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We are possibly relocating with my husbands work during the summer months. He will be working in the Canton, NC area so we are interested in hearing feedback on the local school districts and even individual schools. We currently have a child in school at each level, elementary, middle, and high school. We would prefer to stay no more that 30 min. from his place of work. Any positive or negative input will be considered as we begin our housing search.
The only district I am even slightly familiar with in western NC is here in Waynesville, where we live; our kids are in their 40s back in NJ, and did not grow up here.
A few good friends have/have had kids go through the Waynesville system and while they were all 'transplants' here and 'longed' for their former north east US districts by comparison, all have said this system was good, well taught, caring teachers, etc.
Thanks for the information on Waynesville. Looks like since that is the only place I have got any suggestion on today, that will be where I start my search.
nc reportcards.org is a good resource when it comes to schools.
before we moved, we did quite some research (also kids on all school levels) and south Asheville turned out to be the best fit for us.
have you ever been to Canton ?
there are some nicer neighborhoods, some where you don't want to move to (like everywhere), the biggest draw back though would be the huge paper mill in downtown. it is monstrous and quite stinky. some people are not bothered by it at all, some close their car windows, when they pass Canton
i personally could not tolerate the smell and if my husband would have to work there, I still would want to live somewhere else. no offense to folks on CD who live there and love it. I just don't love it. I am just blessed with a very sensitive nose
So if you have not been to Canton, you certainly should put that on your list.
we drive about 3o minutes to Canton from south asheville (ballantree), so it's not too bad.
our school district is TC roberson and part of buncombe county. I would recommend to stay within buncombe county feeder pattern as well.
nc reportcards.org is a good resource when it comes to schools.
before we moved, we did quite some research (also kids on all school levels) and south Asheville turned out to be the best fit for us.
have you ever been to Canton ?
there are some nicer neighborhoods, some where you don't want to move to (like everywhere), the biggest draw back though would be the huge paper mill in downtown. it is monstrous and quite stinky. some people are not bothered by it at all, some close their car windows, when they pass Canton
i personally could not tolerate the smell and if my husband would have to work there, I still would want to live somewhere else. no offense to folks on CD who live there and love it. I just don't love it. I am just blessed with a very sensitive nose
So if you have not been to Canton, you certainly should put that on your list.
we drive about 3o minutes to Canton from south asheville (ballantree), so it's not too bad.
our school district is TC roberson and part of buncombe county. I would recommend to stay within buncombe county feeder pattern as well.
good luck on everything !
Q.B.
Thanks! We have not been to Canton but that is for sure where my husband will be working. We do not mind to drive. I honestly have not even considered living in Canton simply because my husband does not want to be that available to work. I have been looking around and have seen positive and negative comments about Buncombe County Schools, as guess as with all schools. It just really hard to determine through random comments who is sincere and who is just ticked off.
We currently live near Birmingham, and the commute from s. B'ham is horrible on a daily basis, a 20 min trip typically takes 1 hr. Is this the case from S. Ashville?
Also I probably would not be able to stand the smell I smell everything and years ago we lived across from a dairy barn and it was HORRIBLE for me anyway. How far does that paper mill smell typically linger? On the worst days could you smell it in Waynesville, Ashville???
according to this link 3 WNC schools are among the best high schools in NC in the top 20: Hendersonville High School, AC Reynolds, and Charles D. Owen. I am sure if you searched further on the site you would find more info on other WNC schools.
So maybe you can get yourself a map and draw a circle around Canton and see if these high school districts are within the 30 minutes you are seeking.
Some real estate sites give a number ranking for schools that service that sales listing. And Queen of Bavaria mentioned a school rating website. Mark them on your map and see if they are within your circle.
I went to Owen High School but am so out of date that any info from me would not be relevant to you.
It is hard to explain but there isn't really any place that is so bad people would say to stay away (except near the housing authority) and there is a lot to like about anywhere in WNC. Beyond that it is more or less your personal preferences, budget, and road/commute considerations which differ for everyone.
Two dear friends of my parents, and I guess mine as well, were married in Salisbury, and heading to Tenn for their honeymoon. The bride was a mountain girl, the groom, an up and coming surgeon from the Piedmont.
As they passed near Canton, the groom commented on the awful smell. "Oh, that's just Canton." The bride replied with a laught.
That night, as the groom awaited the bride in the honeymoon bed, he "broke wind" pretty severely. As she entered the bed room, she was aghast at the foul smell and said, "Honey what is that awful smell?"
He replied, "Oh nothing dear, that's just Canton."
I guess times were much simpler back in the day!
With the proximity to Western Carolina University (a teachers college) there will be no shortage of the latest and greatest educational techniques available. Of course, I view that as a bad thing, but many would be encouraged. Education, at least to the high school level is about 85% parents, so if you care about education, it does not really matter who teaches them.
I checked this link and don't think, the information is accurate. I could not even find TC roberson High among the NC highschools (but took a quick look only), but since Enka got a high ranking (surprise, since Enkas reputation is not the best) I compared Enka and TC on NC School Report Cards and Enka is (as expected) so much weaker in students and overall performance.
Roberson is not ranked on the US News site because it did not receive a "gold medal" in their initial analysis. They took into account not only test scores overall, but also the performance of disadvantaged students at each school as well as college readiness, as determined by AP or IB courses. I don't know where Roberson fell down on those criteria, but it was likely due more to the makeup of the student population than the performance of the school. There's no perfect way to rank schools, but I do think the US News formula is a little odd. The NC School Report Cards are very useful for looking at test performance and a few other measures, but they also can't show every aspect of a school. If you're really interested in data, you can also look at the NC teacher working conditions survey at North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions. I also check greatschools.org, which includes user reviews as well as summaries of the schools' diversity and programs.
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