Mansfield ISD and Johnson County??? (Fort Worth, Bedford: foreclosures, mortgage, day care)

[Kristybarr29]

My husband and I are looking for houses that could possibly be in Johnson County and in the Mansfield schools. I previously taught in Mansfield and love the schools. I currently teach out of district but there is a possibility of going back next school year. My husband needs to be relocated somewhere within Johnson county for work purposes. Our son is soon approaching school age and as long as we live in the Mansfield ISD area he can go to the school were I teach.

Is it possible to find a home in a good area and neighborhood that fits both categories??

[EllenArlingtonPark]

contact a Realtor and find out what is out there.

[loves2read]

I would say be very cautious about where you buy in Mansfield--especially in the west side--
recent post on other thread from someone in Cabot Estates about the lack of water from the private water system that neighborhood is in--think you might have similar problems in other neighborhoods started by individual developers...
there have been lots of foreclosures in some areas of Mansfield in past 2-3 years as well...lots of tract home neighborhoods ran afoul of the discount mortgage craze several years ago...
Mansfield on the west side of the freeway is consider by some to be the less able side of the district ISD because that is the more rural area with lower income/higher minority student population--if you taught in Mansfield you probably know that already...
the roads in that area are not as well developed and can't handle as much traffic so commuting is more iffy
you also have a real mix of construction with few standards from what I can tell--light industrial/commercial or a feed lot located right next to development of 400K homes--that is not good planning IMO

also makes it difficult for emergency services sometimes--there was house that burned down in Johnson county because emergency services had trouble getting to the house in the first place...

I would just say be very careful and check as best you can what the future area will transmute to--what roads will be upgraded--where is the water source--what about zoning now and in the future...
lot of open land out there and who knows what it might be used for since the residential construction has pretty much dried up...

[Kristybarr29]

Thanks so much for the great information. We might just have to forget about staying in the Johnson county part of the Mansfield ISD.

[lonestar2007]

Well, as the old saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat. IMO it would be better to be located in the BISD since the school taxes are way lower than Mansfield and you will be glad you did. If you are going to be teaching in Mansfield I'm sure the district will allow you to transfer your son, it's done all the time. I have a friend who lives in Burleson, but teaches in Joshua and they allowed her to transfer her girls to the JISD. If for some reason this angle doesn't work for you, there are other ways. Do you know someone or possibly have relatives inside the Mansfield district that you could use their address for your son? This is the most common way around the issue and one of the reasons th BISD is so overcrowded. People like to move outside of Burleson ISD, maybe find a home with a few acres or so in Alvarado, or Keene, etc. yet want their kids to continue to go to school in Burleson. They just use a grandparents or another relative or friends address. The schools are aware of the practice, but take no steps in correcting it so obviously they don't care. Guess they're more interested in the state money than overcrowding. Give a little thought to it and you'll be able to come up with a solution that will work for you. Good luck.

[loves2read]

actually I think the advice to use a relative/friend's address to have your child attend an ISD you don't live in is illegal--and frankly I don't think the Burleson district or any other "knows about it and does nothing" because it costs them MONEY to do so and most districts are getting strapped for cash...

It is perfectly legal to get an intra-district transfer--from one district to where you work--and usually the ISD does not require a teacher pay the cost of any children doing that...but there is possiblity that you could be charged...and there is the possiblility that you would not get first-choice of the schools you wanted your children to attend because the district could use them to balance out lower-attendance schools...

[lonestar2007]

I'm not much in the habit of saying something just for the heck of it and I certainly wouldn't have said this about the Burleson schools if I didn't know it for a fact. But I do know of a family who moved out of Burleson into Alvarado, but because the kids had started school in Burleson and were now in high school, they wanted them to finish with their friends, so they did not transfer the kids to Alvarado and they used another older daughter's Burleson address. Now, some of the girl's friends got mad at her and 'told' on them to the office. My daughter was telling me about this and I said no way, they'd make them go to Alvarado and she said no, the girl was on the student council, did a lot of work for the school, yada, yada, and that there was no way the school was going to make them leave. She said there were several of the kids that were doing it, because I asked her about two of the kids that I knew that had moved (one family had also moved at Alvarado and the other family had moved to Joshua, but the kids were still in school here in Burleson. My daughter said, yeah, the school knew about them too, but never did anything about it. I, like you, thought this was highly unlikely, but then one day I ran into the mother of the girl that was the one on the student council and asked her about it. She was like yeah, they (school) knew and I was worried, but they haven't said anything to us, and then said she had told the kids to keep their mouths shut about moving, but the boy had told some of his friends and then her friends had found out. I thought huh! So one day I was up at the school in the office and my daughter said there's one of the ladies that I know that knows these kids don't live in Burleson. So, I just flat out asked her, and she said yes, they knew. I said, well, aren't they suppose to be going to Alvarado and she just shrugged.

No one made any special arrangements here, it was just ignored by the school, so you tell me. Now, I cannot say this would happen at Mansfield for a fact, but I will say it happened at Burleson for a fact. As to whether it is illegal or not, I don't know, don't even care, it has become a joke in the United States as to what is and is not legal. The incidents I'm talking about occurred last year. As to whether this can be done by someone now or not, who knows. I always say, nothing ventured nothing gained. But I will say again, I don't sit and daydream stuff like this up and then idly go and write about it.

Now they could have changed the way they do things, but used to the schools received so much money from the state for each kid they had in school. Shoot, why do you think they're so persnickety about kids missing school? It's not that they worried the kid didn't 'learn anything' that day, they lost out on the money. So if they're so strapped for money, looks like they wouldn't be cutting off sources of revenues. Give us all a break.

[loves2read]

I am retired teacher--I know that schools get money from the state based on attendance
I think Burleson is wrong to ignore students who live out of district--but hey--that just proves why that is not a top-rated district-==

[hypocore]

I've seen this for years and it's in all districts. I can name families doing it right now in HEB, Birdville, Keller and Fort Worth. All they really have to do is show a 'proof of residence' and no one checks it out to see if they actually live there.
One family lives in a mobile home in unincorporated Tarrant county and mom drives into Bedford daily to use her mother's home to provide child care. She sends her kids to the school there, using grandma's address. Pretty much everyone knows it, including her kids teachers, and no one particularly cares. They even told her that the only reason they might ever consider doing something about that type of issue was if the kids were problem kids, otherwise, no one is rocking the boat.

I picked up a boy from school year before last in Birdville whose family lived in Benbrook, but both parents worked in this area. They used an aunt's address, saying they were living with them. It was just easier for them to bring him to school close to their work, they said. I had a couple of conversations with the teacher and was told basically the same thing. Not going to do anything unless there is a reason to get rid of the kid, since they can't really prove they don't live there without raiding the home.

Now I will say that there is a child whose family moved 2 streets over from their original home and when they informed their school they were made to move (mid year) to the school that address was aligned with. However, I've since noticed the family is very outspoken and aggressive, so I imagine the former school was more than pleased to be rid of them with an 'official' way to do so. Of course, this is in the same district, but still the same concept.

[lonestar2007]

Originally Posted by loves2read

I am retired teacher--I know that schools get money from the state based on attendance
I think Burleson is wrong to ignore students who live out of district--but hey--that just proves why that is not a top-rated district-==

Well, gee, not to be disagreeable, but I should think academics and drop-out rates come into place in that respect. You seem to be very familiar with Burleson High, I'm wondering if it is just this one school or the entire district? Stribling Elem. is an exemplary rated school and my daughter attended school there. The one family I'm talking about who moved Joshua had two boys and one was my daughter's age. They went to the same day care together before they even started school. When the family moved to Joshua, the mother bought the boys in to Burleson, dropping the youngest off at Stribling and then going on up to the high school with the oldest and then she went on to work.

Burleson High is a beautiful school, inside and out. The football stadium rivals many college stadiums. As to the ratings, I think the entire state of Texas needs to improve in the education area, but this is opening a new can of worms and is not related to the topic.

Unless we live our life with blinders on, we all know a little of things that go on that are not quite so 'proper' you might say. It's not just in our own 'back yard', it is all over. This is not to say a person has to agree with what goes on, nor participate in any way if they choose not to, but the simple fact is, off the cuff things are done everyday, everywhere, it is widespread and rampant, so sometimes if it is to a person's advantage to make use of these type practices, I say, that's up to them. I know it's no skin off my nose one way or another.