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We are thinking of relocating to the Chapel Hill area from Washington DC and I wanted some recommendations about luxury home communities in the area. Our maximum budget is 900K (but we would love to spend less) and we would want to be close to the most reputable private schools in the area. Thanks for your suggestions!
Check out the Governors Club and the Preserve at Jordan Lake.
Nice settings and nice houses, but I'm not sure they meet the "close to the most reputable private schools in the area" criterion. If I didn't have to worry about schools (and price!), though, I'd be all over those places.
There are several great threads on Triangle area private schools on this forum. I suggest you do a search and read up on the schools since they are scattered across the Triangle area. If you're going Chapel Hill or bust, that will limit your private school options, but that's OK, too, as long as you know you're doing it.
You may want to look at areas easily accessible to Durham Academy in Durham since that's one of the better privates in the Triangle. There are some really nice houses in the eastern part of Chapel Hill (I'm thinking NW of Lowes on 15-501) that make for a decent commute to Durham. There's also Treyburn in north Durham.
Ugh, "the best" school thing again? No one can tell you this! DA has a great reputation for a regular prep school environment. My kids got in there, but I realized, after looking around, that it was not what I wanted for them. I chose Duke School. There are other options as well, all of which provide excellent educations with very different approaches.
Look into Durham Academy, Duke School, Triangle Day School, Carolina Friends, Trinity (if you're Christian and want that infused in the education). Those are the really good private schools near CH. None is "best" b/c they all--every one of them--have a different approach to education. Visit each and see which philosophy meshes with your own.
By luxury home communities do you mean pre-planned newer development-type places? Chapel Hill has beautiful old historic areas, there are also gorgeous homes scattered around town. Then there are some pre-planned communities: Meadowmont, Southern Village, the ones mentioned above...but as has been mentioned you can find these outside Chapel Hill and pay far less for them. Might be an option if you're doing private school. $900K will get you in a very nice home, but prices go way above this in many areas too. In Meadowmont and The Oaks (which is my personal favorite area of Chapel Hill but might be hard with your budget), there are parts of it in Chapel Hill and parts in Durham--they are built right on the border. If schools aren't an issue, look for one on the Durham side---even though they are on the same street as CH homes, they will be much less expensive as they are not CH school system.
Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't mean that the private school had to be the "best" in terms of rankings but I was interested in hearing about reputable private schools near the Chapel Hill area. One reason I focused in on the chapel hill area to live is because other people from DC who moved there relayed that the Chapel Hill was a very liberal, progressive, and well-educated community. I am interested in private schools for several reasons: smaller student-teacher ratio, the increased emphasis on international studies and foreign languages, and the diversity factor. I am in an inter-racial marriage and it is important for me to not only have diversity in schools but also have my children exposed to an environment where other minorities are doing well. I certainly think you can get a fantastic education at a public school but in our case I think a private school may serve our needs better. Thanks again for your feedback!
lak29,
As the white mother of a black child, I totally understand your desire to have your children around other minorities doing well....I don't know what sort of "minority" you or your spouse is, but in Chapel Hill there are certainly lots of Indian, and other minorities who do extremely well. The black student population scores lowest on absolutely everything (no doubt related to economic status but we won't go in to all that!) and they actually "cluster" students. This means they put black students in classes with other black students; Chinese with Chinese; Indian with Indian; etc. The intention is to make sure the children do not feel "alone", however...the reality is that if you have a black child, they will be clustered with other black children all the way through...the same black children who do the absolute worst of any group all the way through. Of course not all black children do not do well, but....the influence of the majority (who do not) is there. I didn't like that. It's part of the reason we moved to private (along with teacher-student ratio, approach to learning, etc).
Duke School, Carolina Friends, and DA all have about 20-25% minority, although this statistic includes every minority, so is not necessarily indicative of specifically black/interracial children. A starting point anyway. Good luck with your search.
edit: just wanted to clarify that I'm not saying black students are with only black students. Each class has 2+ clusters, so you might have Asian, S. Asian, and White cluster in one class and black and white cluster in another class (each minority cluster is always in with a white cluster and sometimes also in with another minority cluster).
Last edited by frogandtoad; 06-24-2008 at 02:36 PM..
very liberal, progressive, and well-educated community
- And Chapel Hill most certainly is. It is a wonderful place. But, you'll find those qualities in many other places in the Triangle, and not having to worry about public schools opens so many more options to you than just Chapel Hill. Definitely explore CH, but what a great position to be in to explore other options throughout the Triangle.
Yes, esperanza is right about this. We bought in Chapel Hill, largely for the reputation and the schools. Once here a while, we realized there are many (far less expensive!) areas around here we could have chosen, especially b/c we ultimately decided on private school. If we had it to do over, I would probably choose somewhere outside CH and go private (or in CH and public but we did it the worst way--in CH and private!)
That said, we do love Chapel Hill.
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