answer that question as I live in the way northern burbs of Denver/Boulder. However, I will say I would not base a home purchase on the elementary school. Schools change reputation so quickly b/c of the loss of a great teacher, principal, whatever. Buy the house you like. If you do not like the elementary school, look into open-enrolling.

[rebagirl]

We just bought a house in the Centennial/Littleton area. We like the area for a number of reasons--older, established neighborhood with trees, no new construction nearby--but the main reason had to do with schools.

While I agree with Katiana's post in that you don't want to place too much emphasis on one particular school, I do think it's good to look at the districts overall.

We chose our house partly because it feeds into Littleton Public Schools. It's a good district that continues to maintain an excellent reputation. After having visited a few of the schools, I was also impressed with the warm.welcoming environment.

To me there's a little more to it than just finding the house you like.

Also, we've discovered that open-enrollment is rarely an option. The schools look at their enrollment numbers, and can only take new students if there is room. Most just don't have room and require you to live within the boundaries of the chosen school.

[Katiana]

You're right, rebagirl. I should revise what I said to say, "if you are concerned about schools (and what parent with school age children isn't)focus on the district, not the particular school", especially when it comes to elementary schools. Their reps change rapidly, also attendance areas are subject to change, especially if a new school is built or there is significant change in enrollment. I remember some neighbors, now long gone, who were so focused on buying a house in a particular school attedance area. Their kids weren't able to go there b/c of overcrowding, and they were bused to a different school. The mom hated that school b/c the first one had been over-sold to her as the "best" school in the district. Some of my friends' kids went to the second school, and they loved it, so it wasn't necessarily the school, just the expectations that were unrealistic.

[martzy]

Looking to relo to Denver area soon. Any opinions about the Alton Court neighborhood near Lowry and in the Cherry Creek SD? Thanks!