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Old 02-10-2012, 03:41 PM
 
342 posts, read 753,112 times
Reputation: 186

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Ill get right to the point. I have 11 years experience as a teacher in Pennsylvania but budget cuts in our district are so awful that not even my job is safe. I am very close to acquiring a position in the eagle mountain/saginaw ISD. I would definatly rent first for at least a year or so before buying. I have lots of questions as this is a complete life change for my entire family.
I would love input from the city data community on the following in texas and more specifically northern/north west FW suburbs.
1-What towns equal a true 25 minute driving time from around Highland Middle school?
2-How is the Eagle Mntn/Saginaw district looked at by the community?
3-What is the diversity population like in that area?
4-What nice communities areas are their about 25 min from highland middle school with houses around 130K to 200K?
5-Is there school tax on top of property tax?
6-No state income tax is very good right????
7-Extreme weather concerns...tornados, hurricanes, floods??? Real problem or not? Big increase in home and car insurance ???
8-Are there public health/grant writing jobs in FW? (wifes job)
9-What school districts are the most sought after? Which are to be avoided?
10-Overall weather during the year? Can you play year round golf? I would love this?
11-Lots of golf courses nearby? Please say yes..I am a big time golfer.
12-Is the humidity that awful, Northeast PA humidity is no joke and its routinely 100% humidity here in the summer weeks on end so I understand what that feels like.

If you have made is this far I thank you and also value any opinions out there. This is a potentially enormous family move and from what reseach I've done so far TX seems like it could be a great home for us.
Thanks
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Old 02-10-2012, 05:29 PM
 
690 posts, read 1,658,755 times
Reputation: 542
Hello and Welcome

I am going to try to answer some of your questions. I don't go in depth as
other people but just the same I hope it helps.

Disclaimer:
The links were taken from previous entry searches on the city-data-forums.


1-What towns equal a true 25 minute driving time from around Highland Middle school?
Haslet, North Fort Worth, Keller, Blue Mound, Lake Worth and possibly Azle

2-How is the Eagle Mntn/Saginaw district looked at by the community?

DFW School report card:
2009-10 School Report Card


3-What is the diversity population like in that area?
Friendly, Kind, Neighborly, Family type

4-What nice communities areas are their about 25 min from highland middle school with houses around 130K to 200K?
Anything West/Northwest of Keller to 820 & Clifford (Note: See a Fort Worth Map).

Find Real Estate, Homes for Sale & Houses for Rent on Realtor.com - Realtor.com®

5-Is there school tax on top of property tax?
Tarrant County Tax Assessor/Collector



6-No state income tax is very good right????
Property taxes... Will tax you till death do us part.


7-Extreme weather concerns...tornados, hurricanes, floods??? Real problem or not? Big increase in home and car insurance ???
Rain, Wind, occasional high water depending where your at.
Mostly coming down from North of you or South of you. An occasional strong one gets its way directly in line to your employment focal point.
Tornado's: I think its been about ten years now that downtown got hit by a tornado. We do get high/direct wind which can cause damage.
Hurricanes: We get the remnants...rain.
Floods: There are streets that may get high water, NEVER! NEVER! NEVER! ATTEMPT TO DRIVE INTO RISING WATER!!! But some people still do and the police and fire personell have to go rescue these people when the auto dies out in the middle of the washway.
Happens all the time that it rains heavily.
People bypass the road blocks, such as those that bypass the traffic signals at the railroad tracks.

8-Are there public health/grant writing jobs in FW? (wifes job)
Register for the Texas workforce and search for a job or check the career builder.com
https://wit.twc.state.tx.us/WORKINTE...kiecheckflag=1



9-What school districts are the most sought after? Which are to be avoided?

Disclaimer:
The links were taken from previous entry searches on the city-data-forums.

a.)
dallas schools:
http://www.richpatterson.net/images/2011SchoolsInfo.pdf
FWIW, I did an impromptu ranking of the school districts using the SAT/ACT scores.
Even this can be deceptive, as some districts may have a few
excellent schools and other schools that are lagging
(the Lewisville ISD is quite good overall, for example, but some high schools there are better than others), and of course there's more to education than standardized test scores, but here's how the districts showed up in my sort (note that Sunnyvale apparently has not reported SAT/ACT scores):

1 HIGHLAND PARK
2 PLANO
3 CARROLL/SOUTHLAKE
4 COPPELL
5 ARGYLE
6 ALLEN
7 GRAPEVINE/COLLEYVILLE
8 LEWISVILLE
9 PROSPER
10 FRISCO
11 MCKINNEY
12 ROCKWALL
13 GUNTER
14 VAN ALSTYNE
15 KELLER
16 RICHARDSON
17 PONDER
18 BURLESON
19 WEATHERFORD
20 CELINA
21 WYLIE
22 HURST/EULESS/BEDFORD
23 TROPHY CLUB
24 MELISSA
25 CARROLLTON/FARMERS BRANCH
26 AUBREY
27 PILOT POINT
28 FORNEY
29 LAKE DALLAS
30 ARLINGTON
31 MALAKOFF
32 ANNA
33 DENTON
34 KRUM
35 MANSFIELD
36 SANGER
37 GARLAND
38 FARMERSVILLE
39 IRVING
40 MESQUITE
41 GRAND PRAIRIE
42 LITTLE ELM
43 DUNCANVILLE
44 FORT WORTH
45 CEDAR HILL
46 DESOTO
47 DALLAS
48 LANCASTER

DFW School report card:
2009-10 School Report Card

b.)
//www.city-data.com/forum/fort-...s-near-fw.html




10-Overall weather during the year? Can you play year round golf? I would love this?
Some people are out there almost everyday morning to dark.


11-Lots of golf courses nearby? Please say yes..I am a big time golfer.

YES...

Dallas Golf Course Directory

DFW Golf Directory - Texas Golf Directory - Dallas Metroplex Golf Directory - DFW Public Golf Directory


The metro is supposed to have approx 199 golf courses, there was a bad incident this past week at the Eagle mountain lake course.
To name a few:
Flower Mound (Tour 18)
Alliance Airport, there is a golf course just south of 114. (I think it is called the Dural/next to hotel).
Keller has a golf course (Sky creek Ranch)
Richland Hills/North Richland Hills has a golf course (Iron Horse)
South of 199, Fort Worth has a public golf course
South side of Fort worth (The Colonial)
Riverside Golf course on 360 south of 183
Irving has the Four Seasons (Bryon Nelson Classic)
Grapvine by Grapevine Mills Mall has a golf course
DFW Airport (Bear Creek golf course)
South 1-20 close to Bryan Irving is another golf course (Ridgelea)
and just about every city within the next 600 miles.



12- Humidity: If thats what you want to call it.
But we have refrigerated air for that.
Our summers can be HOT! OK...(HOT! HOT! HOT!) this past summer. Nothing to joke about since there has been
some deaths associated with the heat.


//www.city-data.com/forum/dalla...its-windy.html

Last edited by RockyJoe817; 02-10-2012 at 05:46 PM..
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Old 02-10-2012, 06:01 PM
 
342 posts, read 753,112 times
Reputation: 186
I thank you so much, this is exactly the type of information i was clamoring for but unable to find directly. Alot for me to peruse over but greatly appreciated. I thank you again for your time in compiling all these answers
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Old 02-10-2012, 08:21 PM
 
36,612 posts, read 56,208,870 times
Reputation: 24234
I hope you get the job but understand that our state drastically cut funding (goes in two yr cycle) for this school year and the one starting in August--
some districts anticipate shaving jobs
make sure you know how you are going to be paid regarding your years of experience

IF your previous district/state took out for SS tax as well as a teacher retirement fund you are going to be hard hit if you teach in TX long enough to retire
TX districts normally pay 0 for SS and you will be hit with an "offset" tax when you retire and try to file for SS (if you have earned/paid into SS either from teaching or other jobs)

You should call TRS--teacher retirement system--if you have any questions about Texas retirement program for education employees...

Regarding home and car insurance--YES--you are going to be paying more money on both fronts I think
and teachers' insurance is very expensive--from what I remember...

regarding your wife's job--she might have to go contract vs full time but here are some other links that might be helpful

Grant Writing Jobs, Employment in Fort Worth, TX | Indeed.com

Job Opportunities with United Way Worldwide
might require too much experience

https://www.healthcaresource.com/jps...rce=Indeed.com

https://careers.alcon.com/viewjob.ht...y&eresc=Indeed

The incident at Eagle Mtn Lake resort golf course was something totally freakish--
my husband plays golf in this area and has for decades--most golfers are sane even if they can be selfish and noisy from time to time...the golfer who committed that assault is not representative of golfers in this area...

will PM a good MLS site that covers the DFW area--well organized, good maps and some info on sales and demographics
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Old 02-11-2012, 01:16 PM
 
342 posts, read 753,112 times
Reputation: 186
what a great real estate website, probably one of the best we've seen so far, thanks for all your other info and the PM, everyone has been so helpful already, we'll keep you updated
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