Sienna Plantation to downtown (Point, Quail: home, neighborhood, new construction)

[texasnutmeg]

We are considering a move to Sienna Plantation. I work in northern downtown and I am concerned about the commute. What route do you take? How long does it take you? I realize that the FB Tollway is the ideal route, but I am guessing it would get expensive after a while. Especially after they extend it into Sienna, I am guessing another $0.75-$1.00 for the toll...

How close to capacity are the schools? Is there a chance that part of Sienna Plantation, with building still ongoing, will ever be zoned to a school outside of Sienna?

Anything else current that you can tell me?

Thanks.

[Liljo22]

I take Almeda straight into Midtown and then cut over to San Jacinto to get downtown. It's about a 50 minute commute that way but you avoid paying the tolls. You can take the tollway and cut 5-10 minutes but it's going to cost you an extra $40-50 in tolls a month. On the way home, I take 59 to 610 to 90 and then jump n the tollway. That will take me 40 minutes in the evening.

There are three elementary schools so they should nt have to bus kids out. There is talk of splitting some of he Baines Middle School kids off to another school but the parents keep fighting it. The new High School is just over a year old. If it does fill up eventually, I could see the front part going to Elkins after they open up a road into Riverstone from there.

If you are looking to build, the new sections in front behind the Resort Pool are nice. My wife and I have said that area is where our next home will be when we are ready for a bigger space.

[texasnutmeg]

Thanks for the info. We have indeed looked at that new section.

[made a mistake]

Hi there- We moved to sienna in Aug 2012. I work at the medical center and take the bus to work most days. There is only one additional stop making the trip take 40minutes tops in traffic. It is great, saves a lot of money, and gives me an extra hour of work time while riding rather than driving. You might want to see what bus options there are if that appeals to you at all. When I do drive to work, it takes me less than 30 minutes door to door using the Fort Bend.

Schools are a very interesting topic. I would research this well. There are three new elementary schools. The two older schools are ranked very high and full to capacity with neighborhood kids. The new school (Schiff) has lower rankings and many children are bused in to this school. My kids attended here last year and were overwhelmed by the behavior of their peers. Despite teh great teachers that my children were fortunate to have, we had a big increase in our discussions about being polite, gracious, and other unacceptable behavior and language last year. We also had to have some discussion about how to deal with visiting parents who behaved so poorly that the school principal had to ask them to leave.

The middle school is also complex. After the first week of school at Baines, my daughter switched into all Pre-AP classes as it was "easier for her to learn in Pre-AP versus mainstream classes". She described the non Pre-AP classes as being filled with kids who were not serious about school and distracting. These were her words and perceptions. She is a straight A student without ADHD. There are also students bused into Bainnes. Most of the area with new construction is zoned to First Colony Middle School. Although this middle school is ranked higher than Baines, some children spend an hour on the bus when they live less than a mile from Baines. When we moved to the district, we did not know about Quail Valley Middle School which is an academy for gifted and talented students. Since Fort Bend ISD is so large, it is able to offer academies to GT middle and high school students. This seems like a great option for some kids and families. One of my children is trying this out next year.

We do not have any high school students in the family yet. We have heard really wonderful things about Ridge Point HS. The school is very new and located at the very southern point of Sienna; there is presently no road out of the southern portion of Sienna. But, we have heard that once the school fills children living in the northern portions of Sienna will be rezoned and bused to other High Schools.

Our family is committed to public education for more reasons than time to share. After gaining some first hand experience with the Sienna schools and learning about Fort Bend ISD zoning practices, we chose to live in the Southern portion of Sienna where we are fairly certain that our children will remained zoned to Ridge Point in the coming years. And, my youngest children will attend Scanlon Oaks in the fall.

Hope this helps