HELP!!! It's either Blue Valley Schools or Olathe....but which?????? (Overland Park: houses, neighborhoods)

[zammies45]

I may be moving to from CA to KS and if I do, I need to choose which school district would be the best. I've been on greatschools.com, each of the school districts websites and asked someone on myspace, but I'm still unsure. I'm well aware of the fact that BV is highly recommended and considered top notch, but I am also conscience of the fact that it is in a very affluent area. Within the BV district, I am favoring BVNW and either of the 2 feeder middles schools (Oxford or Harmony). BVNW has a broadcasting curriculum that I think my kid would like. BVS also has a broadcasting program, but I'm still leaning towards BVNW.

In Olathe, I am favoring ONW, again because of it's broadcasting program.The feeder middle schools are Prairie Trail, which I prefer, and Santa Fe Trail.

Which middle and high schools would you, or wouldn't you recommend and why? I know that within each district there are schools that are know as "poor" or "snobby" or "gangster ridden" or "druggie" or whatever. Can you please give me your opinion and perception? From what I've read, both of the EAST schools are know as "rich" schools with snobby kids that have too much time and money to spend on drugs. ON is supposedly the "ghetto" school. I don't know, that's why I'm asking for your help.


Thanks so much

[goinFLsoon]

All of them are great, avoid Olathe North if you can...other then that..cant miss...all good people

[Samantha S]

We went through this very discussion recently! We are now looking for a house that will put us in the boundaries of the HS we chose (Shawnee Mission East)

We looked at Olathe schools, BV, SM and Desoto (where we currently live) and after all the looking and gathering of information, here is where I ended up:

ALL of the public schools in Johnson County are good schools. O, BV, SM and Desoto districts ALL have good records and reputations. And quite frankly ALL of the schools are going to have snobby kids in them and they will ALL have kids who use drugs.

Knowing this, I focused on the programs offered at the different high schools and chose the one that offered the greatest emphasis on programs that would best fit MY kids. Even if their interests change, the school has a great number of good programs and the foundation of academics is strong.

If I were you, and if you can afford the time, I would spend a little time getting to know the area.

[zammies45]

Originally Posted by goinFLsoon

All of them are great, avoid Olathe North if you can...other then that..cant miss...all good people

Originally Posted by Samantha S

We went through this very discussion recently! We are now looking for a house that will put us in the boundaries of the HS we chose (Shawnee Mission East)

We looked at Olathe schools, BV, SM and Desoto (where we currently live) and after all the looking and gathering of information, here is where I ended up:

ALL of the public schools in Johnson County are good schools. O, BV, SM and Desoto districts ALL have good records and reputations. And quite frankly ALL of the schools are going to have snobby kids in them and they will ALL have kids who use drugs.

Knowing this, I focused on the programs offered at the different high schools and chose the one that offered the greatest emphasis on programs that would best fit MY kids. Even if their interests change, the school has a great number of good programs and the foundation of academics is strong.

If I were you, and if you can afford the time, I would spend a little time getting to know the area.

From what research I've done, I know that any of the schools would be great. As you said Samantha S, that's my daughter's name, I am looking into programs that fit my child. She is taking broadcasting in middle school now and ONW and BVNW seem to have excellent broadcasting programs.
I started looking at Lee's Summit yesterday. There's a lot more bang for your $, and they have a nice program as well.

Thanks for your input and any future advice from anyone is greatly appreciated.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by zammies45

I may be moving to from CA to KS and if I do, I need to choose which school district would be the best. I've been on greatschools.com, each of the school districts websites and asked someone on myspace, but I'm still unsure. I'm well aware of the fact that BV is highly recommended and considered top notch, but I am also conscience of the fact that it is in a very affluent area. Within the BV district, I am favoring BVNW and either of the 2 feeder middles schools (Oxford or Harmony). BVNW has a broadcasting curriculum that I think my kid would like. BVS also has a broadcasting program, but I'm still leaning towards BVNW.

In Olathe, I am favoring ONW, again because of it's broadcasting program.The feeder middle schools are Prairie Trail, which I prefer, and Santa Fe Trail.

Which middle and high schools would you, or wouldn't you recommend and why? I know that within each district there are schools that are know as "poor" or "snobby" or "gangster ridden" or "druggie" or whatever. Can you please give me your opinion and perception? From what I've read, both of the EAST schools are know as "rich" schools with snobby kids that have too much time and money to spend on drugs. ON is supposedly the "ghetto" school. I don't know, that's why I'm asking for your help.


Thanks so much

Even though you are looking in the newer areas of Johnson County I would also look at houses within the Shawnee Mission School District in Overland Park. The most well regarded high schools in this district are Shawnee Mission South and Shawnee Mission East. The neighborhoods in this portion of Overland Park are much more established with a more diverse range of people.

[luzianne]

If it were me, I'd pick Blue Valley over Olathe.

[zammies45]

Originally Posted by luzianne

If it were me, I'd pick Blue Valley over Olathe.

Can you elaborate? What about BV do you prefer over Olathe? Do you think that Olathe is bad because of a certain reason, or is it just that BV is ranked very highly?

Thanks

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by zammies45

Can you elaborate? What about BV do you prefer over Olathe? Do you think that Olathe is bad because of a certain reason, or is it just that BV is ranked very highly?

Thanks

Blue Valley is ranked higher, and Blue Valley is more an area that I'd want to live than Olathe. Blue Valley more upscale, Olathe not so much (there are newer areas that are nice but lots of old too). Blue Valley parents on average, TO ME, seem to be more involved. That's just my perception. I would think that their school programs would be the best of the best because the parents would insist on it, which may not be the case so much with Olathe. Again, my perception.

My kids were in the Shawnee Mission district and specifically in schools in the Shawnee Mission district (Briarwood Elementary, Shawnee Mission East) where the parents were really involved, much like they are (from what I see) in Blue Valley. The parents made sure academics and programs were kept to high standards, insisted on it, and the schools my kids went to were excellent. Also, the parents of the kids my kids went to school with put a high value on academics and that is what I see at Blue Valley. They had high expectations for their kids and expected high achievement/good grades and that their kids would go on to college and do well. I'm sure there are plenty of parents in Olathe who think the same, but as a whole I would say less so than Blue Valley.

All this is my own perception and the reasons if I were making the choice, I would choose Blue Valley. I'm not saying Olathe is bad; I just consider Blue Valley to be better.

[zammies45]

[quote=luzianne;7802479]Blue Valley is ranked higher, and Blue Valley is more an area that I'd want to live than Olathe. Blue Valley more upscale, Olathe not so much (there are newer areas that are nice but lots of old too). Blue Valley parents on average, TO ME, seem to be more involved. That's just my perception. I would think that their school programs would be the best of the best because the parents would insist on it, which may not be the case so much with Olathe. Again, my perception.

My kids were in the Shawnee Mission district and specifically in schools in the Shawnee Mission district (Briarwood Elementary, Shawnee Mission East) where the parents were really involved, much like they are (from what I see) in Blue Valley. The parents made sure academics and programs were kept to high standards, insisted on it, and the schools my kids went to were excellent. Also, the parents of the kids my kids went to school with put a high value on academics and that is what I see at Blue Valley. They had high expectations for their kids and expected high achievement/good grades and that their kids would go on to college and do well. I'm sure there are plenty of parents in Olathe who think the same, but as a whole I would say less so than Blue Valley.

All this is my own perception and the reasons if I were making the choice, I would choose Blue Valley. I'm not saying Olathe is bad; I just consider Blue Valley to be better.[quote]



Thanks for the input. You said your kids went to SM; is that another district you would recommend then? If it were between BV and SM which would it be? My only apprehension about SM is the urban influence. That's part of what I want to get away from here in CA. I was just looking at the Broadmoor Campus and what it has to offer. I have a kid that might be interesting in the broadcasting.

[luzianne]

Shawnee Mission School District is in the older area of Johnson County, it was the only school district (other than Olathe) before houses were built to the south, and the newer area is Blue Valley. My kids went to Shawnee Mission East, but one of them also went to Broadmoor. Shawnee Mission East was still her "home" school, and she took some of her classes at East but took graphic design at Broadmoor. I'd say Broadmoor is okay. From what I know about Blue Valley broadcasting, though, the kids actually have a local TV station where the broadcast kids do their broadcasting on TV. I've watched it a few times. They run it just like a regular TV station. Seems pretty impressive to me. here's a link - http://bvtv.bluevalleyk12.org/

As far as I know Shawnee Mission doesn't have anything like that, but I could be wrong; my kids weren't into that so it's not something I know that much about other than I have seen the Blue Valley station on TV.

As far as urban influence, you wouldn't really have much, if any, urban influence at Shawnee Mission, but even less so at Blue Valley. You say you are looking for newer houses and honestly if I were you, moving from California, and I could afford it (which I'm sure you can, since housing in CA is so much more expensive than here), I would go to Blue Valley. But I like the newer, more upscale areas. Some people like older and established better. I like new. : )

I live in an older area, Prairie Village, but I grew up in the area and I lived in the Shawnee Mission area long before there WAS a Blue Valley, so to me it's home. And we started our kids out in school here and didn't want to uproot them, so they went K-12 with the same kids and that was our goal. NOW since our kids are in college we may move at some point, and Blue Valley is something we'd definitely consider.

And thinking ahead to college - the University of Kansas is only 45 minutes from Johnson County and the William Allen White School of Journalism at KU has an EXCELLENT reputation! http://www.journalism.ku.edu/