Walkable neighborhood with good public schools

[Gorges]

Originally Posted by fish76

OP here. Eek, too be honest, I'm not sure we want the super-intense option anyway. I grew up with that in the DC burbs, and I'm sure it's worse now than then. A good balance sounds better to me. Thanks everyone for your feedback.

Well, there ya go!

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by fish76

OP here. Eek, too be honest, I'm not sure we want the super-intense option anyway. I grew up with that in the DC burbs, and I'm sure it's worse now than then. A good balance sounds better to me. Thanks everyone for your feedback.

Also the Cherry Creek Schools put you smack in the middle of suburbia with zero walkable neighborhoods.

Denver is where you want to be.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by davidv

^^This^^
Cherry Creek HS has a lot of smart students and very competitive academics. Students graduating from here routinely attend Eastern universities like the Ivy League Schools, MIT, Georgetown, etc., as well as top schools in the Midwest (Washington Univ. St. Louis, Oberlin, Univ. of Chicago, Michigan, Notre Dame etc) and the West Coast (Stanford, Cal-Berkeley, Pomona/Clairmont, USC, etc.). It sends more students to CU-Boulder, Colorado Mines and U of Denver than any other high school in the US. It also has more National Merit Scholars than any other Colorado school.

The school is 60 years old, so it has a more established tradition of excellence than other suburban schools.

Originally Posted by fish76

OP here. Eek, too be honest, I'm not sure we want the super-intense option anyway. I grew up with that in the DC burbs, and I'm sure it's worse now than then. A good balance sounds better to me. Thanks everyone for your feedback.

As David mentions above, the Cherry Creek district is very good. I grew up in that district.

One thing to consider though is that walkability goes down dramatically as soon as you leave the city for the suburbs. We made the decision to be in the city largely because of this. The DPS elementary options are quite good, and as I said in my previous post, the DSST middle school is ranked #1 in the state if that's what you are looking for.

My wife and I are going through school decisions right now as our daughter will be in kindergarten next year. She has been in the DPS preschool for the past two years and we have been pretty happy with it.

I would encourage you to go out and tour schools if that is a major concern as opposed to taking what a bunch of people on the internet say as gospel. I have toured half a dozen elementary schools over the past couple of months and honestly I haven't been to one that I thought was a bad option for us.

I had a great talk with a woman I know who studies education and is writing a book on the subject right now. She had some great advice, which was basically this: Parents freak out about school choices too much.

You are obviously pretty successful; you're spending $650,000 on a house. You are thinking about your kids and want what is best for them. You're obviously educated. Just knowing this about you, your kids are going to be just fine.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

As David mentions above, the Cherry Creek district is very good. I grew up in that district.

One thing to consider though is that walkability goes down dramatically as soon as you leave the city for the suburbs. We made the decision to be in the city largely because of this. The DPS elementary options are quite good, and as I said in my previous post, the DSST middle school is ranked #1 in the state if that's what you are looking for.

My wife and I are going through school decisions right now as our daughter will be in kindergarten next year. She has been in the DPS preschool for the past two years and we have been pretty happy with it.

I would encourage you to go out and tour schools if that is a major concern as opposed to taking what a bunch of people on the internet say as gospel. I have toured half a dozen elementary schools over the past couple of months and honestly I haven't been to one that I thought was a bad option for us.

I had a great talk with a woman I know who studies education and is writing a book on the subject right now. She had some great advice, which was basically this: Parents freak out about school choices too much.

You are obviously pretty successful; you're spending $650,000 on a house. You are thinking about your kids and want what is best for them. You're obviously educated. Just knowing this about you, your kids are going to be just fine.

Exactly! My post from yet another discussion on metro schools:

Originally Posted by Katarina Witt

OP, I think you are over-analyzing this a bit. The best advice I got when we moved once was from a friend who had previously lived where we were moving. She said there were good school districts and bad school districts there but we wouldn't buy a house in a bad district. Best advice I ever got about schools, and I like to pass it on. You're not going to buy some trashed-out house. When you look at a house, drive around the whole area, see if you like what you see. If you're concerned about living near other families I'd suggest going with something fairly new, and look for stuff like bikes, trikes, toys around (harder to do in winter I know). If you see lots of cars parked in front of houses, there are probably teens/college students living there. I should know, we once had 4 cars and only two of them fit in the garage.

Good luck!

I will also say, many of the burbs are fairly walkable, at least to school. The burbs pretty much all have sidewalks, and especially for elementary schools, schools tend to be located in residential areas.

[Bradburn1]

Check out my neighborhood, Bradburn Village in Westminster. A walkable, new urbanist neighborhood with excellent home schools. From every home in Bradburn, it's a 5-15 min (one way) walk to 14 restaurants, 2 bars, 2 organic grocers (Whole Foods and Sprouts), multiple services (dentists, hair salons, gyms, liquor store, car repair place, Starbucks, many other stores), 10 parks, and the huge Dry Creek Open Space.

Our home schools are elementary: Cotton Creek (rated 9 on Greatschools.org), Westlake Middle School (also rated a 9), and Legacy High School (rated an 8). I've had a kid in these schools and have had an excellent experience, as have my neighbors.

Bradburn is a new neighborhood (established in 2002), but all construction is now finished. It's built with homes in neotraditional styles, most with alley loaded garages, and all with front porches. Wide sidewalks all with tree buffers to protect pedestrians. As a result of pedestrian oriented construction, most homes have small yards. Neighborhood is super, super social with many events through the year and neighbors are very friendly--everyone knows everyone like a small town. Loads of kids, mostly middle school age and down.

30 minutes to downtown Denver, 30-40 to downtown Boulder in traffic, less than that when not rush hour.

[mic111]

Bradburn is a good suggestion.

Also check out this neighborhood north of Denver. It is Cheyenne Ridge.
14447 Jason Dr, Westminster, CO 80023 | Zillow
Have to show you a sold home as there is nothing for sale in there right now (holidays and all).
Good schools and walkable to lots but not the schools.

In the DTC look at Heritage Place. Great schools, central elementary for walking as well as grocery, restaurants, movie, library and light rail.
6502 S Pontiac Court, Centennial, CO 80111 | MLS 5475014 | Listing Information

Cherry Knolls near Southglenn has good schools. Southglenn has grocery (Whole Foods and Vit. Cottage) as well as lots of restaurants and stores.
6849 S Elizabeth Cir, Centennial, CO 80122 | Zillow
A plus is that you have good access to the Highline Canal trail.

[Katarina Witt]

Louisville and Lafayette are also quite walkable, basically throughout the entire cities. Both cities have numerous festivals and events, lots of bars and coffee shops. There are several elementary schools in both towns, one middle school in Lafayette and two in Louisville; one high school each. Several groceries in each, including Sprouts and Alfalfa's, if you're into "organic".

I won't shave off commute times here, count on the better part of an hour to Denver, less if you're lucky, 15-20 min to Boulder, depending on where you're coming from. Louisville is closer to Boulder.

In the OP's price range, Louisville:
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale..._zm/?3col=true
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale..._zm/?3col=true
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale..._zm/?3col=true
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale..._zm/?3col=true
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale..._zm/?3col=true
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale...2_p/?3col=true
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale...2_p/?3col=true

Lafayette: (Note-most are lower-priced)
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale..._zm/?3col=true
500,000s:
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale..._zm/?3col=true
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale..._zm/?3col=true
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale..._zm/?3col=true

[MissTerri]

Downtown Littleton is walkable and the schools are pretty solid elementary through high school.