School Ratings Thread - READ FIRST for school inquiries. (Atlanta: for sale, new house)

[jwgraves2]

Thank you so much for the feedback Frances and Lastminute. The immigrant point is well-taken; something I never would have known to consider. All things being equal, I'd prefer my kids have safe exposure to people with little means who are industrious-a reminder of how precious America is.

I've visited the areas, and Decatur seems to fit our relatively laid-back lifestyle preferences. It would be very nice to know that the school system is terrific K-12, so that our children could keep their social networks intact. Frances, you hit the nail on the head when you said "you feel like a bad parent if you don't let your kids walk"...that's EXACTLY what we're looking for after having lived VERY car-dependent lives to date.

We've visited Decatur and thought it was really neat; just three more questions:
1.) Is the Marta safe for men and women day and night? (If not, for whom is it safe?)
2.) Could you provide some community boundaries that would point us in the direction of being able to: (1) lease a 3-4BR apartment or house for a year or two, then (2) buy a $500/600k house and stay in the same school district and ultimately (or not) buy a $700k+ home and stay in the same schools. Put simply, are there some boundaries that are known for being walkable with a variety of housing options, so that as our income grows, we can (if we choose) upgrade our home without uprooting our children.
3.) Our family is politically independent (social liberal, fiscal conservative) left-leaning and Episcopalian (but really agnostic). I am sure they don't, but just making sure....Evangelicals don't dominate the social or political scene in Decatur do they?

Thank you so much for your input; I appreciate it so much and can't imagine how I, as a newcomer, would access these types of opinions and considerations without your assistance.

(I searched for "Decatur" in the Atlanta forum to look for a more suitable thread in which to post this MORE Decatur LESS Atlanta Metro School message, but found no sensible home for it. My apologies to anyone taking offense at my posting of it here.)

[frances125]

1) The Decatur Marta Station is definitely safe in the evening and day time. As a female, I might be a little nervous there late at night, but I'm paranoid. Decatur is probably the safest station on Marta system. Other stations are going to be fine in the day time but a bit dicier at night.

2) You can get what you need home-wise pretty much anywhere in Decatur. College Heights is going to be the least expensive, followed by Oakhurst, Lenox Park, Westchester, Winnona Park, Glenlake, Great Lakes and then Lamont/Vidal in that order. Your rent/buy/buy plan would work pretty well in Decatur because everyone in the city attends the same school from 4th grade on. You could rent and then buy in the K-3 district that you like and then move anywhere in the city once your youngest is in 4th grade. BTW, all the K-3 schools are nearly identical in demographics and achievement so you don't need to stress about which district you are in .

Decatur schools have sort of been "discovered" in recent years, and our enrollment has gone way up. As a result, CSD will soon be moving the 4th/5th grade academy from its current location at Glennwood to 5th Avenue school and converting Glennwood to an additional K-3 school. It will be a couple of years before this comes about because they will be tearing down the current 5th Avenue School and building a new one. With that in mind, the best areas to live in if you are really committed to your kids walking to school from K all the way through 12th are going to be Oakhurst, College Heights, Lenox Park or Winnona Park. Glenlake, Great Lakes, and Lamont Vidal will be walkable for K-3 and 6-12 but probably not for 4/5 once the change is made.

3) Decatur is very left leaning, particularly socially and spritually, so you should find a lot of company here. There are a couple of Episcopal churches in the area.. Holy Trinity and Epiphany. It's interesting that you ask about Evangelicals. There is a smallish church in Decatur called All Saints that is an evengelical Presbyterian church. It is a really interesting church because the pastor is about the coolest guy I know, and it is actually full of very hip, left leaning evangelicals (can you believe that such a thing exists?). Everyone wears jeans to church, and they bring in their coffee cups. There are even several lesbian members. They break mid service for what they call the Liturgy of the Bean so that everyone can go out and refill their cups with some sort of high end, free trade, super strong java. I'm definitely not an Evengelical so I've never considered joining that church. However, I do have a couple of friends who go there and I drop in every now and then because it really is an enjoyable service. Anyway.. I digress.. .but it really is an interesting little idiosyncracy of Decatur that I've never seen elsewhere.

Whew... that's a lot to type. Sorry about the typos ahead of time. My fingers are clutzy. Good luck in your search. Definitely take a look at the other districts on your list.. particularly Mary Lin - I think it's an awesome little school with a great community.

[jwgraves2]

Thanks again for your response Frances. I should have used the word "Fundamentalist" rather than "Evangelical".

[calypsogirl]

This is great! Thank you!! -

[kaabye]

Morningside elementary in morningside/va highlands is a great school does well on testing and is a throw back...most parents walk kids to school daily. the area is some what expensive but it "ïn town" in Atlanta has it's advantages.

Atlanta movers

[Rhonda Rowland]

CMTiger, you are absolutely correct. [URL="http://www.greatschools.net"]www.greatschools.net[/URL] is a great site and it also has links to test scores along with the parent reviews.

There is also another site:[mod]link removed, linking to competitors sites is not allowed[/mod] where you can compare various cities (wonderful when trying to choose where to live) with all types of data including schools, air quality, employment, etc.

[reevesy]

Somebody said the peachtree section of Norcross is OK, what is considered the peachtree section?

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by reevesy

Somebody said the peachtree section of Norcross is OK, what is considered the peachtree section?

The part of Norcross you are referring to is called Peachtree Corners.


Very nice area. Good schools.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by reevesy

Somebody said the peachtree section of Norcross is OK, what is considered the peachtree section?

Peachtree Corners, Georgia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

United Peachtree Corners Civic Association

[MEME1234]

please anyone i need to know if riverdale area is good or bad my friend wants me to move there but i really need to know and also are the schools ok oh and 1 more thing i heard georgia has a large hiv/aids rate is this a fact PLEASE HELP PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!