Family Moving to Chicago - Schools in the City (Lincoln: condo, co-op)

[southfan123]

I posted this in the Suburbs forum as well, but I wanted to see if the city was an option, possibly Hyde/Lincoln Park (but actually all suggestions welcome, because I know nothing of Chicago).

My wife and I are in our mid to late 30s and have a 5 year old who will be starting school next year. We need a very good elementary school (public) for him, need 3BR, preferrably close to parks and other child friendly amenities. Looking for downtown areas with people in our general age range, we are not party folks anymore, but not too old to get out once in a while. We are in the price range of 450k to 550k.

I'll be working on West Roosevelt Road in the downtown 60608 zip. Wife will be working on North Wacker Drive in the 60606 zip (I know nothing of Chicago so if this information is meaningless, please disregard).

Any help is appreciated.

[southfan123]

Anyone have suggestions?

[chitown68]

What you should do is use a school ratings website like GreatSchools.net to find out what schools are in the area that you will be living .One of the best schools in Hyde Park is Ray Elementary. In the Lincoln Park area, you could check out Lincoln Elementary. But it would probably be most helpful to use the search engine on the greatschools website to get a complete list of schools in that area. Parent reviews as well as a break down of student performance on state assessments are also provided.

[Drover]

schoolmatters.com is another good school resource. Schoolmatters.com and Greatschools.net will both reveal the Chicago schools suck impressive amounts of ass. City elementary schools are generally not horrible. After that, put your kids in private schools if you can, unless you can figure out how to manipulate the system to get them into magnet schools.

[Manigault]

I moved to Chicago from Tidewater 30 years ago. As to the Chicago public high schools, I have come to believe that most middle-income parents are able to finagle their children into the magnet public high schools where a decent education can be had. The private high schools charge tuition at what I consider a college rate. This is ok if you are sure your child will receive a college scholarship or attend one of the service academies.

[southfan123]

Thanks for the replies. Doesn't say a whole lot for the public school system in Chicago. The magnet public schools may be an option, but it will be a while before we need them.

[Cindy1971]

We live in an area with exceptional schools (for Chicago) but the prices we pay is that there isn't much else around here. Look in Edison Park, Oriole Park, Sauganash, Eddebrook and Norwood Park. You should be able to get a house (not condo etc) with a yard for about that price.\

But as I said, your commute wouldn't be great. There are metra trains (fast commuter trains) in those areas, though, so that would help. It's the way northwest side, for reference.

[Cindy1971]

PS The Chicago Public School website (don't know it offhand) will let you type in the address of a house and you can find what school it belongs to. You can then pull up the school report card.

Once you establish the schools you want, you can type in your commute on the CTA or metra's websites, metrarail.com and transitchicago.com. That is how we did it.

My husband has about a 45 min commute via Metra from where we live, which is the John Garvy school district/Taft High School. Not much in the way of walkable social life, but it's family friendly and not too far from downtown of Edison Park, which has some good restaurants.

[Chinolala]

I agree with Cindy. Look into Wildwood, Edgebrook, Sauganash, Sauganash Park, Forest Glen, Norwood Park and Edison Park. These are really nice family neighborhoods on the NW side of the city. I have family there and my brother in law's ride downtown on Metra is about 45 minutes which isn't bad at all. These area are pricey and you won't have the best house on the block with your budget. You may be able to get a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1 car garage but living in that area is wonderful. You can worry about higschool later, lol

[Mschicago]

yes, I agree with chitown68 Ray School is a very good school I attended william H. Ray in Hyde Park in 1995. But check it out because Ms. Fields and Ms. Lobbies retired this year ( Principal and v Principal) but the area has went down some anytime the co-op gets robby its a problem