St. Charles schools? (St. Louis, St. Peters, Troy: school districts, tax, to live) - City-Data Forum

Minntex · 03-01-2008, 08:12 PM

We're looking to relocate to the St. Charles/St. Peters area. I'll be working in Troy and Warrenton, but don't want to live that far out.

How would everyone rate the school systems: Fort Zumwalt, St. Charles, Francis Howell, and Orchard Farms?

We're pretty fascinated by this planned community, "New Town". However, the schools are Orchard Farms which is a pretty small school district. My husband went to a small public school and thinks that's a good thing. I went to a larger suburban school and wonder if there aren't more opportunities in a larger school system.

Thanks!!!

WalnutPark829 · 03-01-2008, 09:08 PM

new town creeps me out, but thats just my opinion. reminds me of the truman show.

ShadowCaver · 03-02-2008, 06:52 PM

Don't know much about these school systems, but might check out:
All school districts in Missouri, MO: A-P
SchoolMatters (http://www.schoolmatters.com/schools.aspx/q/page=sr/ust=MO/p=1/fp=1 - broken link)
Missouri Public School Rankings
for more info... good luck!

Minntex · 03-02-2008, 07:12 PM

Thanks, we'll check these out!

Yeah, we can't decide whether we think New Town is great or creepy.

aragx6 · 03-03-2008, 09:31 AM

I vote for creepy on New Town too.

I think it's fair to say that often opinions on schools are just that, and I always suggest checking out real test scores (the links Shadowcaver gave are great ones) but if you're curious as to the general feelings amongst those who live there and each schools reputation, I can happily provide that.

Orchard Farm is really small, they have a lot of poorer kids (though looks like this might be changing as areas in the district grow up (like New Town) This would worry me as they'll be going through some major growing pains soon.

St. Charles has a lot of older buildings, esp. the elementary schools. However, the high schools are more recently updated. They have struggled with test scores relative to other school districts in the area, most people think that's because of the broad socioeconomics of the kids attending. They don't have the strong tax base of Fort Zumwalt (which has Mid Rivers Mall) so they don't have the newest text books and technology, but they offer a wide variety of programs.

My mom is a special ed teacher at St. Charles High and has been pretty happy there.

They're not growing very quickly anymore, which is a good thing.

Francis Howell was growing at a rapid pace through most of the 90s as the outer areas of St. Charles and much of St. Peters grew crazy fast. Then they kept building new schools and moving boundaries, so when I attended I was switched around a lot. Most of their schools are 10-20 years old now, and everything is pretty up to date.

Their gifted ed. program used to be (and may well still be) one of the best in the state.

Again they don't have the best of retail tax bases.

Fort Zumwalt is newer and is growing by leaps and bounds right now. They're doing the building that Francis Howell was 10-15 years ago, so their facilities are new but they've had some growing pains. Expect to vote on a bond issue just about every year. Parts of this district are a little more rural (though much less than 10 years ago) so I know they had more problems with meth use and teen pregnancy than Francis Howell did. That's not to say they were serious problems or that they haven't been taken care of now, but that was the reputation in the early '00s.

Hope that helps, if you have any questions feel free to ask.
As I said, this is all anecdotal and based on the general opinions of those who live in the area.

WestCoDude · 03-03-2008, 12:36 PM

New Town is like Stepford Wives at a PBR kegger. Creepy!

St. Chuck schools are generally pretty good. The closer you are to Ft. Zumwalt and Francis Howell schools the shorter your commute will be.....

ShadowCaver · 03-03-2008, 05:21 PM

Oh, another option, is to go to grocery stores, for example, in the various areas, and then inquire of the moms [yea, sexist statement herein,,, sue me!!!

] what they think of the schools etc. Besides potential of meeting some cool people, also have option of finding out juicy info on the schools and other issues in the area.

stulgy · 03-06-2008, 03:16 PM

I'm reading this because we may be relocating to St. Louis. We've seriously been considering O'fallon or St. Peters. Now I'm scared about the meth comment. Was it rumors or were there a lot of kids addicted? Please can someone give me the scoop. I don't want my kids going to a school with a lot of drugs going around.

photobuff42 · 03-06-2008, 04:14 PM

The reported drug offenses in the St. Charles schools for 2007 was 9 or .2% of students. Orchard Farm had similar data with 8 or .6% of students. You can look at the data for all the districts at:
School Improvement Planning Profiles

Choose the district you'd like to see and scroll down the page to Educational Performance Data and click on discipline incidents.

I have heard positive things about the St. Charles Schools. I'm glad to hear that the teachers are happy!

aragx6 · 03-07-2008, 08:10 AM

The meth stuff at Fort Zumwalt that I was speaking of may well have been rumor for the most part, but it did happen.

I never knew a single kid at Francis Howell North that did. The drugs kids I knew did were the typical ones- pot mostly and a little bit of Ecstasy given the time period. The vast majority of kids never did either.

I wouldn't be concerned about this. There will always be a few bad apples, but like I said its the vast minority.