where are the liberal, family friendly suburbs?

[searchingforserenity]

Originally Posted by citymama

Can you share where you are coming from? Brecksville is known as a very good school district in the area with a ton of activities. We are in Rocky River, and Brecksville seems like a huge district compared to ours.
I think this may be because they also include Broadview Heights in the enrollment. I do believe that you will find test focused atmospheres in all of these high ranking districts in the area. You have to help be the buffer and pass down your values to your kids so that can resist the insane pressure. Of course, this is all relative. I was also a teacher from the west coast.

We're coming from the Columbus, OH area. We want to be somewhere where we have easy access to the city, but have a nice, quiet place to come home to. We would love to be able to walk to the library, ride the bike trails, go for walks and sit on a porch and relax. We love that Brecksville is right next to Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We have 2 elementary aged children and are looking for our forever home. Most of the districts around here (the ones we can afford anyway) have a minimum of 2 high schools, so large districts are not unfamiliar to us. We want a family-friendly community with kind people. Thanks for your insight!

[WRnative]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_Metro_Parks

Originally Posted by searchingforserenity

We're coming from the Columbus, OH area. We want to be somewhere where we have easy access to the city, but have a nice, quiet place to come home to. We would love to be able to walk to the library, ride the bike trails, go for walks and sit on a porch and relax. We love that Brecksville is right next to Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We have 2 elementary aged children and are looking for our forever home. Most of the districts around here (the ones we can afford anyway) have a minimum of 2 high schools, so large districts are not unfamiliar to us. We want a family-friendly community with kind people. Thanks for your insight!

Perhaps also look at Twinsburg. Median home values are lower than in Brecksville. The schools are well regarded. It's close to both Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Tinkers Creek State Park, Tinkers Creek State Nature Preserve, and Summit Metroparks' Liberty Park is in Twinsburg.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_Metro_Parks

[searchingforserenity]

Originally Posted by WRnative

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_Metro_Parks

Perhaps also look at Twinsburg. Median home values are lower than in Brecksville. The schools are well regarded. It's close to both Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Tinkers Creek State Park, Tinkers Creek State Nature Preserve, and Summit Metroparks' Liberty Park is in Twinsburg.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_Metro_Parks

Thank you, WRnative! We have looked a little at Twinsburg - does it have walkability to a library, parks or small downtown area?

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by searchingforserenity

Thank you, WRnative! We have looked a little at Twinsburg - does it have walkability to a library, parks or small downtown area?

Don't know. I haven't been there in decades, and even then, it was just a drive through. I recommended Twinsburg because of your interest in natural areas, and Twinsburg has them in abundance. One place that rivals Twinsburg in this regard, and perhaps surpasses it, is Kirtland. Kirtland doesn't have a town square and never seemed very walkable to me. But it has a great, smaller school system, with one of the best small school football teams in Ohio! See Kirtland here:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g...Day.Trips.html

Twinsburg does have one very unique feature that attracts persons from the world!

https://www.theatlantic.com/video/in...45/twins-days/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...db8_story.html

When researching any community, don't overlook two excellent sources of information to answer your questions -- city government and the local chamber of commerce. Most school superintendent offices also will answer your questions eagerly. Google and other search engines offer many images. Most cities also have Facebook pages with individuals eager to answer questions.

https://www.twinsburgchamber.com/

For Shaker Heights, click on the "Community" header for many resources.

https://www.shakeronline.com/223/Com...ions-Marketing

Good luck!