Information on Olympia, WA (Tumwater, Republic: houses, layoffs, buying)

[IllinoisSix]

My wife and I, along with our four children (10, 8, 5, 2) are contemplating a move to Olympia, WA. We currently live neat St. Louis, MO. It is not a bad area, but the summer humidity is something we cannot stand. We also just want to something different in our lives. We are both from this area and we only get one go around at life.

With that being said, we have not been to Olympia, but we have done a lot of research on the area. It seems like the kind of place we would like. I am a high school principal and my wife stays at home, but is a school psychologist by trade.

I have some questions for the great people of this site.

What are the schools like in Olympia? I am not real big on ratings because they are so subjective, but what are ACT scores and SAT scores for schools.

It is really cloudy all of the time from Nov - March like some people on the website state? We like to get out, but we are not super active.

What school districts are within a thiry mile radius of Olympia?

I really am looking for some justification to this move. I know it would satisfy a dream of ours, but we have lots of things to take into consideration. Although, in a perfect world (I found a job, my wife found a job, etc) the move would be much easier.

Thank you for your advice and help.

[julie1056]

Hi,
We moved to Olympia, WA about 17 years ago from LA. (Palm Springs actually) I really hated it at first but now it's home to us. Humidity is rare here but we do get a lot of cloudy days so we really appreciate the sunshine. Lots of rainy days to but our summers are beautiful! And I for one appreciate the 80+ days as we don't get many of them. Winter's really aren't that bad. Last year was the worst other than the ice storm of 97. Unusal amout of snow for us and then rain. Usually the snow only lasts for a few days then melts. Coldest Jan through about March. No smog to speak of and a great place to raise the kids. We live on acreage so I don't worry about the kids going out to play but that also means we have to drive our kids to their friends houses.
Their are quite a few school districts out here and I've never heard anything bad about any of them, but you'd certainly want to find out which school district your home is in prior to buying. I've heard that some housing divisions can be divided up into as many as 3 districts depending on where thehouse is. So I guess you'd want to make sure your not at the end of the district so your children don't have a long bus ride. Our children are in the Tumwater School District. Great school and academic programs and we are very pleased. Sorry can't help you with the SAT's but you might try calling the Tumwater District office to find that info out. Sure they could give you other numbers to call as well?
Bad thing about WA is that pay is low here and I think our taxes are pretty high. But we have not state income tax. Liberal state if you ask me. Voters seem to pass every initiative that raises taxes. Governor needs to go to.
Hope that helps? Good luck.

[RobE]

Lot of layoffs of teachers in Western Washington. So you should try to have a job arranged before you get here. As someone else noted, Olympia is small, but pretty politically correct and liberal (the latter is fine with me since I'm a lefty, the former is not). They just raised the tuition rates for state universities here and college is becoming more and more out of reach for working class kids here. But that's true in CA, too, with the bad economy.

Aside from employment, the major three issues for you will be WASL, which you can read about here, the gloomy, rainy weather (little humidity, though) and higher prices (food, water, property taxes).

People here don't exactly have the sunniest of dispositions, either and perhaps it is due to the melancholia induced by the gray climate.

And yeah, Christine Gregoire sucks (so did Locke). But what the Republicans usually put up are worse.