Relocating-Summerfield and Oak Meadow Elem (Dallas, Austin: rental, HOA fees, credit)

[herringluv]

We are relocating from Florida in the next month. Thinking about renting a house in Summerfield and want to know everything we can about the neighborhood and Oak Meadow Elementary. We have a 6 yr old, who is an advanced reader and I'm hoping to get her into a challenging program (she's gone to private school here in FL and they had nothing like that.)

I see that Oak Meadow gets an 8 out of 10 on greatschools...but having been a teacher for 10 years, I know that a school doesn't have to be ranked a "10" to be a great school. I'm more concerned about safety, stability of staff, quality of her classmates and a diversified education.

As far as Summerfield goes, we are looking for an active community where the neighbors all know eachother and participate in community events. Great access to parks, ammenities, etc..

My husband is going to be working for the Spurs organization and needs reasonable access to 3 areas of town-The Spurs practice facility (I-10 & Huebner)....The airport and The AT&T Center. Most important would be the I-10 & Hueber.

Thank you so much for any input you might have, I really appreciate it! We are thinking of locking in this rental without seeing it first and want to make sure we are making the right decision

[Buffyfan]

I am a teacher in NEISD and Oak Meadow is rated an Exemplary campus. It is a great school which feeds into Churchill HS, another great school in SA. Summerfield isn't too far from I-10 and Huebner. Looking at a map, you can just hop on Huebner and take it to the spurs facility. You can avoid 1604 in the mornings all together, which has bad traffic.

AT&T Center is on the complete opposite side of town. It's in a bit of an industrial area of the city, not many subdivisions nearby, and I wouldn't recommend buying a house in that part of town since it is considered a "rougher" area of the city. You would have to drive to the AT&T center from any part of town you choose.

What is good about your side of town it is nearby all the expressways. I-10, 1604, 410, and 281. Summerfield is a beautiful subdivision. I'm sure you will love it there.

[Bo]

IIRC, Summerfield is inside of 1604. Your husband will have better options to get to all of those places you listed if he stays inside of 1604. Housing is generally a little older inside that loop, but you'll avoid the traffic hassles that are the norm for neighborhoods north of that loop.

A pet peeve of mine is that there is no really good way to get to the AT&T Center from the north side, because the AT&T Center's not close to that area... or close to much else that's appealing in town.

Don't know much about Oak Meadow Elementary, but a post above mentioned that it feeds into Churchill. Churchill has an excellent array of AP classes and teachers. I have been around the school for a while, since I have one child who graduated from there in 2009 with a bunch of AP credits and another who is a rising sophomore there, who will start collecting AP credit this year.

[txmusicgal]

I went to Oak Meadow when it first started back in 1991. It was a great school with wonderful teachers and I loved it. Your kids will probably go to Jackson Middle School which is a little bit rougher than Eisenhower but it was still a good school. The students have to wear uniforms at Jackson now but I didn't when I went there. I'm not sure if Eisenhower does or not. I never went to Churchill because I went to Lee instead before they changed the boundary lines.

I've never lived in Summerfield, I know some people that do it is a nice gated community. Right behind it is great walk trail and big park near by. I live just down the road in a neighborhood to closer Huebner. If your husband is going to be mostly working at the I10 & Huebner location this is a great place to live. I love this area of SA the most because you're not inside loop 410 but you're not outside of 1604. You can easily get to anywhere in SA. It takes about 20 to 30 mins to get downtown without traffic. You're close to all the major highways minus 35. NISD is a great school district too which is close by. If you do move to this area make you sure go the speed limit in Castle Hills and Shavano Park. They're notorious for giving out speeding tickets.

Good luck on your move and welcome to SA. If you have any other questions about this area just ask.

[herringluv]

I really appreciate all your input, you are really validating what we were hoping for

I can't wait to get there, my husband and I are both Texans. Him from Austin, me from Dallas. We went to SWT back in the day and actually lived in Schertz for a few years after graduation. We have been out of the state for the past 11 years via Oklahoma and then Florida...we are sooooo excited to return. We are Texans through and through!

[flourpower]

One other option nearby is Castle Hills elementary. It is also in NEISD and is a year round school. You can opt to be in it.

[zhugeliang1]

I lived in Summerfield for about a year or so, my advice to you is don't get all complacent about the security there. Park your car in the garage, don't be like some Summerfield residents who get very relaxed enough to just park their cars on the driveway, there have been car break ins. I have also witnessed some neighbor disputes serious enough that HOA had to intervene. Security guard hours are somewhat limited and I have literally seen non resident cars just follow resident cars righ through the gate after hours. The HOA fees were very high when I was there, at the time about $800 or so a year. Don't know if it's gone up or what. Oak Meadow is ok, but Jackson is kind of iffy and I don't feel that Churchill is as great as they say, especially special ed at Churchill is very, very iffy. By the way Eisenhower does have uniforms, and in my view the uniforms are really a smoke screen for big problems on that campus that in my opinion aren't going to ever be solved by uniforms. But I'm going off topic...at any rate I don't live in Summerfield anymore for the above stated reasons.

[herringluv]

Zhugeliang1,

Did you actually have children that went to any of these schools? Curious....I like to know what people's opinions are based on.

[zhugeliang1]

Sending you a DM. Good luck!