What suburbs do you recommend work in Elk River-Rasey Area (Coon Rapids: sales, 2013)

[mnmom123]

Looking to move family to a suburb with great schools-family centered community with lots of kids. Schools are the main priority. Work is in Ramsey-elk river area.

Budget 275-300k.

I'd love to hear your recommendations.

[1stpontiac]

Ramsey has a lot of nice newish housing that I think falls in your price range. The times I've been out there I've seen lots of families with young kids. Check the area out around Rum River Golf Club.

[golfgal]

Mounds View schools would be my first pick on that side of the metro. New Brighton my be a place to look in that price range.

Elk River is a cute town and worth looking into. Maple Grove is also on the upswing and a popular place for young families.

As for schools, on my mythical scale of 1-100 for illustration purposes, you are comparing towns that rank between 97-99. There really isn't much difference academically. They are all pretty good. I would avoid the Anoka district because they have perpetual budget problems and that gets very old after a while but other then that, you will be fine. What activities do your kids like? That is a good way to help distinguish between school districts.

[GBCommenter]

I'd agree Mounds View and New Brighton tend to have positive reputations. A bit of a drive to Ramsey-Elk River, though not impossible. Also, as GG more or less mentions, when Minnesotans talk about "good" and "bad" schools they tend to be speaking relative to other MN schools as opposed to other parts of the country. Especially outside of the big city districts' regular schools, the differences are a bit finer and more based on preference than whether your child will receive a quality education (and especially compared to many parts of the country).

As far as house budget, any of the above or below areas should be able to find a house in your range, though obviously depends on what size house you want, amenities, age, etc.

The Star Tribune put up this app/listing for comparing school districts by NCLB scores (and may this thread not become a debate on the merits or lack thereof on NCLB, I just picked this page on a Google search as it seemed relatively objective in pointing out some better scoring school districts):

2013 Minnesota school test scores

Centennial District, which is Circle Pines, seems to rank highly - also a bit of a drive for you.

Anoka may have budget problems - I cannot say for certain - but it seems to receive a slightly higher than average score (not as high as others). Due to its size, it probably has a large number of programs you could investigate. You'd have to decide to what extent the budget question and their possible penchant for repeated tax increase requests works for you.

It also seems St. Michael - Albertville scores fairly well. I seem to remember it being a family-friendly area and would seem to be closer to your work location. St. Michael - Albertville does tend to be towards the far reaches of what is considered the metro area. My recollection is that it is really more "exurb" than "suburb".

[mn55110]

Originally Posted by GBCommenter

I'd agree Mounds View and New Brighton tend to have positive reputations. A bit of a drive to Ramsey-Elk River, though not impossible. Also, as GG more or less mentions, when Minnesotans talk about "good" and "bad" schools they tend to be speaking relative to other MN schools as opposed to other parts of the country. Especially outside of the big city districts' regular schools, the differences are a bit finer and more based on preference than whether your child will receive a quality education (and especially compared to many parts of the country).

As far as house budget, any of the above or below areas should be able to find a house in your range, though obviously depends on what size house you want, amenities, age, etc.

The Star Tribune put up this app/listing for comparing school districts by NCLB scores (and may this thread not become a debate on the merits or lack thereof on NCLB, I just picked this page on a Google search as it seemed relatively objective in pointing out some better scoring school districts):

2013 Minnesota school test scores

Centennial District, which is Circle Pines, seems to rank highly - also a bit of a drive for you.

Anoka may have budget problems - I cannot say for certain - but it seems to receive a slightly higher than average score (not as high as others). Due to its size, it probably has a large number of programs you could investigate. You'd have to decide to what extent the budget question and their possible penchant for repeated tax increase requests works for you.

It also seems St. Michael - Albertville scores fairly well. I seem to remember it being a family-friendly area and would seem to be closer to your work location. St. Michael - Albertville does tend to be towards the far reaches of what is considered the metro area. My recollection is that it is really more "exurb" than "suburb".

An excellent post, and thank you for the link to this year's MCA-II standardized test results which students at each school are required to take.

With the original poster working in Elk River or Ramsey, I would recommend living in one of those two communities or living somewhat close in places such as: Rogers , Maple Grove or St. Michael - Albertville all of which have great schools along with a reverse commute going the opposite way of the prevailing traffic on MN Highway 101.

THe Elk River - Rogers -Otsego - Zimmerman School District #728 does have some overcrowding and large class sizes but still very good schools.

The Northfork Golf Course and Country Club along US Highway 10 in Ramsey has some very nice houses.

[mnmom123]

Thank you for this link to test results. Very helpful! Does Ramsey have a community feel to it? Its tough to tell just driving around.

[Lafferty Daniel]

Can't go wrong with Coon Rapids.

[northsub]

You can get more detailed test results at:
Data for Parents and Educators

You can even look at individual schools which can be quite helpful.

I will also say that I have spent about 10 years living in the Anoka-Hennepin district and I don't remember there being much talk about budget concerns. The district certainly has tried to pass levies, but so has every other district. There were also some school closings, but it seemed that had a lot more to do with shifting demographics than anything.

I would also suggest Andover as having a good scoring high school and being relatively close to Elk River. Pay attention to the attendance boundaries though as Andover High School is somewhat different from the city of Andover.

[1stpontiac]

Originally Posted by mnmom123

Thank you for this link to test results. Very helpful! Does Ramsey have a community feel to it? Its tough to tell just driving around.

My take on suburbs (and cities too, really) is that its so block-by-block that you can't really tell 'community feel' for a whole suburb. So much of how a neighborhood feels depends on who your neighbors our. Some of the better suggestions I've heard for trying to get a sense of a neighborhood include (a) wander through garage sales (although probably getting past season for that), or (b) go for a walk around a neighborhood or park around 6pm or so, and see if people are taking their kids to the park, going out for bikerides, etc.

[mnmom123]

Those are good tips-Kids love checking out parks anyway :-) Seems to be a lot of building going on in Otsego area. Lots of house for the money. Need to check out schools though seems to have weird school boundaries and will for sure check out these other areas too.