Shakopee? Cottage Grove (Woodbury, Lakeville, Hastings: houses, schools, taxes)

[pagenunn]

Any input on these two bursbs, closeness to airport. Don't care about downtown. We had decided on Rosemount, its still there but house we wanted just sold! So now we are expanding our search again. Lakevill, AV still in running. It seems like Shakopee and CG have lower prop taxes. What about shopping, parks, bike trails etc. Thanks!!!

[golfgal]

I would pick Shakopee over Cottage Grove. Cottage Grove is a bit closer to the airport but the schools are better in Shakopee and there is more local shopping. Traffic from both areas is horrible.

[Imissthefall]

Originally Posted by golfgal

I would pick Shakopee over Cottage Grove. Cottage Grove is a bit closer to the airport but the schools are better in Shakopee and there is more local shopping. Traffic from both areas is horrible.

I agree and was going to add that Shakopee has really grown a lot in the past few years...tons of houses being built, stores etc...
being a kid Shakopee was always thought of so SO FAR ( I grew up near Wayzata) and as a kid Shakopee meant one thing : Vallyfair!!! But not anymore, now it's really grown into it's own.

[HKB]

Originally Posted by golfgal

I would pick Shakopee over Cottage Grove. Cottage Grove is a bit closer to the airport but the schools are better in Shakopee and there is more local shopping. Traffic from both areas is horrible.

I disagree. I work in Cottage Grove, and traffic isn't bad. They've already completed the westbound span of the new Wakota Bridge, and the eastbound span will be complete in about 2 years. Each span is 5 lanes, meaning there should be no bottlenecks. They've also greatly improved highway 61 by taking out the stoplights and building overpasses, and the 61/494 interchange has been totally redone and is now open.

Cottage Grove to the airport is about 20 minutes. There is a good mix of older homes and new developments here. Cottage Grove doesn't have much shopping, but that should change as the city grows (it's probably less than 50% developed now). If you need more shopping, Woodbury is 5 minutes away.

[TimtheGuy]

Check out Hastings. It still has small town flavor, great schools and good proximity to the airport and metro area. The traffic is very tolerable and you are right on the Mississippi and St. Criox Rivers.

[kim825]

We built in Shakopee in '03 and HATED it. Didn't realize how bad the schools where until we were there and sold our house last year to get out of there. The schools have almost 23% non english speaking students and it's a very diverse community. From what I've found, surronding suburbs sort of look down on that area.
We happily moved to Lakeville last spring and have been so pleased. It's clean, friendly, down to earth and best of all schools are amazing. I just wish we wouldn't have screwed up and built in Shakopee because it cost us a ton. We did it because the lot prices where attractive but it's not worth it. good luck.

[LeroyBSimpson]

Originally Posted by kim825

We built in Shakopee in '03 and HATED it. Didn't realize how bad the schools where until we were there and sold our house last year to get out of there. The schools have almost 23% non english speaking students and it's a very diverse community...

Ok kim825, so you declared Shakopee schools "bad" and "23% non english" in the same paragraph. Is that what makes them bad?

How are the schools test scores? How is the administation's responsiveness to the parents & kids?

[kim825]

the school my son would have attended in Shakopee posted a 67% in Reading and a 73.5% in Math. Our new school in Lakeville is 91% for Reading and 95% for math. To me that's a huge difference. I have many friends still in Shakopee and their experience there in the school has not been very positive. The instructional pace is slow and repititive so that even average learners find they need a better fit. Not sure about the administration, the test scores really were enough for me to know I wasn't going to put my kids in that district.

As far as the english language learners go, I do strongly believe that they create a hinderance for other students. Teachers have to stop, repeat and make accomadations to the point that the entire class must wait. I don't mean to imply that the 23% make that school system bad. And I understtand that they must be given the same education. But for my own student's needs I didn't think it would be a good fit for him as his is a very quick learner and doens't need much repeated.

[LeroyBSimpson]

kim825, thanks for the clarification.