Possible move to Bloomington (Ellettsville, Monroe: credit, house, unemployment)

[slpaige]

My family and I are thinking of making a move to Bloomington from Southern Calif. Any info on schools and family friendly neigborhoods would be appreciated. Elementary as well as middle school info. Do all the Monroe county schools use the Everyday math program? Thank you for any information.

[rrah]

slpaige--I've lived in Bloomington for the past 5.5 years. It's an excellent place for families. This is the website for the Monroe County Community school corporation. MCCSC The corporation covers most of Monroe County with the exception of Ellettsville and Richland Township. All of the elementary schools (K-6) adopted the Everyday Math program a couple of years ago. My younger son was in 6th grade at the time, but was doing 7th grade math so he didn't experience it here. He did experience it for a couple of years in our last house in Illinois. I do have a niece that is a year younger that went through it one year. It seemed to me, based upon what we experienced in IL and my niece's experience that her school, or teachers, didn't fully institute the program to the extent we had experienced previously.



In a "previous life" I was a teacher so I tend to be pretty critical when it comes to my children's education. I think MCCSC beats our previous school district (pretty highly rated suburban Chicago district) hands down in most areas. Overall we have some pretty good teachers. Because IU tries to "give back" to the town, children have some pretty neat opportunities available in few places this size: ie 5th graders attending an opera, musicians from around the world visiting the grade schools, science professors doing demonstrations at schools, high school seniors receiving credit for certain IU classes. Our daughter just finished her sophomore yr at one of the high schools. I continue to be impressed with most of her teachers and the wonderful opportunities she has to challenge herself.

[slpaige]

rrah-
Thank you so much for the school info. very helpful. My children have Everyday math at the school they are currently attending. Knowing that mccsc uses the same program will help with the transistion if we move. I have heard nothing but positive about the Bloomington area and am looking forward to a visit there to see for myself.

[ejleighton]

Hello, my husband and I are looking to move to the Bloomington area, but was told that general wages are LOW! any advice?

[rrah]

ejleighton----It depends what type of job you might be seeking. Wages are often relative to where you live. There certainly aren't loads of manufacturing jobs here paying $30-40/hr. The biggest employer in Monroe County is IU. The two biggest fields for employment, based upon a local newspaper article in the past week or so, are healthcare related jobs and social service jobs. I frequently see ads for entry level positions at Cook for about $8/hr.

My best advice--have jobs lined up first. Bloomington is a great place to live. IU grads often don't want to leave so you will find people with advanced degrees working at the local chain bookstore or in a restaurant. More than unemployment, I think the biggest problem here is underemployment.

[tooningBlom]

Visit Bloomington first and see if you like it.

[babygirl5608]

Bloomington School Corp is excellent! Since IU produces so many teachers, they receive many upon many applications for teaching positions. They only choose the best ones and many of them have years of experience. I student taught at University Elementary and it was probably the best elementary I've been in. Childs Elementary is also really good! Templeton...not so much-it's very poor so there's little funding. Many students who do not live within the Childs and University school zones pay an extra fee to send their child to those schools......


Another thing I love about the school systems here is the diversity. Children from all around the world go to school here while their parents teach or take classes at IU. I also like how the teachers honor and incorporate diversity in their classrooms...children in the schools here have had neat opportunities because of the diversity and IU.

atleast there's an idea about which schools to send your children.