Cincy transplants - compare Charlotte and Cincy neighborhoods/school districts please! (Huntersville: home, wedding)

[cincy_native]

Hi all:
DH and I are currently entertaining a relocation to Charlotte from Cincinnati, OH. DH will be working in the uptown area. As I am sure most of you are used to seeing, schools are of paramount importance to us, and we have children in elementary, middle and high schools.

I have been attempting to do some research about the Charlotte area and am curious as to how schools are assigned. Here in Cincy, almost all public schools are based on area in which you live and redistricting rarely occurs. The school with the most national recognition, Walnut Hills, is a magnet school within Cincinnati PS and requires an entrance exam. The rest of the "highly touted" schools are in outlying suburban areas which requires you to buy a home within the district. So, with that being said, could one of you helpful forum folks help me match Cincy school districts to Charlotte districts? I will enter some assumptions based on what little I have been able to research, but please disabuse me of any assumptions if you deem them false

Walnut Hills = Myers Park, maybe?
Mason = Mooresville?
Sycamore = ?
Wyoming = ?
Indian Hill = ?
Madeira and Mariemont = ?

We currently live within the Sycamore school district in Cincinnati. It is "close-in" suburb of Cincy, just inside the interstate loop circling the city. Ideally, we will be able to find a similar school district in Charlotte -- one which values education AND cultural diversity. Sycamore has a 96% college attendance rate, lots of AP classes and an ethnic breakdown approximating: 73% white, 10% asian, 10% black, 3% latino, 4% other.

So, those of you who have moved to Charlotte, could you please suggest some neighborhoods to consider? Our housing budget will be $650 - 850K. Another consideration is that my eldest daughter in HS is a very competitive tennis player. Proximity to a highly regarded juniors tennis program would also be a plus. In my very brief research so far, would Ardrey Kell be a good fit?

Finally, is there a decent realtor website which allows you to search the MLS by school district? Here in Cincinnati, the sibcy cline website allows you to search by school district which makes things much easier. Please feel free to PM me if it is against the terms of service to promote certain websites.

Thanks!

[GoPhils]

I've never been to Cincy but I don't know if it's fair to compare Cincy and Charlotte regarding redistricting. When you have growth like Charlotte has had, there's going to be redistricting.

But anyway, it seems like the consensus that the best overall rated HS that's closer-in would be Providence.
Although Ballantyne (Ardrey Kell) is really just a part of Charlotte, it's basically just a suburb. Myers Park is closer-in than both of them and has a highly regarded IB program, but is probably more socioeconomically diverse and as a result the overall ratings aren't as high. And of course there are also good schools (some would argue superior) outside of Mecklenburg County.

You can get an idea of the diversity (for NC at least) by looking at the NC School Report Card - NC School Report Cards If you go to the "High Student Performance" tab, there is a breakdown by gender/ethnicity/income.

[SunshineCJ]

Originally Posted by cincy_native

We currently live within the Sycamore school district in Cincinnati. It is "close-in" suburb of Cincy, just inside the interstate loop circling the city. Ideally, we will be able to find a similar school district in Charlotte -- one which values education AND cultural diversity. Sycamore has a 96% college attendance rate, lots of AP classes and an ethnic breakdown approximating: 73% white, 10% asian, 10% black, 3% latino, 4% other.

Just look for the Columbus thread with neighborhood comparisons. Sycamore is real close to UA, Worthington, Dublin.

AK is good but it has over 2,700 students at this standpoint. Myers Park is also over 2,700 students. From my memory Sycamore was never that big.

You would be better off in the Marvin or Weddington areas if you are targeting AK right now. Both are just 10 minutes away from AK and Ballantyne. Both fit your profile in terms of $$$s, schools and tennis teams.

[cincy_native]

Thanks so much for the replies Sunshine. I am fairly familiar with UA, Worthington and Dublin. We competed against several schools in those areas during the girls tennis season this fall. Also, my SIL lives in Clintonville and is contemplating a move to Worthington. That being said: 2700 students? Whoa. A couple very helpful folks in a PM also explained the major difference with Charlotte schools being administered county-wide while Cincinnati schools are governed by local school boards. Consequently, do many parents resort to sending their children to private schools due to school size? Here in Cincinnati, many families use private schools, but primarily due to the Catholic school tradition in the area. In fact, most Catholic schools here are still gender-specific (which seems almost quaint, if not antiquated).

Sunshine, what is the commute time from Marvin/Weddington to uptown during rush hour?

How do you all feel about the Lake Norman area? We have friends who reside in Mooresville, but when I have visited, it feels so very far from Charlotte. If we lived up that way, I'm guessing we would want to be closer to Huntersville due to commute times to uptown.

[ex-burgher]

I77 north of uptown is a parking lot at rush hour - you would have to deal with that.
Here are the boundary maps for CMS schools: http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/cmsdepartme...ndaryMaps.aspx

you will want to consider this - as CMS has some really good schools and some really terrible ones. Where you can live depends a lot on your budget of course.

[LLN]

In all but the worst schools, and there are some, if your kids care and you care, your kid will be fine.

CMS is a mess and I am SOOOOOOOO glad those days are behind us. The problem:

You have hyper rich and hyper poor in the in city

You have ever expanding burbs all around

Too many constituents with too many agendas.

100's of educrats in CMS get paid $100K or more, and they just want to protect their fat cat jobs. Since most of these overpaid losers are not very smart, they do NOTHING to improve education, rather nibble at the periphery, with no return on the taxpayers' investment. None.

Put all that together and you have a SYSTEM WIDE mess. Comical even. Certainly pathetic.

But....... within the schools themselves, there are lots of special little jewels.

My oldest when to HOPEWELL High School. I doubt you will hear a kind word about it, it is up near Huntersville.

At the time, Hopewell had a great Latin program, a superb art and theater department, and plenty of AP classes. My daughter was accepted everywhere she applied, including IVY League. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) up in New York practically stalked her.

She went to UNCSA, and is working on TV show out of NY City. Perfect launch, perfect trajectory, right on target.

OBTW, at the time, the word on the street was that GANGS controlled Hopewell, and they charged kids to go through doors. My daughter just laughed in my face. The rep, while my daughter attending, from many people on this forum, was beyond terrible.

CMS would NEVER, EVER be my first choice, but taking advice from anyone without kids in the specific school, CURRENTLY is a huge mistake.

[LLN]

Originally Posted by GoPhils

You can get an idea of the diversity (for NC at least) by looking at the NC School Report Card - NC School Report Cards If you go to the "High Student Performance" tab, there is a breakdown by gender/ethnicity/income.

So refreshing to see someone reference this site beside me.

Things I would look for, and I teach, are:

MIddle school: Suspensions and how many take and pass Math 1 (what the rest of the universe calls algebra...OBTW welcome to NC) Algebra is a high school subject, but most middle schools offer a section or two. Look how many people take/pass and compare that to the 8th grade size. The greater the % of 8th graders taking algebra,,,,,,,,dang it, "math 1" the better the deal.

If I may opine, this analysis 8th grade, math i, 8th grade population is about the best indicator there is of how things are going.

High School: Number taking and passing AP and IB classes, and I thnk it is still there, SAT results, that may have changed

The EOG and EOC scores pretty much speak for themselves. Any school worth its salt, however, can very convincingly explain away why its scores are lower than they should be. Grain of salt.

[Riley09swb]

Check into Cabarrus County. Western Cabarrus County. Cox Mill or Odell School district. Harris Road Middle and Cox Mill High school.