Best neighborhoods and areas for kids

[Mike Weber]

Dave, there are four high schools here now. All four are good academically, but each has its own personality. I don't know if the quality of the education suffers if the school is in a lower income part of town, but other factors that relate may have a bearing on the way the child experiences school.

Our kids attended an elementary school in a part of town that was quite diverse, but in which the income level was low. There were many single parent households and often parents would not be able to afford transportation so the kids would walk to school. Because of the lower income nature of the neighborhood, the parent(s) would have to work a lot to make ends meet. This meant that volunteerism in the classroom and around the school was low and the lower enrollment in that part of town led to fewer tax dollars allocated to that building. This meant that some of the equipment was a bit older than what you found across town.

Our daughter then attended a middle school in one of the more affluent parts of town. We found that parents had a lot more time to volunteer and more tax money seemed to go into the programs and building there. The drop off lane looked a bit like a luxury car lot and was quite crowded because almost every child was driven to school. The school was newer, and so were many of the fixtures and equipment. This was a function of the age of the school. The newer schools have been built in the newer parts of town, where the newer homes are and where the affluent tend to live.

We feel like our kids got a quality education at both places and had wonderful, caring teachers at both. Both kids are now in high school, taking advanced placement courses and getting good grades. We met lots of nice students and parents both places, and ran into a few not-so-nice ones too. Overall, the school system in Fort Collins is hard to beat.

Mike Weber

[Indyking]

Thanks again Mike!

Can someone give me a rough idea of where the lower and higher income areas are geographically distributed, also where the newer parts of the town are?

[NBeener]

Let's try a couple.....

1) LINK

You can compare the ZIP codes .... 80521 80524 80525 80528

2) This will give you SOME idea of which parts of town are in which ZIP codes. Of course ... it isn't nice and neat. It will also show you the other ZIP codes that you may want to enter into the first link, to compare.

3) Another source that I like ..... is .... this one. It allows you to view SOME psychographic information for a given ZIP code. You seem quite bright. You may find this info -- much more qualitative -- useful in trying to understand the "complexion" of various parts of town.

Good luck !

[Mike Weber]

The town was established near current day Old Town on the banks of the Poudre River at the site of the military installation called Fort Collins (though it didn't resemble an actual fort). The town has spread primarily south since then. The river on the north and north-east side of town slowed development in that direction, and the mountains and reservoir to the west blocked development that way. The newest homes are primarily in the south-east part of town, though you will find pockets elsewhere.

This is a good resource for locating income levels in different areas you are considering:
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

[Indyking]

Great, you guys are awesome! Now I've got homework... need to spend some time looking at the websites suggested! Have a great weekend every body!