Talk to me about South Carolina schools..... (Charleston, Florence: low crime, homes)

[nancys1108]

Originally Posted by tnt

My children(6 10 and 12 now) have all gone to dist. 2 schools, since we moved from Georgia in 2000, and they are superb. Dist. 5 is ok, mainly stands out for their sports(football program) and Dist. 6 is 'the hot spot', due to Dorman High, but it's more like a university, as large as it is.

Here's our website for both all the districts, and dist. 2:
http://www.spartanburg.com/schools/
http://www.spartanburg2.k12.sc.us/

Thanks TNT.

I have two boys who do wonderful in school here in NJ. I want to keep that going, and make sure they to get into a good school system. But I do believe that with any district, you as a parent have to do your part too.
All that I have read and talk to people down there, district 2 is so far the one in my mind. But it is still good to keep hearing from people who have children in the school. I do hope, however that there is sports involved in district 2, both of my boys play or want to play sports. Football is the oldest first love and choice. We are visiting this month and hope to get more info then.

Thanks again, Nancy

[nancys1108]

Originally Posted by anonymous

I have no firsthand knowledge about Spartanburg's schools. If I need to look things up, I use schoolmatters.com.

But looking at the #'s, Spartanburg looks like they have fairly even districts. None really stand out. It looks like Districts 3 and 7 are the worst, and district 2 is the best. But it's tough to tell at a glance.

Thanks for the web site. I was using greatschools.com. This one has more information. Have done alot of homework and research on the districts. So far district 2 does seem to be the best. I have talked to several people who have children there, and so far so good. Thanks for the info, you can not have to much information on new schools or areas that you are looking to relocate to. I posted to another "TNT" hopefully they have a good sport program to go along with the academics.

[Dee Ueckert]

Originally Posted by Nanseev

I currently live in California, although originally from Massachusetts. We are looking to leave California to get closer to family. Husband is a school teacher, and we have two children who are becoming school-age, so school systems are very important to us. I don't want to go further north than North Carolina, and the other states we have considered are South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. We quickly ruled out Florida because of the horrible teachers salaries there (although it was my preference because of the weather). I then ruled out South Carolina because comparitevely speaking, the national school system test scores were HORRIBLE (and I've heard that SC is 50th in education). It's left me with North Carolina (narrowed down to the Charlotte area and the Raleigh/Durham area), and the Atlanta area (Cobb county).

Was I wrong to rule out South Carolina so quickly? Are the school systems really that bad? Does anyone know the best school system in the state, and is it comparable to others across the country?

And finally, is SC's weather "better" than NC or Atlanta? I currently live outside of San Diego, so I'm looking for a climate on the warm side

Thanks!
Nancy

Hey Nancy

I have lived in Atlanta Area for twenty years and now I live in the Belton, SC area going on seven years. I have two boys and there ages are 9 and 12.
They go to Cedar Grove Ele. and Palmotto Middle. In the Anderson One are.
Our schools are rated 10, what can i say Teacher and school are the Greatest for us. It just that my husband finished Clemson in Dec. and now is working in Moncks Corner staying with my mother. I have been looking at schools out there. What a Messssssssssssss, i just hate the idea of leaving from here. As for Ga. you can not go wrong with the schools. Look for a home outside the 285 Hwy. Belt. My mother in law lives out 20 towards Al. line. That's were we would have move if his job had taken us there.
We just can not stand the traffic out that way.
We also liked August area too.
good luck
dee

[jamrasc]

Everyone always compares schools and districts. South Carolina always gets a bad rap. My kids are in SC schools and excel at everything. My oldest is in the gifted and talented program. She is in 4th grade and is doing 9th grade work. She does algebra! Another side note, the test that are used to compare all the schools across the country are not the same test, so there really is no way to compare the various schools. SC scores highly on the test they are given. As with all things, it is a matter of the individual kids. If you live in an area with a big population of non-english speaking hispanics the test scores are going to be much lower. If the government really wants to compare all the schools in the US equally they need to give a uniform test.

[bailey]

You should really consider Mt. Pleasant ,Sc for 2 reasons. The school system there is rated high and has all new facilities. Also it is close to the water which will be more similar to San Diego than other area that you mentioned. We just moved to Mt. Pleasant from maryland and everyone we have talked to is really pleased with the school. Most people in that are are like you and I from other states and used to different school systems but have had no problem with Mt. pleasant thus far.

[neonrider]

Originally Posted by Nanseev

I currently live in California, although originally from Massachusetts. We are looking to leave California to get closer to family. Husband is a school teacher, and we have two children who are becoming school-age, so school systems are very important to us. I don't want to go further north than North Carolina, and the other states we have considered are South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. We quickly ruled out Florida because of the horrible teachers salaries there (although it was my preference because of the weather). I then ruled out South Carolina because comparitevely speaking, the national school system test scores were HORRIBLE (and I've heard that SC is 50th in education). It's left me with North Carolina (narrowed down to the Charlotte area and the Raleigh/Durham area), and the Atlanta area (Cobb county).

Was I wrong to rule out South Carolina so quickly? Are the school systems really that bad? Does anyone know the best school system in the state, and is it comparable to others across the country?

And finally, is SC's weather "better" than NC or Atlanta? I currently live outside of San Diego, so I'm looking for a climate on the warm side

Thanks!
Nancy

The best weather in SC is in Orangeburg county: it's a warm and relatively dry climate, so even 75F - 80F feels a little chilly. Day temps in winter are upper 50s to 60s. Schools, there's one new modern school I know:
http://nmhs.ocsd5schools.org/home.aspx

[anonymous]

Interesting, I didn't know that Orangeburg County had better (or even different) weather than its surrounding counties. Please tell me more about this phenomenon, as I grew up not far away, and I've never heard this.

[neonrider]

Originally Posted by anonymous

Interesting, I didn't know that Orangeburg County had better (or even different) weather than its surrounding counties. Please tell me more about this phenomenon, as I grew up not far away, and I've never heard this.

Replace "Orangeburg County" with "SC Midlands/Sandhills area". That is Columbia, Sumter, Aiken, Orangeburgand surrounding counties.

[jenn02674]

Yes, I am also curious as to this whole different weather. I live in the upstate and I can't imagine anywhere near columbia having any better or drier weather!

South Carolina has no doubt some of the worst schools in the country but we also have some of the top public school districts in the country. As a matter of fact, the Gates Foundation picked Fort Mill as one of its model high schools (Fort Mill was one of 30 high schools picked from all over the country). So I agree with whoever said you need to look at the individual school or district not just the state as a whole.

I, of course, vote for the Fort Mill area. Not only are the schools the best in the two Carolinas (i have no idea where they stand in relation to GA or FL) but Charlotte is a booming city with very low unemployment.

[waccamatt]

Originally Posted by Lookingforasafehome

Is Columbia then a better area to live maybe? If the schools are better then I am thinking it might be safer to live and maybe just commute to the area around Florence and Sumter maybe? Thanks for your help! Hope no one minds me jumping in here!

There are a number of good schools in the Columbia area, but it all depends on the school and the district. The Columbia MSA was recently named a top-ten metro for the quality of schools compared with other metros with 100,000-250,000 students. Some people do commute from Columbia to Sumter and if you lived in Northeast Richland County it would be doable to commute to Florence.

http://www.expansionmanagement.com/s...ver%20100K.pdf