Relocating to Tulsa - HELP PLEASE!! (Broken Arrow, Sapulpa: sales, crime rates, house)

[shagenow]

Over the next year my company will be consolidating and I will be relocating to Tulsa, OK. My daughter, age 13 and son, age 15 will be entering their freshman (9) and junior (11) year of high school. They will be 14 and 16 by then.
We are relocating from a small town in New Hampshire, of which only has 1 elementary school, 1 middle school and 1 high school.
Any information on the best public high school in the area would be great.
My son is a basketball player, so getting him involved in the Summer with teams, if possible, would help with the transition.
The most important qualities that I have in NH that I NEED to have in a school are:
great teacher/parent interactions
a pro-active mentoring and guidance dept. for career/college planning
tons of school spirit
bullying (I'm sure it happens everywhere, but I know of a couple schools I would not recommend in NH due to the bullying issues and the way they are dealt with by the school.)
If there are towns outside of Tulsa itself which you believe might be better, please advise. I have not began looking for a house yet, as that will be centered around the school district.
It seems as though property is pretty cheap in OK compared to NH. Is there a specific area/town near Tulsa which you feel you get the best out of your money and taxes? Which, I admit in Nh we have no sales tax, but the property taxes in Tulsa seem to be between 7-10K cheaper than here in NH.
Any help provided would be great. I am a single mother and making this cross-country move with my kids is huge for me.
I did move from NH to IL a few years ago, and found this forum to be helpful.

Thanks,
Sharon

[Detroiteanca]

I have been looking at the Tulsa area myself and I have noticed that Broken Arrow and Jenks seem to be well respected school districts. Broken Arrow seems to be less expensive than Jenks. I found only one house under 100k in Jenks, whereas I found plenty in Broken Arrow under 100k. Although I have not yet traveled to Tulsa to see for myself, my research indicates these are promising places.

[swake]

Jenks is a nice semi-small town (about 17k), and the schools are about the best in the state, but the district is not small (much of Jenks Public Schools is in the city of Tulsa). My daughter will be a sophomore next year at Jenks and her class has over 800 kids. Sports are very competitive at Jenks and it could be difficult to play much at the high school level coming in from the outside unless your child is very talented. Broken Arrow is in no way a small town and the school district is even larger. If Jenks is too large Bixby could be a good choice, or if even Bixby is too big then maybe Berryhill on the west side or Verdigris up north could be good.

[shagenow]

About how far is Bixby, Verdigris or Berryhill from dowtown Tulsa? I can find mileage, but would be curious about traffic.
A home under $100K. That is completely unheard of in NH, unless you want 800 sq. feet with no land at all. This relocation sounds better and better every day!
I have heard good things about Berryhill, but my son being a new driver is it more of city driving or rural driving?

[swake]

I don't know about Verdigris,I don't live anywhere near there. It's between the larger towns of Owasso and Claremore. Claremore is pretty far from downtown and Owasso has traffic issues but good highway access.

Bixby is a good drive from downtown, 25-30 minutes at least. The small town part of Bixby is the part south of the river, but that side doesn't have good highway access. The northern half of the town is fully integrated into south Tulsa and has bad traffic.

Berryhill is close to downtown, maybe a 10 minute drive but feels pretty rural. It's a nice area with hills and trees that is separated from the city but is still very close.

Jenks is only about 15 minutes from downtown and has excellent highway access but is right next to south Tulsa. But since so much of the city can't be developed at all because of flood plains it has a real small town feel even when you can go just two minutes over a bridge into Tulsa and you are in the city.

[notdead48]

Originally Posted by Detroiteanca

I have been looking at the Tulsa area myself and I have noticed that Broken Arrow and Jenks seem to be well respected school districts. Broken Arrow seems to be less expensive than Jenks. I found only one house under 100k in Jenks, whereas I found plenty in Broken Arrow under 100k. Although I have not yet traveled to Tulsa to see for myself, my research indicates these are promising places.

Yes! Virgina there is a Santa Claus. Tulsa is just like that. You will hear that it is a dying city. It is. All cities are, but it is also a dynamic city one of growth. It's one not unwilling to look over its past even when it has shame that some cities would lightly sweep into its huge pot holes. This city does not.
I own a house 2 blocks from the Univ of Tulsa in the Midtown Area. Although I attended Columbia University in NYC, I can say that I find it a stimulating and unusal blend of excitingly different people. Also in the Brady area downtown you will find unique art works as well as theatre produced. When I was younger I wrote for After Dark in NYC, I discovered that this town produced plays that NYC was afraid of.
It is a city of strong and deep spiritual values, but mostly it is based upon love which means they reach out and which to share as opposed to stand ablove and just judge and condemn others. I find it stimulating as I am constantly learning and growing which is part of the reason I wish to be alive after all. How do you feel?

[gypsy2]

Originally Posted by notdead48

Yes! Virgina there is a Santa Claus. Tulsa is just like that. You will hear that it is a dying city. It is. All cities are, but it is also a dynamic city one of growth. It's one not unwilling to look over its past even when it has shame that some cities would lightly sweep into its huge pot holes. This city does not.
I own a house 2 blocks from the Univ of Tulsa in the Midtown Area. Although I attended Columbia University in NYC, I can say that I find it a stimulating and unusal blend of excitingly different people. Also in the Brady area downtown you will find unique art works as well as theatre produced. When I was younger I wrote for After Dark in NYC, I discovered that this town produced plays that NYC was afraid of.
It is a city of strong and deep spiritual values, but mostly it is based upon love which means they reach out and which to share as opposed to stand ablove and just judge and condemn others. I find it stimulating as I am constantly learning and growing which is part of the reason I wish to be alive after all. How do you feel?

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!!! Enjoyed seeing such genuinely unbridled enthusiasm.
For me it seems a kind of honesty of spirit (generally) within the people that moves Tulsa and makes it an interesting city. Lot's to like.

[Ecovlke]

I can't help much on the school situation since my only child is now 26. My biggest complaint about Tulsa is not about the city, but the Oklahoma summers, and LOL, I can't change that! Other than that, Tulsa is changing for the better IMO. There is a lot more happening downtown now than in the last 30 years.

As for living areas and since schools seem to be your primary issue I would look at mid-town Tulsa (Brookside area of mid-town or anywhere between 11th and 41st (from the north and south) and Utica to Yale from the west and east. Outside of Tulsa I thing Berryhill has a small town feel. Don't know about the schools. Lots of people like Owasso and it seems to have a more suburban atmosphere. Two more areas/towns to check into are Sand Springs (I love Sand Springs) and Glenpool. Glenpool isn't a pretty town, IMO since it doesn't have a downtown, but there is a boom in shopping happening there, so their tax revenue has skyrocketed. It's right on highway 75, so it has easy access to just about anywhere you need to go in the metro Tulsa area.

From downtown Tulsa:
Sand Springs is about 7-8 miles
Glenpool, about 13 miles
Berryhill, about 8 miles ??
Owasso, ??? but I would guess about 15 miles. ??

IMO, Sand Springs is a hidden jewel. Small town that borders Tulsa's west end, but very close to downtown Tulsa, close to Sapulpa, close to the turnpike that runs between OKC and Tulsa. Plus, Sand Springs has a beautiful downtown. I'm not sure, but I think they have decent schools, too. Oh yeah, and it's close to Lake Keystone.

[Wyllyam]

Moderator cut: post you are referring to has been deleted

shagenow - We also relocated here due to employment last fall. I can agree with the postings about Owasso. We moved from a Kansas City suburb, and the schools so far have been excellent. We were pretty afraid of the "mega-schools" further south, as we didn't want the kids to get lost in the system or feel alienated. So far, after 6 months, they're doing very well, and asked us NOT to move back! So much for worrying about them making it.

I can say, having been all over the country, it's not a picturesque(sp?) place, but it does have all that you really need for a bedroom community. It can be a little reserved, and we've found it very slow making friends, but the NE of the US can also be this way, so it may not feel much different. The traffic into Tulsa proper really isn't that bad, as rush hour is really rush-half-hour. Once all these crazy simultaneous construction projects are finished, the drive will be less than 10 miles and pretty quick. Really, if major cities I've lived in launched all of these projects at once, and literally brought an entire city to a standstill, the entire city government would probably be purged. But it will be nice when it's done.

Overall, look carefully at class sizes, crime rates, and test the commute, etc. But as for Owasso/Collinsville area, I only have good things to say.

[shdtree]

Originally Posted by Detroiteanca

I have been looking at the Tulsa area myself and I have noticed that Broken Arrow and Jenks seem to be well respected school districts. Broken Arrow seems to be less expensive than Jenks. I found only one house under 100k in Jenks, whereas I found plenty in Broken Arrow under 100k. Although I have not yet traveled to Tulsa to see for myself, my research indicates these are promising places.

You would be right! being i lived in broken arrow for over 10 years and lived in The Tulsa Surrounding area for over 17 years