Middle Schools: Grisham, Four Points, or Canyon Vista? (Austin, Orange: apartments, house)

[10scoachrick]

You may not get the pick of the litter in any of these areas...depending on budget. You mentioned a large lot/yard and I don't know of such a thing available in Pearson Place, Northwoods, Avery Ranch(depending on what you call large). As you can imagine, there are many folks with similar needs school and location-wise. Making sure you are in the "right" school zone may really limit your options for the actual house.

"The sooner, the quicker", as they say (Not sure who 'they' are).

I haven't followed closely; but the new Pearson area high school hasn't even been planned yet. It has been "on the books" for years and RRISD certainly needs another HS; but it could be 2-3 years away(or more, I suppose). Those with more direct interest will be able to offer comment.

Good luck!

[eirenecat]

Originally Posted by Austin97

a

It actually starts in kinder... There were kids coming in doing long division and writing complete paragraphs in kinder at laurel mountain. Although the range varied tremendously as some kids did not know their letters.

In the kinder parent meeting, the #1 question was how do we get our kids into the talented and gifted program.

YIKES. FWIW, at Pond Springs they pretty much told us not to even bother applying for gifted and talented until second or third grade.

If you're zoned to Anderson now, did you not feel the elementary and middle track in your new house was good? Curious why you chose private school--I think you've mentioned before that you're at Magellan if I recall correctly. I have some friends who send their son there and they love it.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by eirenecat

YIKES. FWIW, at Pond Springs they pretty much told us not to even bother applying for gifted and talented until second or third grade.

If you're zoned to Anderson now, did you not feel the elementary and middle track in your new house was good? Curious why you chose private school--I think you've mentioned before that you're at Magellan if I recall correctly. I have some friends who send their son there and they love it.

We only picked magellan because of the spanish immersion and chinese. Doss/Murch are fine. I definitely have changed my tune over the years. I used to think I only wanted my kids to go to tier 1 schools or even elite. But I have come to realize balance creates a more meaningful life as a whole rather than furiously engaging in a rat race starting in kinder.

[riaelise]

I'm sure McNeil will be fine despite the construction of the new high school. The demographics are favorable to it still being a good school whether the Asians migrate or not. And I'm a big believer that a kid can also get a quality education in the so-called second tiered schools in the area. There's no way I'm going to base my homebuying decision merely on arbitrary rankings.

[m2r]

Our kids are at Laurel Mountain and we were also told not to bother applying for TAG either. If you dig deeper, entire RRISD policy says the same thing. Rightly so, kids IQ is considered stable between the ages of 7-9. However, my kid showed a lot of gifted characteristics since birth, so we recommended her for the TAG test, sure enough she passed - without any prep. It is an IQ test, and we had no idea what questions will be asked, so we just told her to do her best.

We have had a private IQ test done for her later, and her scores are 140+ IQ , 99 percentile (higher than RRISD tested), I forget the exact numbers. To say that every kid is pushed to get into TAG would be incorrect, in my opinion most kids who were just pushed couldn't make the IQ cut even though they were working above grade level.

However, there are genuinely very high IQ kids in the class, I could tell. My kid thrives with peer simulation so it is definitely a good fit for her. There are all kinds of kids, if you kid shows mastery of grade level skills, there is almost nil homework (till now) except any unfinished work at school.

I definitely agree that this school may not be for everyone, and it may be worthwhile to schedule a school visit with the principal and speak with parents in person.

Originally Posted by eirenecat

YIKES. FWIW, at Pond Springs they pretty much told us not to even bother applying for gifted and talented until second or third grade.

If you're zoned to Anderson now, did you not feel the elementary and middle track in your new house was good? Curious why you chose private school--I think you've mentioned before that you're at Magellan if I recall correctly. I have some friends who send their son there and they love it.

[mesmer]

Originally Posted by eirenecat

YIKES. FWIW, at Pond Springs they pretty much told us not to even bother applying for gifted and talented until second or third grade.

If you're zoned to Anderson now, did you not feel the elementary and middle track in your new house was good? Curious why you chose private school--I think you've mentioned before that you're at Magellan if I recall correctly. I have some friends who send their son there and they love it.

I'm really surprised by the TAG thing. One of our kids was encouraged to try for TAG in K.

Back on topic, though - I once knew an "average" student at Westwood and they were miserable trying to keep up. It's too bad they can't move the entire dang school to pass/fail.

[Meaux]

When we moved to Austin we were interested in Westwood or McNeil (at the time, we felt those were the two top schools that we could afford. Westlake was out of the question.) We leaned towards McNeil because of stories from WW parents that we knew - things like kids sleeping in their cars during finals week so they could be in the library with the guided study sessions as much as possible, and the highly competitive environment. Our daughter is crazy smart, but we didn't want her getting buried in high school. McNeil seemed like it had a top notch academic atmosphere with significantly less pressure-cooker attitude.

Northwoods (my neighborhood) right now is Purple Sage --> (was Grisham, now Pearson Ranch MS) --> McNeil. We worked hard to ensure our neighborhood was in the PRMS boundary under the assumption that we would shift to the new high school when built (although that bond failed, probably changing the timeline?). In my opinion, the new high school will be strong for all of the reasons mentioned above. McNeil is very strong - so our neighborhood can't really lose. We are physically closest to Westwood, so if you choice into that school it would be a simple drive over.

Experience with McNeil - not a small school environment, kids/families need to know what they want and then have the motivation to push for it. Any time my daughter got confused about "how" to handle anything in the school it took a couple of emails/phone calls and she would have a battalion of adults ready to guide her through. Office hours for extra help were plentiful, and teachers were very open to meeting kids when needed. She is in the band too and what a great environment that is - tons of time but they really take care of the kids.

Our neighborhood is super happy about Purple Sage - I read that the school ratings went up (6 to an 8) recently, which doesn't surprise anyone here. They say it is a FANTASTIC school.

[applepiesf]

This is so helpful and timely! I'm in Austin looking at houses right now, and one option is in Northwoods in the Purple Sage/Pearson Ranch boundary. I'm very interested in Purple Sage because of its small size and diversity. We're coming from a 400-student elementary school, so I find these schools with close to 1000 kids to be kind of overwhelming.

It sounds like we are very likeminded on schools. At first I thought we would pick Westwood for sure since it's so highly rated, but when I read about how stressful it is, I changed my mind. I would be happy with McNeil or the new high school.

The house we're looking at in Northwoods has the train tracks directly behind it. I don't think this is a deal breaker, but if you have any experience with (or have heard from others) what's that like, I would love to hear any feedback. It's hard to know how often or how loud the train will be just from a couple daytime visits to the house. Being so close to the tracks means being very close to the station, which is very appealing to my husband!

Thank you for your help!

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by applepiesf

This is so helpful and timely! I'm in Austin looking at houses right now, and one option is in Northwoods in the Purple Sage/Pearson Ranch boundary. I'm very interested in Purple Sage because of its small size and diversity. We're coming from a 400-student elementary school, so I find these schools with close to 1000 kids to be kind of overwhelming.

It sounds like we are very likeminded on schools. At first I thought we would pick Westwood for sure since it's so highly rated, but when I read about how stressful it is, I changed my mind. I would be happy with McNeil or the new high school.

The house we're looking at in Northwoods has the train tracks directly behind it. I don't think this is a deal breaker, but if you have any experience with (or have heard from others) what's that like, I would love to hear any feedback. It's hard to know how often or how loud the train will be just from a couple daytime visits to the house. Being so close to the tracks means being very close to the station, which is very appealing to my husband!

Thank you for your help!

Apparently, it(train proximity) is not deal breaker for dozens and dozens of homes within shouting distance of the train tracks. I reckon different folks have different discomfort thresholds. One freight train runs through there about 0130 each very early morning...not sure about others running during the early morning hours; but I can hear the train from over a mile away(not disturbing at all at this distance). I honestly don't think I would "enjoy" living so close(perhaps homes on the west side of Staked Plains have a bit of a buffer with the trees and homes between your house and the tracks). We were initially interested in the original "planned" Scott Felder homes in Northwoods...until the price went up over $100K when the market went nuts(ca 2012-13). Certainly has convenient access to the train station; but that's not a draw for us. If you aren't familiar with that train line, the CapMetro train runs on those lines during the day, freight runs at night/early morning...more or less.

[Meaux]

regarding trains in Northwoods - I am (as 10scoachrick mentions) on the far side of Staked Plains, and I never notice the trains. They updated the Lakeline crossing in the past year to be a no horn zone, which helped immensely. I did used to hear the horns but they weren't obtrusive where my house is.

We do love being super close to the station, we often walk there when we take it downtown. Haven't tried it for a festival yet, but we will!