Westminster/Broomfield Schools-Cttn Creek/Cyte Rdg (Denver, Meridian: house, neighborhood, to buy)

[burtzfam]

We as a family are landing in Denver soon and looking at the Westminster/Broomfield area.......Looking for any input on either Cotton Creek (Westminster), Meridian or Coyote Ridge Schools in Broomfield?????

[ZooGirl]

What kind of input are you looking for?

Those 3 schools are all part of the Adams 12 Five Star school district. You can look up the school accountability reports at this link: School Accountability Report - School Search (http://reportcard.cde.state.co.us/reportcard/CommandHandler.jsp - broken link)

All 3 of the schools you mentioned earned a score of "high" on overall academic performance on the state assessments for the 2007-08 year. But of course, the assessments are just one piece of the puzzle.

We recently moved to CO from MI ourselves (I recognize your name from other threads) and we ended up settling in Westminster. Our oldest goes to Cotton Creek. School has only been in session for about 3-4 weeks, but we've personally been very happy with Cotton Creek so far. The neighbors I've had a chance to talk to about school also seem happy there.

If we hadn't ended up with the house that we bought, our Plan B was to buy in Broomfield -- Coyote Ridge boundaries specifically. We had been quite impressed with Coyote Ridge when we researched it. Happy to share my thoughts on what we liked about the school, but what we found impressive and liked may not be the same thing(s) that YOU are looking for in a school. Hence, it would be helpful to know what kind of input you're looking for.

[Bradburn1]

My daughter has gone to Cotton Creek for several years and we are very happy with the school, the faculty, and the principal (who is exceptional). My daughter was struggling with some reading issues and her teacher came up with a program of extra help for her and now she is doing well. Most of my neighbors send their kids to Cotton Creek (right now there are around 50 kids getting on the bus in the morning, so many that the bus stops nowhere else).

Cotton Creek's building is a little aged, but it has a nice kid sized layout and is cozy--not institutional or prison like which I've seen at some newer schools (most specifically the Academy of Charter Schools which is a K-12 charter just to east of my neighborhood, their building is brand new but very cold).

I've heard good things about Coyote Ridge also but have no personal experience with it. You can't go wrong with either school in my opinion. I wouldn't let that determine you choice of house (unless of course, you have some special educational needs I don't know of and one school is better than the other in that area). I would more consider the house itself and the neighborhood for that decision (well, that and price of course).

Good luck, and welcome to Denver!