school districts in portland area (Falmouth, Casco: renting, houses, transfer)

[bigjuan73]

I am looking to relocate to Portland with my family which includes 3 small school age boys. I was hoping someone could give insight on schools and their ratings. I would love to live in west or east end. Any thoughts? Also any information on renting a house rather than purchasing at this point?

[lrfox]

Check out the Great Schools site for ratings: Great Schools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community . The Quality of schools varies throughout the city. Your school will likely be dependent on which neighborhood you live in (though I believe you can transfer your child out of your neighborhood school with permission). I believe Reiche is the elementary school for the West End. I'm not sure about the East End's schools... I believe there is an East End Community School.

In my opinion, Harrison Lyseth Elementary is the most highly regarded elementary school in Portland. It's located in North Deering.

There are a few high schools. Portland High, Deering High, and the newest, Casco Bay High School. Casco Bay High School plugs itself as a school for "expeditionary learning." I'm not quite sure of the reputation about town. Portland High and Deering High are the two traditional public high schools. In my opinion, Deering is the better school. Neither are top tier public high schools, but Deering is the better of the two.

Hopefully some parents can come on here and give you a first hand account, but that's what I've got. I used to work at the Riverton Elementary School/ Community Center in Portland and my girlfriend currently works at Nathan Clifford Elementary so we have a bit of knowledge on the system, but since we don't have kids I can't give you that perspective. Good luck and welcome to Portland.

[bigjuan73]

thank you for your quick response. you gave me a lot of great information. i really appreciate the time.

[bigjuan73]

what is the distance between north deering and portland? i was hoping to have access to the city.

[WhoFanMe]

Hi bigjuan73 and welcome to the forum. North Deering is a community within the city of Portland, located near the Falmouth town line. Depending on the time of your commute and traffic, you can be into downtown Portland in 10-15 minutes by car. There is also a bus system, called the Metro.

[lrfox]

Deering and North Deering are neighborhoods in Portland. They are relatively suburban in nature with many single family homes with yards and open space. Like WhoFanMe said, it would be about a 10-15 minute ride from North Deering to downtown Portland and about 5-10 minutes from Deering to Downtown Portland. It's a very reasonable commute from either neighborhood.

If you're set on the East or West End, there are ways to have your children attend a non-neighborhood school if you prefer. There are applications on the Portland schools website as well as more info. I'm on my mobile phone typing this so I can't check the link, but you can google Portland Maine public schools and it'll be one of the first results.

[bigjuan73]

thank you irfox. everyone has been so helpful. luv this website. here's a question. does north deering have a center of town with cafes, restaurants, little shops? or wal-mart and home depot?

[lookinforahome]

Well, North Deering is like Irfox said, very suburban. There is an intersection of Allen Avenue and I believe Washington Avenue that has some stores (i.e. Amato's, Dunkin Donuts, Rite Aid), but it isn't really a "center of town." It's more like a little strip mall kind of thing. I think there's a Shaw's or Hannford's grocery store near there too.

The "Woodfords" neighborhood is a little different than North Deering (houses are a little closer together in Deering Center), but still somewhat suburban. I think if you moved to that neighborhood your children would still attend Deering Highschool, but I believe the elementary school would be the Longfellow School.

Anyways, the reason I recommend this is because if you're looking for a neighborhood with a "town center" kind of thing, there is something similar to that in Woodfords. There is Woodfords corner or something like that, which has a few brick buildings, one with a tall clock tower. Also has shops up and down Forest Avenue in that section. Also, this is only about 5 minutes from downtown (give or take a few), and there is a bus stop at Woodfords Corner.

I don't live in Portland though, so I'm not sure if this area has a bad reputation or anything like that. I don't believe it does, but not sure.

[lookinforahome]

Forgot to add this, but the "town center" of all the neighborhoods in Portland is really the downtown area. I just meant that there is a small concentration of shops on Forest Avenue.

[elston]

Originally Posted by lookinforahome

Forgot to add this, but the "town center" of all the neighborhoods in Portland is really the downtown area. I just meant that there is a small concentration of shops on Forest Avenue.

That is what I was going to say.....Portland is really a very small city in the way it feels.....so Portland is the center of town for alll the neighborhoods......I can remember hearing my grandmother, even as an old lady, talk about walking and taking the bus to Longfellow Square....and she lived on Stevens Avenue near the Deering High School.