Good schools with easy commute to Irving area (Flower Mound, Coppell: vs, flight path)

[calgirlinnc]

Originally Posted by boney12

Grapevine seems to be in close proximity to DFW, hence am not considering it.

Colleyville High school doesn't seem to be highly rated.. at least per Greatschools.

Just to echo the previous poster, I absolutely would not rely on Greatschools ratings.

Let's look at two examples, Central HS in Keller ISD and Colleyville-Heritage HS. Both schools have a rating of "7" on Greatschools. But if you investigate more detailed information, you will see that there are differences.

Average SAT

Central HS 1103
Heritage HS 1171

SAT participation rate

Central 66%
Heritage 75%

AP math participation rate

Central 6%
Heritage 13%


Considering you are asking a local board for recommendations, you might actually want to rely on people with boots on the ground and not just dismiss their ideas in favor of the Greatschools website.

Regarding areas, Plano to Irving is a terrible idea.

Grapevine and Flower Mound will have airplane noise depending on where you are. Southlake, Keller and Colleyville much less so. (Keller meaning zoned to Keller HS). Somewhere on this forum there is a map of flight patterns.

[ChristieP]

If you can spend $1M on a house, on a large lot, with an easy commute to Las Colinas, and great schools, you need to be looking in Southlake and Colleyville. Commuting from Plano would be a horrible waste of time.

Look at a map of DFW’s runways. With one exception, the runways are north and south, and the closest approaches are over Lake Grapevine, highways, and commercial property. Planes flying over residential areas in Grapevine, Southlake or Colleyville are very rare, and that is by design since the surrounding suburbs were mostly cow pastures when DFW was built in the early 1970s.. The only time the northwest runway gets used for takeoffs is when the wind is out of the northwest, so it’s only a few days a year. Otherwise, the airport gets lots of noise complaints. I live very close to DFW, but I’m on the west side, so planes never fly over my house.

Cistercian’s a wonderful school, but it is all male, and also very religious and very Catholic. It is not a “normal” high school. Your sons would have to want to be in that environment to flourish there.

[boney12]

Great info. Thanks calgirlinnc and ChristieP.

[TurtleCreek80]

Coppell, Southlake, Flower Mound, Colleyville. Excellent schools and your budget will get you a very nice home.

There is absolutely no need to consider Collin County suburbs (Frisco, Allen, etc) in your situation.

[boney12]

Thanks

[Rakin]

Originally Posted by boney12

Thanks

And at "Flexibility" on price in a top notch school district with a great location on a great home on an oversized lot.

You probably want cheap property taxes also.

[boney12]

Dallas property taxes are indeed cheaper than where I would be moving from.

[cordata]

Originally Posted by boney12

Dallas property taxes are indeed cheaper than where I would be moving from.

On a percentage of the property value? Dallas is extremely high.

[4Movingeast]

Airplane noise was and is more of a factor where I grew up 35 min from DFW airport (Eagle Mountain Lake) than where I live now which is 10 min from the airport (Colleyville).

The schools in GCISD are great and the gap between Carroll ISD (Southlake) and GCISD (Grapevine, Colleyville, part of Euless, tiny part of Hurst) when you look at the stats is due to the fact that there is some socioeconomic diversity in GCISD that simply does not exist in Carroll ISD. Personally I think they are both great places to raise a family and you just have to decide which one feels right to you.

I will say, that I think you should consider what type of child you have. From my observation, families in Southlake have a hard time when they have a child that doesn't have a "thing" whether it be athletics, grades, band, drama, tennis whatever. But it's so common for people to not really have a specialty in the younger years and I think it's harder for kids in Southlake than it is for kids in GCISD- not due to us not having talented kids but it is just a next level pressure cooker in Southlake. And that's saying something because the pressure is high here in Colleyville.

[adixyz]

Originally Posted by boney12

Dallas property taxes are indeed cheaper than where I would be moving from.

Here is a good site listing property taxes of all the cities you are considering.

I live in Flower Mound and never heard of anyone complaining about airplane noise. During takeoff or landing some areas in Coppell and Grapevine might experience more noise. Check their site or call them.

On traffic, its bad everywhere during peak hours. The 2499 project previously completed bypassed the Grapevine mall and already alleviate major bottleneck. The ongoing construction on 2499 to split 114/635/121 in separate exits will help further. Right now commute is a breeze, but when things come back to normal, your commute time to Las Calinas should be the same from Flower Mound, Southlake and Colleyville.

You didn't mention what grades your kids are, so do check out the feeders schools to the high school if they are in elementary/middle school. FM has excellent schools, lots of greenery, parks and vicinity to hiking, biking trails and lake. This site has some good information on academics on the schools in addition to the school rating sites.

Would recommend to visit the schools and possibly speak to the school councillor. Every school sites has good information on what they offer- Eg Check out the FMHS site - it has numerous clubs/activities listed. If you are high into certain sports, some schools might be better than others.