Ely, Solon, Swisher or North Liberty? (Cedar Rapids, Iowa City: rentals, houses, to buy)

[Ajkleiner1]

We are planning to relocate next spring to the Iowa City or Cedar Rapids area. We are a family of 5, have 3 young children and would prefer to be in a nice suburb. I have heard a lot of good things about the College Community School district in Cedar Rapids but we are having a tough time finding rentals or even houses to buy in that area. Suburbs we are thinking about would be Ely, Solon, Swisher or North Liberty. My only concern about North Liberty would be that the kids would go to Iowa City schools which I have heard are very large class sizes.
What is Solon like? How are their schools?
Can anyone give me your advice. We currently live in a very nice small town in the NW corner of the state....very Dutch and everything is very neat and clean. We are just lacking the services for our child who happens to have a disability.



Sorry for the 2nd post.. just wanted to add a little more detail.

[SharpHawkeye]

North Liberty is a nice suburb, but is going through some growing pains. Being the second-fastest growing city in Iowa comes with a few infrastructure issues after all. They just built a big new LEED-certified elementary school (Van Allen) a few years ago and now it's pretty much at capacity. They're going to start on a new school pretty quick. ICCSD is a pretty good school district, overall.

Solon is a nice small town, but it's not really a suburb (not yet anyway). Solon school are excellent, but very small. I like Solon for it's sense of community, pride in the schools, and great small town atmosphere...plus it's close to the lake. It is a little farther out of Iowa City, though.

I don't know much about Ely or Swisher/Shueyville. That's closer to Cedar Rapids and out of my area. I do know College Community is a great school district from everything I've heard.

Another option to consider might be the Clear Creek-Amana school district. It's a great school district that's growing, but at a slower pace than North Liberty/ICCSD. Tiffin is a nice suburb to consider, with a new elementary school built there a few years ago as well.

Hopefully this a start and others will throw their two cents.