Relocating to Charlottesville Need Advice on Best Schools (Richmond: 2013, to live in)

[Mandee428]

I'm relocating to the Charlottesville area and I am having trouble finding information on the public schools. My boys are both in elementary school. My older son is dyslexic with a small learning disability so a great school is VERY important. Any advice is much appreciated!

Thanks,
Mandee

[Green Irish Eyes]

Have you visited GreatSchools.net? That will give you an idea of how some parents have rated the schools. You can also check directly with the school districts -- Charlottesville City has its own schools, separate from the surrounding Albemarle County district.

Generally, the county schools are considered "better" than the city schools, but YMMV. I believe that each school's website will have a link to its Report Card. This will give you details about how well the students performed on standardized tests, the overall safety of the school, attendance rates, etc.

You can also contact the Special Education departments for Charlottesville and Albemarle for details on available services.

If you decide to live outside Charlottesville/Albemarle, I'd again start with Great Schools to determine which other local districts are worth investigating.

[Kingslea]

Charlottesville has great elementary schools.

The best elementary school in the area is Meriweather Lewis, but most every elementary school is solid

[TN Lily]

You should check out the thread on Buford (Charlottesville's school for 7th & 8th graders) on this forum too.

Unless you plan on moving before your kids are old enough for middle school, that will become an issue if you move into Charlottesville.

[VaNative]

Originally Posted by TN Lily

You should check out the thread on Buford (Charlottesville's school for 7th & 8th graders) on this forum too.

Unless you plan on moving before your kids are old enough for middle school, that will become an issue if you move into Charlottesville.

That's excellent advice...If hoping to live inside the city limits, plan on private schools instead of having to deal with Buford.

[denise38]

I would have to say that Albemarle County School system has greatly improved my childs learning ability and also the teachers and upper staff there MAKE your child WANT to learn. My son went from a failing standpoint with the City schools to ALL passing SOLs as a senior at Albemarle High School. So thats all I can say about that........ Daughter in 3rd grade started in private school went to Greer has been in all advanced classes since enrollment. and I was very hesitant and public school.

[Jesco White]

CHS can be great if you make the best of it. Unfortunately there's a lot of "students" that basically treat it as a quick stop before the city jail. If your kid is the type who can get into advanced and honors classes, he doesn't have to worry about those "students".

Albemarle schools are plagued with similar problems, on a much smaller scale. The rankings (from lowest to highest) are probably: Monticello, Albemarle, Western Albemarle.

As for pre-HS, I would probably keep them out of cville schools due to the integrated nature of the classrooms and the ability of certain kids to pollute the entire class.

[Oliver_2012]

I recommend that you don't pay too much attention to the above comments. The actual data shows that almost all Charlottesville schools, for instance, are better than the county's. That said, Albemarle has very good schools too, and a few weak ones. The following website will give you the official scores and the rankings of each school in the area: https://p1pe.doe.virginia.gov/reportcard/
Please disregard some of the prejudicial comments above. They reflect a small minority... people in Charlottesville are much more progressive than that.

[hithere17]

Originally Posted by Jesco White

CHS can be great if you make the best of it. Unfortunately there's a lot of "students" that basically treat it as a quick stop before the city jail. If your kid is the type who can get into advanced and honors classes, he doesn't have to worry about those "students".

Lived in the area for several years recently. Jesco is spot on. If your child displays great initiative, and is extremely independent, he/she will be fine at CHS. It is the only high school in the town of Charlottesville, so it is very diverse, which I think is a positive. My child went to WAHS and found it to be unnecessarily snobby; we've lived all over so the area that feeds in to WAHS was unremarkable to us. WAHS is very strong academically, so that is a positive.

CHS is not nearly as bad as an inner city school in say Richmond, but it isn't a sought after school, imo,

[TinaTurnstone]

Originally Posted by hithere17

...If your child displays great initiative, and is extremely independent, he/she will be fine...

“In many school systems there is a large homogeneous group of students in the middle of the student population with a relatively small number of high achievers and students with need for extra support on either end. In Charlottesville, we have a significant group of high achievers on one end, a large group of students who need extra educational support services at the other end of the spectrum, and a relatively small group of students in the middle…” August 2013, City of Charlottesville and Charlottesville City Schools Blue Ribbon Commission on Sustainable School Funding