Canfield Schools (Cleveland, Youngstown, Middletown: how much, houses, unemployment)

[CortlandGirl79]

I can't answer all your questions, but you might be able to find the football answer at JJHuddle's Ohio High - Ohio High School Sports Stuff. It's all about Ohio high school sports and they have a high school football forum that is very active.

[South Range Family]

Hey, I was going to say JJ Huddle too. He might also want to try yappi.com
Is the fab plant in Pa. the one that is located between Clairton, and Dravosburg?

I'm almost sure that homeschoolers are allowed to participate. My sister home schooled her kids in the Salem district, but it certainly isn't necessary in Canfield.

[CortlandGirl79]

I love the Huddle!

[South Range Family]

Canfield Football - Home This might help out too. Any reason why Canfield sticks in your head? You can still live in the Canfield school district and avoid the city 1% wage tax.

Instead of A-AAAA, Ohio is division I-VI. Division 1 is largest. Division 6 is smallest. I believe Canfield is division 2 or 3.

South Range is division 5. We go undefeated every year, then we lose the 3rd or 4th playoff game.

Hi Cort. The huddle always has something interesting during the season. I can only look at it with highspeed at work.

[grumpyhammer]

srf- no real reason for canfield. it is just one of the few districts i have heard any feedeback from people who have already transferred from our plant. I have also heard about ravenna and stow, but i'm not thrilled about moving that far away as i still have family in pittsburgh.

its hard to decide where to move when gm really isn't going to give that much of a notice on when or where we will actually be moved. for all i know they may end up moving me to kansas or something. gm won't tell us anything. i'm guessing lordstown because that's where int. uaw thinks (guesses) we'll go.

yes i am in west mifflin (between clairton and dravosburg).
you seem familiar with the area.

to others: thanks for the link. it's hard to make choices that will affect your children also. I know many people who regreted putting their kids in the wrong athletic program.

any areas ya'll think would be good to look into i'm open to. and i deeply appreciate the suggestions and help. i only ask you add (breifly) why they are good areas.

[South Range Family]

Originally Posted by grumpyhammer

yes i am in west mifflin (between clairton and dravosburg).
you seem familiar with the area.

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I'm very familiar with West Mifflin. Twenty five years ago, I lived on Worton Blvd. while attending PIA at the County Airport. I have numerous relatives on Homestead-Duquesne Rd. I have an Uncle that owns half of West Mifflin. He also owns a junkyard in Dravosburg. Not the one under the bridge, but the one that is closer to Duquesne by the big oil tanks. It looks like it is never open.

There are many very good school districts around here. Some also have very good athletic programs. It just depends on what size school you are looking for.

[grumpyhammer]

your uncle must have been thrilled when they closed duquesne hs. alot of those kids went to w. mifflin, there was BIG problems with that one. the junk yard on 837? just down from the baseball fields? (horrible field by the way, to many duck feathers everywhere).

I've been checking out the school's web sites. unfortunately many tell really nothing about the academics of the school. A big concern is the attitude of the kids, i came from a school that was transitioning from farm land to THE place to live, so we had farm kids mixing with rich kids. BUT ALL the parents made sure the kids knew that it was the parents money NOT the kids money, so all of my friends were poor no matter how well off their parents were. we all had jobs to do what we wanted to do, no parent just handed out money to their kids. unfortunately it has changed there (my siblings still live there) and the rich kids make the lesser well off kids lives miserable.

I just want to find a district where the parents are level headed and are not raising snobs.

throw out a few districts and i'll check them out on the web. I think next weekend we may drive up and check out a few of the areas. Like i said any help is deeply appreciated.

[CortlandGirl79]

I think there are snobs everywhere. Canfield, Poland, and Boardman are notorius for being snobby, but i think a few spoiled brats probably make the whole district look snobby.

In Trumbull Co. we always considered Howland and Warren JFK (catholic school) snobby. Lakeview (cortland/bazetta, where i grew up) is now one of THE areas to live up here. When i was in high school ten years ago most of the kids parents worked at GM and Delphi and even though some kids had newer cars, no one was driving luxury cars, more like chevys. I never felt pressured to have things like coach purses etc. This may have changed now, but i think most people in this area are pretty down to earth.

About 5 yrs ago my parents moved to an upper-middle class neighborhood in Bazetta and they were worried they wouldn't be accepted (they are blue collar) and people would be snobby. Thankfully, that isn't the case at all, everyone is very friendly and people that i don't know wave at me all the time. The neighbors even exchange cookies at X-mas. From what i can see, most of their neighbors are very hard working and they all take care of their own lawns, etc. The people across the street are both RN's, one neighbor is a Gyno and i think she's married to a guy that works in a steel mill, the people next door are retired from Delphi like my dad. None of their kids seems snotty and i never hear of any of them getting in to trouble either.

If you want districts that get an excellent rating from the state of Ohio, they are usually going to be areas w/higher incomes.

[South Range Family]

Originally Posted by grumpyhammer

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I just want to find a district where the parents are level headed and are not raising snobs.

That would pretty much leave out Canfield. My sister works at Lordstown and has kids there. Canfield is a top notch school with great academic, and sports programs. The people that are truly loaded to the gills with money are the more level headed and down to Earth people. The people that think they have money are raising the snobs that you have to watch out for.

I'll throw out my 5 favorite districts that I always recommend. They are all South of Lordstown, and closer to Pittsburgh. Anything North of Lordstown belongs to Cortlandgirl. I'm not as familiar with that area.

I wouldn't hesitate to put my kids in any of these five schools. They are all rural, and semi-rural, smaller districts by population, but huge land wise.

Berlin Center Western Reserve.....South of GM by 7 miles on 45, 224, and 534. Less than 800 kids in the entire district. Rated excellent for academics. Has one of the nicest sports facilities in the area. Hit and miss on the football team every year. Not a lot of kids to draw from. I was educated there. It's a great school.

South Range....... It's South of Western Reserve and Canfield school districts. Has 1348 kids in the entire district. Has been rated excellent in academics ever since Ohio started the rating program. Numerous graduates receive academic scholarships every year. We are tearing down all of our schools, and building a new all inclusive campus on Route 46. That would be right in the middle of the district. Our football team has gone undefeated 4 years in a row. They then get eliminated around the 3rd or 4th round of playoffs every year. The coach is also the algebra teacher, and uses math to win games. There are no stars to rely on. It's a team effort to win. With less than 400 kids in the highschool, the band still has 165 kids. The only district in Ohio where it is cool to be in the band. We take 10 team/band buses to all away games. The entire community participates. We are the only growing school district in the area.

Springfield Local...... Located between South Range and the Pa. line. Good academics. Hit and miss on football. I don't think they did very well last season. Around 800 kids in the district.

Columbiana Local, and Crestview Local are both South of the SR district located in Columbiana County. Less than 1000 kids each, both have winning football teams that usually only lose to South Range and each other. Columbiana Local is rated excellent in academics. I believe Crestview is rated as effective, which is just a hair under.

I don't recommend Austintown or Boardman because they are too big, and too close to the Youngstown city limits. That's my personal preference. They are probabaly closer to West Mifflin schools in comparison.

To give you an idea on traveling. I am 10 minutes from Lordstown, and 1 hour from the Pittsburgh Airport. I make that trip every day.

[grumpyhammer]

sr and cg79 thank you so much for your help.

i am presently trying to look into the districts and communities you have mentioned. but i have a few questions (again)

with south range hs, and lakeview hs what communities comprise these districts. Not being familiar with the counties it's kinda hit and miss when searching for homes, etc. both of these districts and communities (that I have been able to find) have pluses and i'd like to explore them a little more. is there anywhere I can search on the web that outlines the districts over the community maps?

are south range and lakeview both lower sports conferences? how close are these communites from the nearest good hospital (we all know there are hospitals that are good and those that are bad)

and now the question from out of the blue, are there any eastern rite (not roman) catholic churches in these communities?

like i said before I really appreciate all the help you have given, it does help tremendously to be able to talk to people who are familiar with the area. this is a tough decision to make and you've really helped alot.