Would you move from Tampa FL to Chapel Hill? (Also, school question) (Durham: appointed, transplants)

[Barbus22]

I have been reading this forum for almost a year now and finally I decided to post. We are a family of 5 with 3 kids, a 3 year old, a 5th grader and a 7th grader. We are originally from Budapest, Hungary but have been living in the US for 20+ years. We lived in New Jersey and NYC for many years before we moved to Tampa Fl about 11 years ago. We love a lot of things in FL, the weather, the nature, cheap real estate, but we are not happy with our schools and the amount of driving and sitting in traffic we have to do for commute and transporting the kiddos from one activity to another. We are also ready for a change and are lucky in the sense that we can actually make it happen: my husband is in IT and works from home and I am ready for a change in my carreer (university instructor).
Over the past summer we visited Chapel Hill twice for a very short amount of time and we fell in love with it. We like the college town atmosphere, the small town feel, that it is progressive and the schools have amazing reputation. We are excited about the four seasons and the (somewhat) cooler weather. Everything looks really good "on paper" but I am afraid that we will be disappointed once we make the move. And right now we are very serious about it - planning on visiting one more time in the spring and making it happen as soon as school is out. So. It is getting very real

Tell me (or not - so afraid that you will burst my bubble ): what's the catch? Is Chapel Hill as nice as it seems or...?

And my school question:

We have been looking only in Chapel Hill because we really like the feel of the town and the School district. We are currently in a fast developing area where schools are overcrowded and Florida public education is far from being great. My oldest (currently in a private school) has ADHD while my middle child (currently in a charter) is gifted, so their needs are quite different. If anyone is familiar with schools in CH, especially middle and high schools: which one would be the best that would cater to both of my kids?

Thank you

[The Villages Guy]

We were never big fans of Chapel Hill. Too restrictive in growth, therefore not providing us with the things that are available in other towns. We enjoyed the other towns much more, but that is just our preference.

I always challenge whether the CH schools make the students great or if great students make the schools reputation.

[carolinadawg2]

Chapel Hill IS very nice. It also has very expensive housing and property taxes. Whats your budget for a house? Have you looked online to see what you can get in your budget?

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

Originally Posted by carolinadawg2

Chapel Hill IS very nice. It also has very expensive housing and property taxes. Whats your budget for a house? Have you looked online to see what you can get in your budget?

^ This. Chapel Hill is a great place and there are many families that live there for the very reasons you describe. The only "catch" in my opinion is that pound for pound housing is more expensive there than most other parts of the Triangle. That's what happens when you have a desirable area (demand) with limited growth (supply). Still, totally worth checking out if it is within your budget. Good luck with your visit!

[hey_guy]

If I had to harsh on ch

1. Slanted to college kids
2. Anti growth / development --- gonna have to head to Durham for a Walmart
3. Most full time residents are transplants
4. Pay more for older house
5. Better make sure you are in the city school zone, or not?
6. It's not an ideal commute if you must travel elsewhere in triangle
7. Downtown is struggling in some regards
8. Most expensive living for the triangle, just by location
9. Highly desirable living coupled with slow growth agenda should be a concern for long term impact. Supposedly they want to develop the core, not build suburbs.

[macalan]

hey_guy - What's happening with the downtown?


We haven't been there for years, but remember it being very "college kid-oriented". Lots of pizza shops, t-shirt shops, etc.

[hey_guy]

Originally Posted by macalan

hey_guy - What's happening with the downtown?


We haven't been there for years, but remember it being very "college kid-oriented". Lots of pizza shops, t-shirt shops, etc.

Stores can't seem to make it. Lots of turn over. Too many food options at Unc. Can't really park there for actual shopping.

[michgc]

Chapel Hill is nice, but it's not utopia. The school system is well-regarded for the state. Class size is small (22-24 kids usually) at the elementary level and there is a teaching assistant in each grade k-2 classroom. In grades 3-5, there is a teaching assistant covering between 2 and 4 classrooms. This is much better than most public school systems I've seen as far as teacher/student ratio. This is our 5th school year in CH schools. Among my 3 kids in the elementary school, they've had 10 different primary classroom teachers over those 5 years. I'd say of those 10, 7 of them were good to excellent. 2 were poor, and 1 was adequate. I've been overall pretty happy with our elementary school.

My one complaint is that I tried to get speech for my 7 year old when he was in second grade (with a doctor's written recommendation), and while he was evaluated at the school, his speech was refused because it wasn't affecting his schoolwork (My sister who is a special ed teacher in PA was appalled at their reasoning, but admittedly, PA is one of the best states for special education, and NC does not have a good reputation for special ed.). My son is now in 3rd grade, and we started the speech request again at parent-teacher conferences, and they are finally agreeing that he needs it, but it's been a slow process, and it looks like he won't be starting until at least February.

Middle school has been a letdown for us. We've had one child in Culbreth Middle School for 3 years. For core classes, I'd say it's a crapshoot whether you're going to get a good teacher or not. For example, out of 3 years, we've had 2 math teachers we've been dissatisfied with. I will say that classes are not overcrowded, though. That has not been a problem for us. The schools are very mixed economically, with about 75% of students coming from upper-middle class, highly educated families (with a good portion of those families being VERY educated families) and about 25% of students being on free/reduced lunch. That makes for some interesting dynamics when you reach the middle school level.

In 6th grade, my child was in general education math (as opposed to advanced), and was with a bunch of disruptive students who were not there to learn, and a teacher who could not handle the class. The school was well aware of the problem with this classroom, and when I complained about it, they wouldn't move my daughter to a different, but equal level class. As a result, my child had a horrible year in math that year, learned very little, and it set the tone for our view of the school as being inflexible and uncaring. There are some bright spots about the school and some good teachers there, but, overall, it is not a school that is worth what we pay in taxes to go there. My second child is set to go to middle school next year, and we have applied to every charter school in the area to avoid going to our middle school that is in walking distance of my house.

We start the high school next year, so I cannot relay any personal experience. Overall, I've heard the 3 high schools are good with East Chapel Hill High being the most pressure-cooker of the three schools. The only negative I've heard about Chapel Hill High is that the building is sorely in need of a renovation, but I don't know anything else about it. I've heard mixed things about Carrboro High, where we feed into. Being the newest school (about 7 years old now), it might still be getting its footing. Good things I've heard about it is that it's small, so you have a greater chance of being able to participate in things like sports, and whatever other advantages come with being in a small high school (~900 students total). I've heard mixed things about the teachers from a lot of people in my neighborhood - some good teachers, some not so good.

Overall, I don't think you'll be "wowed" by the school district. Generally, I think the school meets the needs of its academically advanced students very well (self-contained gifted program), and puts a lot of resources into it's underprivileged students (including special nights for Latino families, black families, and Karen refugee families), but is mediocre with its average/above average student.

[poppydog]

Yes Chapel Hill is a great place as is Carrboro. As a parent with two kids in school I don't hang out with the college crowd. I do enjoy the perks of living in a college town, lots of cultural activities, the game day atmosphere, etc, but there's plenty of family-oriented stuff to do in Chapel Hill, too. For me I would definitely rather be in this corner of the Triangle.

Gifted kids seem to be well served in Chapel Hill Carrboro schools. There's a big gifted population so your gifted child will have many peers. I don't know as much about ADHD in CHCCS. ALL of the CHCCS schools are good, though. You don't have to worry about buying a house zoned for the "right" school.

My kids went to Carrboro Elementary one of the oldest schools in the district (built in the 50s) and I really liked it. We are zoned for Smith Middle School and by all accounts it's great. My kids, however, are in a charter school outside of Chapel Hill primarily because my oldest has a lot of anxiety issues that are exacerbated by being in a large environment. The Chapel Hill Carrboro schools aren't huge, but she seems to do better in a much smaller setting. We had her in private school for awhile, but that became very expensive. The charter is okay. The academics aren't as good as CHCCS and the breadth of course offerings is much smaller, but she's doing okay so that's the main thing. My youngest just really wanted to go to the same school as her sister. I would love for her to go to Smith, but it is easier to have them in the same place. It's possible she may switch back over next year or later.

If I were going to pick middle and high schools personally, I'd probably choose Smith Middle and Carrboro High (the newest and smallest) although a lot of people like East Chapel Hill High (perennially a top high school in the country on those lists). Chapel Hill High is good, too. That's where my neighborhood is zoned for. It's just an older building (built in the 70s) and they have had some turnover in leadership. My neighbors have all been pleased with the school, though. I've never heard one complaint.

Can't remember hey_guy, do you live in Chapel Hill or used to? Downtown is booming. There are a few places that turn over — that always happens, but there's massive construction going on with the old University Square being torn down and replaced. I go up to Franklin Street all the time (get my prescriptions at CVS, used to get them at Sutton's before John retired as pharmacist). I rarely ever have trouble parking. Certainly no more trouble parking there than at Carr Mill when it's busy. There are two big decks, a big lot on the corner, and on street parking. I usually find a spot on Henderson Street, sometimes I'll park right on Franklin. We love to eat downtown and the restaurants always seem to do well. It's my goal to one day get to all of them. We also like to go to the movies at the Varsity. We sometimes walk downtown on nice weekends. It's close to our house. My spouse walks to work at UNC.

Speaking of which, there are lots of people who work at UNC. It seems like every other person I know in town either works at UNC or the hospital or their spouse does.

[michgc]

I broke my response into two posts since the other one was long and all about schools. If you like a college town, you will like Chapel Hill. It is the quintessential college town - very pretty campus, large main street, with opportunities and activities that originate at a college campus. The population of the town is highly educated and liberal, overall. If you are not politically/socially liberal, you probably won't like it here. The typical citizens are upper middle class, college-educated (many with masters or beyond), pro-choice, anti-gun, "let the refugees move here", "bring more affordable housing to CH" type of people. There is also about a 20-25% low-income population, with a portion of that population being recent refugees from Burma. It might be a little uncomfortable to see the dichotomy in the population if you are used to living in a place that is more economically homogeneous (i.e. there is definitely a "have" and "have not" population here, and it is quite noticeable in the schools).

It can be difficult to do your shopping needs in town if the type of shopping you like is big box stores like Target, Kohl's, Costco, Michael's. You have to travel to Durham for all of those stores, which may be 15-30 minutes away. There is a Wal-Mart now on the Orange County/Chatham County line, so for those of us in Southern Chapel Hill, we do not need to go to Durham for Wal-Mart. As others have mentioned the town is very slow growth, so developments take a long time to get off the ground. I am used to being in denser cities/towns where everything is in walking distance or a 5-10 minute drive, so Chapel Hill is a bit far out there and rural to me, but others prefer this type of location/environment.

While being a college town, the area is filled with families, so there are sports leagues, gymnastics, dance, etc. But, you may have to travel to a different part of the Triangle to do "elite" level activities.

I think if your overall first impression of the town was positive, then you will probably be happy here. When we were considering moving here for a job change, my overall first impression of the town was a bit of a disappointment. And after living here for 4 years, I still find the town to be just okay, but I'm comparing it to where I came from which I loved (and had a great first impression of) and had all of the amenities that are important to me such as great walkability, density, things close by, public transportation, etc. For people who like slow growth, ruralish, liberal college towns, CH is a great fit.

Hope some of my perspective of CH has helped!