Green Valley Elementary (North Richland Hills, Keller, Southlake: low income, apartments, house)

[Texascrude]

Anyone have feedback on Green Valley Elementary school? Birdville ISD looks pretty mediocre overall, but this particular school seems to have good scores on TEA and Greatschools.

Anyone with personal experience? Are there other schools in North Richland Hills worth looking at?

On a related note, I understand that TEA and Greatschools simply rate schools based on their test performance. Does anyone know of a site that provides more qualitative reviews? I'm afraid I'll have questions about several schools and don't want to have to keep coming back to you kind people every time!

[loves2read]

Green Valley is relatively new elementary that was built when John Barfield started to develop the new housing developments in that area...
that was upscale housing at higher price point than NRHills was used to
but it was still less expensive than Colleyville or Southlake and closer than Keller
so he bought a lot of families into the area...
most people probably college-educated, two parent households which are good demographics that usually translate into positive results in classroom...

Check out Walker Creek Elementary--that is Blue Ribbon school too I think--
Birdville ISD has some good programs but it also has areas with low income, multi cultural families...like HEB ISD it is working to maintain the quality it provided in past years...
it has some areas with quite a few apartments which can also be problematic for ISDs...
right now the ISD is going through bond election and some parents are angry because the district wants to close some older schools with lower enrollment but parents don't want to lose their neighborhood school...

[hypocore]

Green Valley was built in 1992, renovated in 2007.
The area zoned for Green Valley includes moslty upper level income areas and that translates into the majority of the students being white, close to 80% if I recall correctly.
It has about 500 students, which is considerably smaller than Walker Creek(2004) and Jack Binion(totally rebuilt in 2008), both of which have over 700 students.
I'd say they have more than average parent volunteers and benefit from that. Although I don't know personally, I know families who have/had children there and there is definitely some cliques within the school and PTA based on what they say.
It is one of the schools where parents quite often try to get their children there with open enrollment and most often are turned down due to it not having room.

Green Valley feeds into North Ridge Middle school and there is a slightly visible divide among the students who have come from there compared to the two other schools that feed into NRMS. It's not bad at all, but it is there.

[jbb303]

Originally Posted by loves2read

right now the ISD is going through bond election and some parents are angry because the district wants to close some older schools with lower enrollment but parents don't want to lose their neighborhood school...

They're not going through a bond election. The election was the first Saturday in May and the "no" vote prevailed. Elements of it may be brought up in the future, but the measure you're talking about is over and done with.

The area surrounding Green Valley is really nice. It's one of a few areas of NRH that still retains some pockets that harken back to when the area was largely rural.

[Texascrude]

Originally Posted by jbb303

They're not going through a bond election. The election was the first Saturday in May and the "no" vote prevailed. Elements of it may be brought up in the future, but the measure you're talking about is over and done with.

The area surrounding Green Valley is really nice. It's one of a few areas of NRH that still retains some pockets that harken back to when the area was largely rural.

Will this have any impact on the school? i'm really only expecting to be there for 3 - 4 years, and need a good school for my kids (oldest will start kindergarten this year).

The only data I can find online is based on the test scores, which apparently are competitive with any school in the city, but I know they are not necessarily the best / only way to judge the quality of school...

[stanwood]

We sent three kids through Green Valley, North Ridge Middle, and Richland High School. Green Valley gave our kids a very good start. By the time they got to Richland all three were in AP classes and a high percentage of the kids in the AP classes with them came from Green Valley. My two oldest are now in graduate school and the youngest one is a junior at Rice University. I truly believe that the faculty and staff at Green Valley had something to do with their academic success.

They area is nice. We've lived here for 24 years and watched it grow up. Homes range in cost between $175,000 to $500,000, with a few close to a million dollars. Point being, you can probably find a home in your price range.

Yet it still seems like a small town. We're friends with the mayor and a few councilmen, the Texas State Senator, and the local congressmen. They're accessible and care about the town. You see your neighbors at the grocery store. A lot of people that don't still have kids in school still go to the football games in the fall. All the neighbors know each other and look out for each others homes when on vacation. Kids still play in the yards and street and go trick or treating. We didn't know the area too well when we moved here but are glad we did.

[stanwood]

Originally Posted by Texascrude

Will this have any impact on the school? i'm really only expecting to be there for 3 - 4 years, and need a good school for my kids (oldest will start kindergarten this year).

The only data I can find online is based on the test scores, which apparently are competitive with any school in the city, but I know they are not necessarily the best / only way to judge the quality of school...

After everything I just wrote, let me say that I did not vote for the bond. For a number of reasons I am convinced that thye could work on the budget and make due with what they have. I do not think it will effect the quality of education. There will be another election in a couple years and we'll see then.

[loves2read]

If you are looking at resale that area of NRHills is probably the "best" area per se since so much of it is newer development
but that being said
there are drawbacks like small lots with overlook in the back yards, and there is homogeneous look to most of the homes since they have that "Texas" look with stone/brick exteriors and steep roof lines...
John Barfield was developer and build many of the homes with builders he knew--
he had oversight over the design elements so there is not lot of variety in exteriors or interiors...
traffic can be busy on some of the through streets, and I think the streets are narrow--
when you have people parking cars on street have to be careful driving through--but that is way most neighborhoods work nowadays--
at least these have sidewalks I think...
there is gas transmission line that runs through at least one neighborhood because we have friends who bought house there not realizing easement for that line was reason their backyard was so deep/large...
couldn't put their pool as far back from house as they anticipated cause of easement...

and thanks for correcting me about the age of the school--
I guess what I saw was the remodel...

[redbud071]

Green Valley, Walker Creek and Porter are widely perceived to be the best elementary schools in BISD. Walker Creek and Porter feed into Smithfield Middle and Birdville High, which are excellent schools with caring and involved administration. My children attended Walker Creek and loved it. The Hometown neighborhood, near Mid-Cities & Davis, is a newer neighborhood with front porch homes and lots of neighborhood functions. Walker Creek, Smithfield Middle and Birdville High are all within walking or biking distance, as are the library, rec center and water park. It's a really pleasant place to live, and we were frustrated that we were unable to find anything like it in another state where we will be moving soon.

I wish I knew of a website that graded schools on information other than test scores and class size, but some of the less "measurable" things like sense of community, student involvement, etc. are hard to measure. My best suggestion is to visit the schools, if you can! That's what we ended up doing in our new city. Good luck with your decision!