fort lee area, which school? where to buy a house? suggestions? (Petersburg: 2010, to rent)

[kids_are_great]

hi everyone,

we are a military family. we will be moving to fort lee area between january and may of 2010.

we are in kansas right now and i am shocked how high the crime rate is around fort lee compared to fort riley kansas. i am scared. we want to buy a house and would appreciate your input which area you would prefer to live or not to live and why. so far i am leaning toward chester.

our schools here have an average reading and math score of 98 and around fort lee most of it is between 75 and high 80`s. only a few make it over 90 %. now i am very worried about my 3 kids education.

i have a son who has high functioning autism/aspergers and a daughter who is gifted. i need a good high, middle and elementary school.
anyone? any suggestions which schools to avoid and which school offer a lot.

i am looking for parents or support groups for autism/aspergers around fort lee.

thank you for taking the time to read my post.

[TN Lily]

Have you looked at the school system in Chesterfield County?

[kids_are_great]

thank you for replying. yes i looked into the chesterfield county school. i just do not want to go to far away from fort lee, i do not want my husband to have to travel to for to work.

for high school i found : chesterfield community high, thomas dale high and motoaca high.
for middle school : salem church, chester, carver and matoaca
for elementary: harrowgate, enen and c.e. curtis.

this are the schools that have the highest ranking and highest school reading and math scores. chesterfield has a very highly rated high school but no good middle or elementary rating school.

i appreciate any help, suggestions or ideas. thank you very much.

[Howe2]

A little bit further up Hwy 288, there is Chesterfield which is very nice and the schools are ranked higher. In my opinion, it would not take very much longer to get to Fort Lee but the schools and amenties are much better. Spring Run elementary has scores in the mid to upper 90's. Spring Run feeds into Bailey Bridge Middle and Manchester High which both have scores around 90 in reading and math.

We live in The Woods at Summerford which is zoned for all these schools. Since we moved here 3 years ago, I have not heard of a single crime that has occured in the entire neighborhood. The prices may be a little higher than Chester but have come down considerably in the last year and are much less than homes in the surrounding area. Also, we love having the Swift Creek Reservoir within 5 min. where we can canoe, kayak and hike. As well as the new Hancock Village shopping center within 3 miles where there will be a Dick's Sporting Good, Bed/Bath and Beyond JC Penney, Osaka Japanese, etc.
Hope this helps!

[felicitile]

I live in Petersburg (right next to Ft. Lee) and teach at Matoaca High School. I'm sure you won't want to live in Pburg; I love it but the schools are atrocious and most people aren't interested in renovating abandoned buildings. Chesterfield Co. has no shortage of lovely, cookie-cutter housing developments and people seem to love them. Also, don't worry about the crime rate. I'm sure most of it originates in Pburg and specifically in parts of town that you're not going to ever find yourself in. I've never felt unsafe.

Chesterfield County, as a whole, has really good schools. You'd want to stay on the eastern side of the county so that your husband doesn't get too far away from Ft. Lee. I know Cosby and James River have great reputations (to parents, anyway) but your husband would have a 45 minute commute. There are upsides and downs to all of the schools in the county. The ones with the highest scores tend to be the least diverse and most ... stuck up? I know that Matoaca has an Autism program in the high school but I'm not sure if that's true for the middle schools. It might be something to check out. By the way, Community is our alternative school so your children won't be going there. =)

[onevthoki]

I don't think you can go wrong with Chesterfield County! The eastern end will definitely give you proximity to Fort Lee to make for an easy commute for your husband, and the schools in Chesterfield are first-rate!

I sent you a direct message with a bit more information, but if you can think of any other questions for the board, throw them out to us. This forum normally comes back with some great information!

[kids_are_great]

you are all wonderfull, thank you so much for all your answers, i really appreciate it.

it looks like that you all agree that chesterfield county schools are good. i also looked into the schools at colonial heights. what do you think about this school district? would you buy a house there?

Spring Run, Bailey Bridge Middle and Manchester High are a little bit to far away from fort lee for us. manchester high did not have a good scoring on the websites and james high has the lowest score as a high school in chesterfield district. i used different websites to compare the schools, my favorite one is www.schooldigger.com ,i look for scores and overall ranking in virginia. but numbers on a computer do not always tell you everything about the school.

again thank you very much for all your information. if you have anymore information just post them for me, thanks.

[onevthoki]

So what age groups are the kids spread out? If high school is your focus, then make sure you know about the specialty schools offered and how that affects high school attendance zones. Based on where you live, you have a "home" high school. But Chesterfield also offers specialty schools for a student that already has an idea of what they might pursue later in life. For instance James River has the Leadership School; there is an engineering program, an arts program,and so many others. Since felicitile is a teacher in the system, she may be able to explain it just a bit more to you.

The two closest Chesterfield high schools for you (in proximity to Fort Lee) will be Thomas Dale and Matoaca. I think the main complaint that you will find about TD is that it is overcrowded. Matoaca, again not too much info to offer.

On the question about Colonial Heights schools, honestly I have not heard anything bad about them. Same goes for Prince George County, which is the district the post residents use.

Keep the questions coming!

[kids_are_great]

my husband will be going to virginia in january but i decided to try to stay in kansas till end of may to finish the school year. if they let him stay in the barracks and not loose his housing allowance than we can do that. if that does not work and he would have to rent something till we come we might not be able to afford running two "households", our house morgage and his rent.

my kids enter 8th, 6th and 2nd this month. so next school year it would be 9th, 7th and 3rd.

i saw that there is enon elementary, chester middle school and thomas dale are all on the same road, is that correct? they all have a lot off kids in each school. does anyone know how many kids there are usually in a class? our elementary school has only 50 kids, k-5th grade 50 kids. my son had 6 kids in his kindergarten class. and last year they combined 1st and 2nd, so he had 20 kids in his class and they where sepperated for certain subjects. he will be going from a tiny school to a gigantic school.

it scares me to read that almost all schools did not make the ayp and did not improve, i wish i could just go there in person to see the school to talk to people. i hate moving.

i also run a home daycare and will start all over and open one after we move to virginia. could you tell me what are the childcare rates in chesterfiel county? what do you pay? what are the rates in colonial heights?

[Howe2]

I know it is not easy moving from so far away to a completely new area and understand your concerns, which were ours about 4 years ago. Renting may be the best option for your family.

The official scores from VA are at this link. VDOE :: School Report Card All the schools I mentioned made AYP. I think schooldigger's scores are from 2007-2008 school year and are not all encompassing like the VA Reports cards above.

As far as preschool rates, we paid around $250 for a 3hr. 5day/wk Pre-k program at a local childcare development center. There are some that are less and some that are much more.

Good luck with everything!