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If you are trying to keep it to one car, why not look at the buslines that serve UNCC and follow them out to a reasonable distance?
I would look more carefully at those sucky schools. Find out why people think they're bad. You might discover that it is all relative and you could stand to put your kids in one for a year until you save the money for the house.
I'll look into the busline. Thanks! My husband and I don't want to live too close to the college kids. 20 mins shouldn't be too bad of a commute (Huntersville or Concord).
I don't think Mallard Creek schools are that bad - I've known a few families who are happy with them. Also the Mallard Creek neighborhood has a wonderful greenway running through it - which leads all the way to UNCC! Biking to work at UNCC would be a dream IMO!! Mallard Creek and Clark's Creek
It connects to Toby Creek Greenway which runs through campus: Toby Creek Greenway
What does "that bad" mean? I realize NY schools are ahead in academics, so I don't want to move down and have my son really set back by being in a not so good school. I'll look more into the schools. Thanks for the suggestion!
It's going to be hard to compare schools with other areas - for me the only way to tell is how hard your kid is working. I went to school in the Pittsburgh suburbs while my kids went to school here. I don't believe there is a very big difference in the elementary school years. I found expectations to be lower overall in middle school. In high school, all students are tracked here - top students go to honors and AP classes. Test scores tell you very little - many schools are here have a lot of African American students - more than up north. Since they statistically do worse on standardized tests, scores will be lower at some schools, even though one can get a very good education there - especially with tracking. The best thing would be to make an appointment to visit the school and talk with the principal - maybe look in on some classes.
My biggest complaint about the high school system here is the 4X4 schedule - only 4 very long periods per day, each class every other day. It's too long for many teachers to lecture so they often end up being allowed to do their homework during class. So this means LESS instruction time compared to the traditional schedule. My daughter rarely has homework because she did it in class. (However my son was in the highly regarded IB program and did not have this issue)
There are also magnet schools if you don't like your neighborhood school.
It's going to be hard to compare schools with other areas - for me the only way to tell is how hard your kid is working. I went to school in the Pittsburgh suburbs while my kids went to school here. I don't believe there is a very big difference in the elementary school years. I found expectations to be lower overall in middle school. In high school, all students are tracked here - top students go to honors and AP classes. Test scores tell you very little - many schools are here have a lot of African American students - more than up north. Since they statistically do worse on standardized tests, scores will be lower at some schools, even though one can get a very good education there - especially with tracking. The best thing would be to make an appointment to visit the school and talk with the principal - maybe look in on some classes.
My biggest complaint about the high school system here is the 4X4 schedule - only 4 very long periods per day, each class every other day. It's too long for many teachers to lecture so they often end up being allowed to do their homework during class. So this means LESS instruction time compared to the traditional schedule. My daughter rarely has homework because she did it in class. (However my son was in the highly regarded IB program and did not have this issue)
There are also magnet schools if you don't like your neighborhood school.
We've lived in the Mallard Creek Area (behind Trader Joe's) for a while now and have had absolutely zero issues nor have we ever felt unsafe. If I wasn't working in Ballantyne now, we would consider purchasing a house in this area or Highland Creek. The advice here is usually pretty good, but remember YMMV ..
Thanks for the advice everyone! We moved to Huntersville and absolutely love it! Not a bad commute at all and there's so many amenities. We're zoned to Grand Oak Elementary so another plus.
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