Moving family to area-need school advice (Minneapolis, Bloomington: for sale, 2009, rental)

[ljwilsonrn]

My husband is in the process of interviewing at Best buy and we have the possibility of moving. We are currently in WI, and not really aware of where to start. He wants a short commute and we were looking at schools/homes in the Lakeville area and from the forums it looks like a good choice. My bigger concern is if we decided on Lakeville is that they don't seem to offer full day Kindergarten. My son is starting this fall and here we have full day and both he and I are looking forward to it. He needs the all day stimulation and has done preschool the past 2 years for 2 1/2 hours every other day. It looks like the Rosemount/AV offers it but you pay extra. We currently have him signed up for Catholic school here but the cost of the full day Kindergarten in Rosemount is more than what we would pay here. The Catholic school in Lakeville tuition is significantly more than here. Do the public schools in MN tend to charge for all day Kindergarten because the state doesn't cover it? Not all schools in WI offer it but in the greater Milwaukee area most seem to. This is happening in the middle of summer so we don't have a lot of time to plan and research as we would like him to start in MN and not have to switch during the school year. Thanks for any advice

[golfgal]

Some schools offer free full-day kindergarten but most don't since it isn't funded by the state. Usually you find free all-day kindergarten in lower income areas as a hope to get kids up to snuff for 1st grade, but not always. Off hand I can't think of a town around here that doesn't charge for all day kindergarten.

We did have all-day kindergarten at the kids' old school (Catholic). I loved it, so did the kids.

Other options would be to put him in an after school program that most districts have. That would provide him with the stimulation you want at a MUCH lower cost. Also, if you are going to be a stay-at-home mom setting up play time with friends works well too.

I have said for many years that they should put the kindergartners in full day classes because they WANT to be in school and let the high school seniors have the 1/2 days.

Kindergarten aside, the schools in 196 are excellent. We are a very financially healthy district and it shows. The 2008-2009 school budget includes ZERO cuts--unheard of these days. They hire teachers as needed, not by what the budget says. Our activity fees, etc. are much less then they are in Lakeville too--not that you are concerned with that so much now.

I don't know how the tuition at St. Joseph in Rosemount compares with the school you are looking at in Lakeville but it might be an option if you want to go that route. Ok, I just looked up the kindergarten fee--I think tuition at St. Joe's is in the $4500 range. I don't know for sure if that is the same for kindergarten though or even if they have full day come to think of it. The fee for full-day kindergarten is $2997. That is going to be less then tuition at the Catholic schools around here, at least the ones I know of.

[Slig]

If you consider Lakeville and Rosemount close to the Best Buy headquarters than I guess that is your opinion....they are both 17-18 miles away.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Slig

If you consider Lakeville and Rosemount close to the Best Buy headquarters than I guess that is your opinion....they are both 17-18 miles away.

As opposed to your 17 mile commute from Minneapolis to Eagan???

[ljwilsonrn]

Thanks for the tips! Because we planned on paying for school anyway I know we can swing paying for full day, I guess we are just lucky where we are at now. Lakeville seems they way to go. As far as the commute, right now he commutes 26 miles, a 40-60 minute drive and the houses we found online in our price range were right off the freeway and 11-12 miles from Best Buy headquarters. Now we have to wait and see if he gets the job before put our house up for sale and start looking for one there. We will probably be renting for a little while. Anyone know how that works with schools, what if we rent in one elementary's area buy buy a house in another, would we have to do school choice if that is offered there?

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by ljwilsonrn

Thanks for the tips! Because we planned on paying for school anyway I know we can swing paying for full day, I guess we are just lucky where we are at now. Lakeville seems they way to go. As far as the commute, right now he commutes 26 miles, a 40-60 minute drive and the houses we found online in our price range were right off the freeway and 11-12 miles from Best Buy headquarters. Now we have to wait and see if he gets the job before put our house up for sale and start looking for one there. We will probably be renting for a little while. Anyone know how that works with schools, what if we rent in one elementary's area buy buy a house in another, would we have to do school choice if that is offered there?

Just to make sure my post didn't confuse you, the 196 schools are the Rosemount, Apple Valley, Eagan schools, not Lakeville. Lakeville is a good district however they are having some pretty major financial troubles right now. Just something to be aware of before you make any decisions.

As for renting in one area/moving to another--Minnesota has statewide open enrollement so that option IS there, however, if a school is full and they have students that live in the district that need your space, you can be kicked out. With Lakeville's budget cuts that might be an issue. I also know that for a while they were not granting in-district open enrollement, at least at the high school level. They opened a new high school a few years ago and it was causing some issues that way. I am not sure if they have gone back to allowing this for sure or not.

[golfgal]

I should also add that if you can live somewhere that doesn't require a commute up 35W, that would be a VERY good idea. That is one of the worst commutes in the metro area. If you can live closer to Hwy 77 (Cedar Ave), that would be better. The extra mile or two will save you hours each week in traffic.

[ljwilsonrn]

Thanks for the clarification, we don't use numbered districts around here so I was confused. What about Richfield itself? There doesn't seem to be alot of houses in the 250,000 price range. My husband keeps wanting to walk to work! How are their schools? Thanks!

[ljwilsonrn]

I am seeing houses in the 250 range in Richfield, but similar or a step below what we have now and am hoping to upgrade a little

[Thinner_Me]

Don't leave out Bloomington (not far from the Best Buy campus). We moved here from out of state late last fall, though our kids are older (high school and middle school). I must say, I was surprised to find out the kindergartens are not all day here. That is so "old school". I can remember the school district we were in about 15 years ago started the switch from half-day to full-day. There was no extra charge to have your child in full-day, but many parents decided to keep their child in half-day due to still needing a nap!

We rent here in Bloomington and have been very happy with our choice. I have noticed that the rental signs don't seem to last very long. Hope you can find something before the start of the school year...