Public of private schooling (Roanoke, Blacksburg: cliquey, homes, middle school)

[Flborn_halfback]

We are going to be making this decision soon, and I would like to get some insight from those of you whom have been through either system in the Roanoke area, or whom have had children go through.

Basically, what is your general feeling on both. Which do you feel offers the most for it's students. *What problems are prevalent in each, and so on.

I was public schooled myself, as was my wife, though in completely separate areas of the country. My school was just ok. *Education was par, but nothing special. Sports were very strong. *It was VERY cliquey, it was hard if you weren't in an "in" crowd, but the "in" crowd was into a lot of things I don't want my kids to be into!*

I have spoken to some who have had similar experiences in public, and I have spoken to some who say the cliques and "in" crowd is much worse in private. Others have said that private doesn't prepare you for the real world like public does. The one constant I have heard is that the education is better in private. *It seems to me like it would be different city to city, and school to school. *I'm curious to hear where you guys weigh in on this topic.

[headnsouth]

Have you looked through the archives? Schools have been discussed thoroughly in multiple threads.

[Flborn_halfback]

Yes, I have looked through the other threads that have talked about schools, and to be honest there is very little information. It seems as though a number of the posts are either assumptions based on readings, or more of a question than an answer. Also, I feel as though my question was rather pointed. I would like to hear from others that have direct experience with local schooling, and can speak to education levels, teaching methods, school locations, social interaction, extracurricular activities, parent involvement, sense of community, cliqueyness and bullying, and kids overall happiness. I feel like those are all pretty important factors for all parents to consider when choosing what school will be helping to mold their children.

I am going to post a lot of qoutes below from other threads, so we at least have a starting point. The reality is that there are a lot of schools mentioned, and a very small amount of information given on each. I believe it would be beneficial to a lot of folks to have all of this info in one place, and much more in depth info at that!

[Flborn_halfback]

Ok, so here are the posts that I have found in other threads. I am new here so I didn't know if I could create the nice little quote boxes with quotes from various threads, so I just grabbed the pertinent info and pasted it below.

**please excuse the (*'s) if they appear, for some reason the IPad adds it as some kind of formatting when pasting from notepad.**

[QUOTES]
As for schools, well, I went to Cave Spring and I despise it. Keep in mind I graduated in '91, but when I was there you were one of two groups - the rich kids or everyone else. The rich kids could do anything they wanted and were treated as if they mattered more than anyone else. The rest of us had a separate set of rules to adhere to.

If you were open to private schools then one of the best is North Cross (North Cross School). We have two young girls who attend school there and they/we absolutely love it. It's on the intersection of Colonial and Electric, which is not far from downtown. I know quite a few families from the Raleigh Court area that have children at North Cross.

The one criticism I've heard about the Southwest County schools is that they are wonderful if your kid is a genius (lots of programs to keep them challenged), or if they need a lot of help (autistic kids who are not high functioning). If your kid needs just a little bit of help, they sometimes fall through the cracks.*

The City Schools are more racially and economically diverse with higher drop-out rates. The big minus is of course they do not have cappucino makers in the lunch room. The more aflluent areas do have better schools and apparently better teachers. Thats a fact today in public education everywhere.*

pLEAse avoid Roanoke city schools-- they are terrible. I should know-- several of my friends and I have sued them. It's a mess. Roanoke County is very well run.

Also, while I agree with you that Roanoke City has its challenges and parts of the system remain chaotic, Roanoke City Schools is much better run than other city school systems in the state.*

I will say that pubic schools here can be difficult if you question the rules. They are big rule followers here. I have struggled with that since we moved here in 1998, because I am an artist and my children are creative-minded and articulate. There's no avoiding closed-minded teachers anywhere, but, for the most part, the mind-set here is not very creative.

If you are open to private schools, check out Community School. It's an alternative school and they are very creative and nuturing. Their mission is make sure all their children love to learn! We had our middle daughter there (she's the one that's in the Gifted Program) from 3rd-8th grade and she loved it. Lots of hands-on, student-driven curriculum. It was started by the adminstration of Hollins Univerisity (the Hollins campus is right across the street) and there is still quite a lot of interaction between Community School and Hollins; many of the professors' children attend Community.

One thing that I've said before that bears repeating is that sports are really important here. Even if you only get your children involved in Rec sports (baseball, football, wrestling, basketball), swimming (we have year-round swim teams here), cheerleading or dance, it's important that they try to do something sporty. It will provide them with an automatic social network and help make the transition easier.

thanks for all the great school info! The bullying concern I had about HV Middle was from reading reviews on GreatSchools.net (http://www.greatschools.net/school/p...=1532&state=VA (broken link) ) ... I know middle school is hard for every kid but I'd like to avoid a school that is excessively cliquish or has extremely harsh teachers. (My daughter had a very hard 6th grade year at our local middle school last year, the teachers were very strict about details rules and didn't real care about challenging the kids academically - we're now homeschooling). But I have read many good things about the Roanoke County schools so I'm hopeful we could find a good fit.

Based on the school site that you listed, William Byrd High is rated a 7. In comparison, Glenvar High is an 8, Cave Spring High is also a 7 and Salem High is a 7. William Byrd fits into that mold of really good Roanoke County schools

I'm in Bedford Couty, and many of the schools here are only slightly above Roanoke City, so in terms of public education, I wouldn't recommend my neck of the woods.

I am in Blue Ridge which is Botetourt Co. and the neighbors love the schools here.

A lot depends on the needs of your son. We found a better academic fit at the city schools. Others will tell you that the southwest county schools were a better fit for them. (SW County schools score higher on the standardized tests. City schools have more socio-economic challenges that drag down their overall scores.)*

I've heard good things about North Cross. Sean Pecor's kids go there so he'll probably chime in!

The only difference is schools. Salem and Roanoke County schools are good but less diverse than Roanoke City schools. I hear good things about Botetourt Schools, the main difference being that Botetourt is mostly a rural county except for the Roanoke sprawl around Daleville and Blue Ridge. So, you get more country kids than you'd get elsewhere. Nothing wrong with that, just a different vibe than you'd find at William Fleming in Roanoke City

The Bonsack area of Roanoke county is close to Beautourt/Daleville area you are talking about. The schools are great..

As I said in another thread, the Blacksburg schools are freakishly good due to the influence of the children of Va. Tech faculty and staff*

Roanoke County Schools are very good. Blacksburg you'll have to put up with silly PC stuff common to liberal areas.