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Holy moly. You folks aren't kidding when you say that searching for Wake school information on here will keep you busy for hours (and lead to a ridiculous headache to boot)! I went to Wake County schools myself but have been living in the DC area now for over a decade. My family and I are planning to move back to NC soon (the hubs got a fabulous job in downtown Raleigh - hooray!), but we are thoroughly befuddled by the school situation. Can someone please explain?
It looks like the 'choice' plan was abandoned (was that what caused all the bus fiascoes?), and now each home has a base elementary, middle, and high school that you're guaranteed admission into if you're just moving into the area. Each home is in a node, and each home tends to stay in that node, but your node might be reassigned somewhere else from year to year. Is that right? How often do you get shuttled around? Are there neighborhoods that are more affected than others (maybe where there is a higher influx of school-age children) or that are more stable than others? If it matters, our oldest is starting K in the fall and the little one will follow in 2 years.
Ugh. Too bad the commute from Chapel Hill to downtown Raleigh isn't more doable. Cary has the same issues because it is in Wake County, right?
Areas with mostly newer construction tend to get reassigned more often.
It's really not a huge issue for 90+ percent of families.
Find an area you like that's got base schools you like, and schools nearby that look good.
You will be fine. You could go nuts stressing over it for no reason.
Thanks for replying! I think with my husband working downtown, we'd be looking first to the Broughton HS neighborhoods. I haven't been in Raleigh for ages though so lots of research to do!
I actually graduated from Millbrook, back before the crazy expansion and explosion of students. I hear now that it is an IB school so may be more sought after than it was there for a while. I would consider living in the area (which I like a lot as well), but my parents are still in the same neighborhood and I'm not sure if I want to be *that* close. ;P
But a big attraction of the Broughton neighborhoods for us is how close to downtown they are. My husband will have to drive a lot for work to other parts of the state, so on the days that he can just go to his office downtown, we'd like his commute to be as easy as possible. I'm not sure what my work situation will be yet...
There are no guarantees once you enter the Wake County Public School System, period. I'm not
trying to add more stress but if I were you I'd want a more straight forward answer.
WCPSS makes rules and changes them with the wind. Do not buy a house based Only on where you
want your child(ren) to go to school. Buy the house you want because you want to live there, not for
the schools Only. It is no longer a given that because you pick a certain neighborhood/area your kids
will go to the closest public school.
Would hate for anyone to make it seem like our "lovely" school system is easy to breeze through and
you will encounter zero problems. I hope you and your family find the perfect place to live and love it
here. The school assignments in any given area are subject to change without notice so focus on falling
in love with the right fit as far as neighborhoods. The school choices will work themselves out based on
literally the year your child(ren) enter.
There are no guarantees once you enter the Wake County Public School System, period. I'm not trying to add more stress but if I were you I'd want a more straight forward answer.
Thanks for your thoughts! It's a big decision, so I'll stress no matter what. I think we are planning on renting for a while so that (1) we can sell our place up here, and (2) get to know Raleigh more before making a commitment. But then again, I just stumbled across a house in Stonemoor that looks amazing. Longer commute for the hubby, and it looks like trick-or-treating might be a real work out, but you can't beat the house itself with a stick. So then I stress about not putting in an offer and looking for a year only to realize I should have snapped up one of those first ones that caught my eye. Ugh. I'm such a mess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GroovyGal
The school assignments in any given area are subject to change without notice so focus on falling in love with the right fit as far as neighborhoods. The school choices will work themselves out based on literally the year your child(ren) enter.
Yep. And it sounds like there are some big changes forecast for assignments in the next couple of years. Fun!
A related question then is where to rent. We have the summer to figure it out (OMG, where do I send the boys to summer camp?), but it would be great if we could rent where we eventually will live in order to minimize the number of school transitions for the kids. Outside 540 and ITB are kinda different, LOL, so I need to get my ducks in a row!
I actually graduated from Millbrook, back before the crazy expansion and explosion of students. I hear now that it is an IB school so may be more sought after than it was there for a while. I would consider living in the area (which I like a lot as well), but my parents are still in the same neighborhood and I'm not sure if I want to be *that* close. ;P
But a big attraction of the Broughton neighborhoods for us is how close to downtown they are. My husband will have to drive a lot for work to other parts of the state, so on the days that he can just go to his office downtown, we'd like his commute to be as easy as possible. I'm not sure what my work situation will be yet...
We live by Millbrook HS and our son graduated there.
Convenient area.
Try my complex if you want to rent - Northridge Crossings.
Thanks to all who responded! We're hoping to head down soon to start getting a feel for the different areas. We're starting to meet with listing agents now and are hoping to not lose too much value on our house. I think I will stay here with the kids until they finish school, so we likely won't need to start renting until mid-June or July. It's way too early to start looking for a rental, right?
right now, you'd have to decide if you were willing & able to pay extra rent. Most rentals come available no more than about 3 weeks before they're available (ie - something hitting the market TODAY is probably available April 1). And at the rate they're renting, you're not going to get many landlords to wait until June to start a lease.
There seemed to be a distinct increase around the May 31 - June 30 window last year though
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I think with my husband working downtown, we'd be looking first to the Broughton HS neighborhoods. I haven't been in Raleigh for ages though so lots of research to do!
