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Old 09-09-2016, 09:52 AM
 
71 posts, read 125,063 times
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Hello!
Wife got an internal offer from her company to move to Denver office which we are thinking of taking. We are ~35 and have 2 kids 4.5 and 1.5 years old. We are in NJ and live in an affluent town with some of the best public schools in the nation (Mendham, NJ). I am in consulting so no worries about moving there. I have been reading threads on here and gather that Cherry Creek might be the right place to move, but the PRE-K program might already be full. I have family members that live in Highland Ranch and simply rave about the school system there. Our Budget is 800K - 1.2MM. I have a couple of basic questions

1 - If you live in Denver Proper (cherry creek) does the school system depend on where you buy a house

2 - Is Highland Ranch school system almost as good as CCSD

3 - If we move in december , would we be able to send our kid to a school there, if not are there options for private school?

4- We are second generation Pakistani's; are both these communities well educated/ open minded?

5- What are the age demographics in these communities? I do not want to live in a retirement community

6- Should there be any other areas we should be considering?

Once this offer solidifies, we plan on visiting towards the end of the month and maybe going to a couple of open houses. Wanted to get a head start so we are not flying blind.

Thank you -
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Old 09-09-2016, 10:35 AM
 
Location: 0.83 Atmospheres
11,477 posts, read 11,505,074 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by danjmac View Post
Hello!
Wife got an internal offer from her company to move to Denver office which we are thinking of taking. We are ~35 and have 2 kids 4.5 and 1.5 years old. We are in NJ and live in an affluent town with some of the best public schools in the nation (Mendham, NJ). I am in consulting so no worries about moving there. I have been reading threads on here and gather that Cherry Creek might be the right place to move, but the PRE-K program might already be full. I have family members that live in Highland Ranch and simply rave about the school system there. Our Budget is 800K - 1.2MM. I have a couple of basic questions

1 - If you live in Denver Proper (cherry creek) does the school system depend on where you buy a house
If you are in Denver proper, you will be in the Denver Public School District. DPS is a large, urban school district that has some of the problems that go along with being such. Elementary schools in DPS range from excellent to poor and this is very much related to the affluence of the neighborhood that they draw from. Middle School and High school becomes a trickier situation in DPS because the areas that they draw from are much larger.

Cherry Creek means a few different things so it is important to differentiate.

Cherry Creek is a neighborhood in the City of Denver. Its neighborhood elementary school is Bromwell (Denver Public School). It is one of the best rated elementary schools in the state. If you live in the Cherry Creek neighborhood, you will get your kids in to Bromwell. Cherry Creek Mall and Cherry Creek North shopping district are in this neighborhood. They are very upscale.

Cherry Creek is also a school district that serves parts of Aurora, Greenwood Village, Unincorporated Arapahoe County, and I'm sure some other area I am forgetting. Cherry Creek School District is very highly rate across the board.

Cherry Creek is a creek that flows through Denver along Speer Boulevard

Cherry Creek Reservoir is a water storage and recreational reservoir with a surrounding state park

Quote:
Originally Posted by danjmac View Post
2 - Is Highland Ranch school system almost as good as CCSD
Highlands Ranch feeds Douglas County School District. We have several posters on here who have kids in the district. There have been a lot of politically charged issues with the DCSD board recently. To make a very broad statement, DCSD is good, but not quite as good as CCSD

Quote:
Originally Posted by danjmac View Post
3 - If we move in december , would we be able to send our kid to a school there, if not are there options for private school?
I believe you are guaranteed a space at your neighborhood school. There are private school options as well, but it will not be necessary.

Quote:
Originally Posted by danjmac View Post
4- We are second generation Pakistani's; are both these communities well educated/ open minded?
The city of Denver is a very liberal place and quite accepting. The Douglas County suburbs are definitely more conservative. I'm not sure what that translates to for acceptance.

Quote:
Originally Posted by danjmac View Post
5- What are the age demographics in these communities? I do not want to live in a retirement community
If you are living in an area with good schools, there will be lots of families with kids sending them there.

Quote:
Originally Posted by danjmac View Post
6- Should there be any other areas we should be considering?
If you want to look in the city, Congress Park, Wash Park, and Hilltop are in your budget and have lots of families with young kids. You might also look at Stapleton. It has the greatest concentration of young families in the city and great elementary schools. It's a quite accepting community. In fact, the more I think about it, Stapleton might be a great fit. It also has the best airport access if you need to travel for consulting work.

You'll get far less house for the money in the city than you will in the suburbs, but lots of us find that to be worth it.


Quote:
Originally Posted by danjmac View Post
Once this offer solidifies, we plan on visiting towards the end of the month and maybe going to a couple of open houses. Wanted to get a head start so we are not flying blind.

Thank you -
Good plan

Last edited by SkyDog77; 09-09-2016 at 10:48 AM..
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Old 09-09-2016, 10:41 AM
 
71 posts, read 125,063 times
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Thanks you!
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Old 09-09-2016, 11:04 AM
 
Location: Denver CO
24,204 posts, read 19,122,698 times
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A couple of additional points to what SkyDog said (and kudos for tackling the Cherry Creek definitions! lol!)

I can only speak to the specifics in DPS, but suspect it may apply to other districts as well. You are NOT guaranteed a public pre-K spot. Pre-K is not mandated, so the schools do not have to provide it. It's a popular program and there are far fewer spots than there is demand, and the majority of people who try to get their kid in don't. So yes, it's more likely than not that there will not be any openings for a pre-K student in December and you would need to use a private pre-K. Once your child is in kindergarten, you are guaranteed a spot for your zoned school, with the ability to try to choice into another school. But since choice is never guaranteed, the best option is always to live where you are zoned into the schools you want for your kid. The school choice/registration process starts in early January, so you should make sure you are living here and have proof of residence before that, so you can get your child registered and your spot reserved in January. Theoretically, they have to let you in if you move in during the school year, but it's always best to just avoid any possible problems IMO.

And I would second the recommendation to put Stapleton on your list of areas to consider. I live there and it's a great place for young families. Your budget gives you many housing options there and while your time frame is too short for you to do your own build, you will find many "gently used" resale options. It's also one of the best locations for easy access to the airport if that's a consideration - the airport is far away enough that you aren't impacted by it, but it's a quicker drive from here than anything else on your list.
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Old 09-09-2016, 11:06 AM
 
Location: In The Thin Air
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SkyDog is right about DCSD. It is getting better in the district but there are still problems to overcome. We still like it though. We love Highlands Ranch.
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Old 09-09-2016, 04:40 PM
Status: "Open for work" (set 9 days ago)
 
Location: Just south of Denver since 1989
11,822 posts, read 34,358,409 times
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If you have family in Highlands Ranch ask them about the schools. There are plenty of very nice houses in Highlands Ranch and Lone Tree.

You could also look into Cherry Creek Schools - south Aurora.

The average price here is $400,000 - so you are looking at very nice houses. Some will send their kids to private schools, some won't.
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Old 09-09-2016, 09:41 PM
 
71 posts, read 125,063 times
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Thanks - this moving thing is making my head spin. The family members like the highlands ranch schools. I have an issue paying more then 1 std deviation above mean for houses so don't want to spend more than 700 in hp. What do you guys think of hilltop?
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Old 09-09-2016, 10:00 PM
Status: "Open for work" (set 9 days ago)
 
Location: Just south of Denver since 1989
11,822 posts, read 34,358,409 times
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What would it mean for Your kids to live near their family? Hilltop is very nice if you like older houses in established neighborhoods. Highlands Ranch if you want something that's more suburban, more lot size 4 rec centers and closer to family but you should explore all before narrowing down your decision on housing.

Mean? Never heard anyone say that is their line in the sand.
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Old 09-10-2016, 07:14 AM
 
Location: Texas
5,846 posts, read 6,149,714 times
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We moved to Stapleton in 2012 (we've since relocated out of state), but we had a similar budget to yours and spent a lot of time looking in many of the areas mentioned above- specifically Hilltop, South Park Hill, Bonnie Brae, and Wash Park. Didn't look at Cherry Creek North because that was slightly out of our budget (which was a max $1M).

Honestly, we ended up in Stapleton after my husband (who did our house hunting exclusively because I hadn't moved up yet) saw over 50 houses in the above areas and concluded that anything below around $800K would require significant updates, in our opinion. That, and the fact that sometimes the schools were spotty.

So, we ended up in Stapleton because of the schools and the great commute time for my husband and the fact that our budget could buy us anything we wanted there. I enjoyed it there, but he did not. Stapleton and Highlands Ranch will give you the newer, suburban feel, and the other neighborhoods you are looking at are older and established.
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Old 09-10-2016, 01:15 PM
 
71 posts, read 125,063 times
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Thank you for the messages; Stapleton looks nice but is a bit out of our 15 minutes distance of greenwood village where my wife will be working. For me I can uber to the airport from anywhere, twice a week.


Texas Ag - did your husband look at belcaro? Corey Elementry seems like a good school. Also what was the sportiness in the school? Currently we are considering stech, Bromwell and Corey.

Also we are not close to the family there (cousins) but hopefully will become better friends once we move there.
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