Moving to Denver- best high schools with IB program (Aurora: how much, new home)

[neels]

Hi ,
We will be moving to Denver from Texas. We are looking at Cherokee Trail, Smoky Hill, Littleton , Lakewood and Douglas county and Cherry Creek high school. All except the last have IB program. George washington high school was also mentioned, but am not sure about the neighborhood. Although we are focussing on high school, we hope the feeder elementary and middle school will also be good for the younger sibling. Welcome any input about these schools. We also will be looking for an affordable home ( upto 350-400k) with a reasonable commute to the museum district. Homes are much more expensive compared to TX!
Thanks.

[CO Rox]

I just (3 weeks ago after snow delayed everything!) moved into a new home near the Aurora Res. Cherokee Trail, is the high school. I hear good things from my neighbors about the schools.

not sure about where the museum district is. But 9 mile light rail to downtown is pretty resonable.

[BlueWillowPlate]

Does Cherry Creek HS have the IB Program? I know they have an excellent academic reputation, but I didn't think they had IB.
Anyway, Denver Public Schools have Open Enrollment. You can live anywhere you want and enroll your kid wherever you want. (That's DPS, not Cherry Creek Schools.)
Having said that, GW's neighborhood is fine. North of Alameda Parkway the homes are actually fairly pricey. It's just that it's Denver proper, not the 'burbs.
My son graduated from George and I have nothing but good things to say about it. The IB program is quite rigorous.
Two middle schools near there:
My other son went to Hill Middle School. I loved the staff there but they've had problems with some of the students. Place Middle School had a gifted/talented that my oldest attended, not sure whether or not they still have it.
Carson and Steck are the two elementaries around there, have heard that Steck is excellent and that Carson "improved."

[BrianAggie95]

I will be moving to Denver in March, and the last home I owned was in Texas (am currently overseas but thats another story).. Keep in mind when coming from Texas that home price and monthly payment price are seperate entities....

IE in Texas Property taxes are high 2.5-3 % on norm... Denver much much lower property taxes (~0.9% from what I have seen)... This makes a big difference in how much house you can afford, as so much less per month is going to taxes... Helps ease the sticker shock....

[2bindenver]

Yes, Texas has huge property taxes and no income tax.

Colorado has lower property taxes and has income tax based on net income from your 1040. Filing online in Colorado is FREE.

[winglady]

Originally Posted by cil

Having said that, GW's neighborhood is fine. North of Alameda Parkway the homes are actually fairly pricey. It's just that it's Denver proper, not the 'burbs.
My son graduated from George and I have nothing but good things to say about it. The IB program is quite rigorous.
...
My other son went to Hill Middle School. I loved the staff there but they've had problems with some of the students. ...Carson and Steck are the two elementaries around there, have heard that Steck is excellent and that Carson "improved."

I love it! You've just named the elementary, junior high (back then), and high schools I attended (about a million years ago).

My niece went to George Washington (GW or "George"), graduating from the IB program about 12 years ago, and loved it there. After college, she and her husband returned to Denver and bought a house about 1-2 miles from GW -- down the block from where my folks lived when I went to high school there. My brother (her dad) and our Mom also live pretty much in the GW "neighborhood". So, as you can tell, our family really likes that part of Denver!

[rockiesredhead]

I can speak for the north Jeff Co school program...My daughter is in the gifted program. Here, the elementarty GT kids are accepted into schools which have an integrated GT program (they also have a regular program there to accomodate neighborhood/non GT kids.) Transportation is not provided. The elementary program starts in the 1st grade. Kids need to retest from middle school and, of course, for the IB program which is at Lakewood. The school is very competitive since only one IB program is permitted per county, and Jeff Co is very large. However, there are some excellent. highly academic programs available at other high schools as well such as D'Evelyn and Ralston Valley to name a few.

I have been very happy with the elementary GT program except that we choose to have my son, who was not accepted into the GT program, attend the local elementary school (which is ranked "Excellent"), so it's a little hard to manage two schools. Boulder's IB program at Fairview is incredible as well, and some of the GT kids who live in northern Jeffco actually opened enrolled to go there rather than commuting south to Lakewood.

Good luck!

[neels]

Thanks for the input on the IB high schools and yes the property taxes in Texas are much higher!
We saw the high schools and they were all pretty good. My son liked Lakewood(1) because many kids come out of zone and he thought it might be easier to find friends , but the surrounding homes were older and pricey for their size & age.
Cherokee Trail(2) is a new school with nice neighborhood, new homes.
Liked the scenic Castle Rock area very much & new homes. Douglas county high school(3) is older, but nice. Light rail does not go all the way.
Smoky hill (4) had the maximum IB course selection , good diversity (son liked that there were some Asian kids too ), O. K neighborhood.
Littleton(5) was nice, small school, good but older & pricey homes, did not appear very diverse.
GW high (6) IB looked good & it was closest to work, but had somewhat skewed demographics & much older homes.

Cherokee Trail and Castle rock (especially)offer newer homes, but longer commutes. What are the commutes in rush - hour to Colfax and Colorado? What about using tollway from Tallyn's Reach and going back on Colorado to Colfax?
Smoky Hill & Littleton are closer and offer medium- old ( esp in Littleton) homes. Littleton has the advantage of IB programs in elementary & middle schools. Lakewood high is good, but homes are older. Older homes tend to need more repairs . What is the commute from Littleton and Smoky hill area to Colfax and Colorado?
It was depressing to see that my price range of 350 -400 K did not have much choices. Will have to try to raise the bar a little. Any safety, re-sale value issues in all these areas? Saw only a few homes in our range due to limited time. Snow was on the roads in some areas. Does that happen a lot? Liked the sun !

So still in dilemma. What do you think of the commutes & neighborhoods?

[TinajaCo]

For the Littleton part of the question, I'd give yourself 25-30 minutes during non-rush hour periods, 45-60 minutes during rush hour, using main roads. The advantage of living in many parts of Littleton is that you can avoid I-25 traffic. The worst part would likely be on Santa Fe Drive, which can get backed up during rush hour, but typically it's not bad. And, if you know what you are doing it is pretty easy to take side streets and avoid most traffic (I don't want to give away too many of my secrets here...!!), and reduce your rush hour commute times by a good bit.

Littleton is a very safe area, and you should have no re-sale problems. I'm not really familiar with the areas around some of the schools you mention, but I know the same is true for the areas around Cherokee Trail, Douglas County, and George Washington (for the most part). A lot of Littleton is older but there are also many enclaves of newer homes if you know where to look that should be in your price range. There are also areas near Littleton, that are not in Littleton's district, that are newer, and you could open enroll in Littleton.

The snow we have had is pretty unusual. Usually, we get snow that is melted off by the sun and warmer temperatures. We just haven't gotten the temperatures to melt a lot of it off. But it is fairly uncommon to have snow on the roads as it is in many areas.

[tfox]

There are some great areas in southeast Denver around GW high school. The Lowry redevelopment area has lots of new homes and is also a nice neighborhood. There are some other newer infill sites in the same area you could consider, which would allow you to both have a new home AND a good location.

Your work site is very central in the metro area but unfortunately is accessed on surface streets, a long ways from both light rail and from highways. Most of your other locations would be long commutes which could be really long in wintry/bad weather.

By the way, cutting across Colfax through the heart of Aurora from E-470 would NOT be a good idea; that would take you all day.