GCISD best feeder patterns? (Euless, Grapevine: fit in, apartments, mobile home)

[bambee786]

Your opinion - what are some of the best feeder patterns for gcisd? (Elem -- middle -- high, though the two high schools seem pretty neck to neck.: so looking f
For more feedback on elem and middle) What are some of the best regarded elementary schools? Looking for feedback on OC Taylor and Bearcreek specifically.

Thanks Y'all!

[ChristieP]

Avoid Timberline Elementary.
All of the others are fine. It's really splitting hairs.

[4Movingeast]

I am a GCISD parent. I wouldn't even advise to avoid Timberline anymore- there are great teachers there and although it is lower performing due to high # of ELL it is a good school. "Best" many times is code for "where will we fit in." Bransford is the smallest Elementary. Glenhope is diverse and houses the Aspire Academy, the GT magnet. OC Taylor and Colleyville El are high performing and very affluent. Bear Creek serves the Euless area. I don't know much about Silver Lake. Dove has recently been approved as an IB primary years school which I think will be great for the district. Grapevine El has lots of parent involvement as does Heritage El. I would encourage you to visit the schools if you can, although in this market I don't think it would be wise to get your heart set on a particular school.

[bambee786]

Thanks you two! I didn't know about Dove being approved for primary years IB. Would be wonderful to have IB in GCISD. You're absolutely right about fitting in. Just trying to get a variety of opinions . I've visited a couple of schools and am asking current GCISD seniors as well

[jbb303]

Originally Posted by 4Movingeast

I am a GCISD parent. I wouldn't even advise to avoid Timberline anymore- there are great teachers there and although it is lower performing due to high # of ELL it is a good school.

Easy now. You're suggesting that it's possible to get a good education and have positive experiences around people of different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds or those that live in apartments or mobile home parks. I'm not sure there's room in the narrative here for that kind of open-minded, logical thinking. [/sarcasm off]

I'm not sure you could go wrong anywhere in GCISD.

[synchronicity]

For high schools, you may hear people say that Colleyville Heritage is better than Grapevine. It's not, or if it is, the difference is de minimis. Both high schools are about even in every metric you can think of.

We seriously considered a couple homes in the Taylor feeder zone, and I have a friend with kids going to Glenhope. They're both very good. Actually, you should just print out 4MovingEast's post and use it as a guide.

[hal2814]

My kids have gone to both Heritage Elementary and Bear Creek. My daughter is in Heritage Middle. I've been very happy with that progression so far. I personally think Heritage Elementary is a fine school. I also liked Bear Creek but it's very crowded. Since I've lived there they have on more than one occasion redrawn the Bear Creek/Grapevine Elementary boundary to make those schools more even.

Bear Creek also had a very diverse student population. And by "diverse" I'm not using the narrow-minded skin-color-based definition. There are families from all over the world and a lot of first or second generation Americans attending school there. I suspect it's due to the proximity to the airport but I don't know that for sure. I don't see that nearly as much at Heritage Elementary.

[megan.smyth]

My son goes to Colleyville Heritage and daughter is in 8th grade at Colleyville Middle

Middle Schools
Heritage Middle (good atmosphere, fairly diverse, second best academics, would recommend)
Colleyville Middle (best academics, very bad atmosphere, a lot of bullying, my daughter goes here and would definitely not recommend)
Cross Timbers Middle (third best academically, bad atmosphere, some bullying, but not as bad as Colleyville, would not recommend)
Grapevine Middle (lacking academically, heard of a lot of fights breaking out here, definitely would not recommend)

Elementary Schools

OC Taylor- good environment, one of the strongest academically in GCISD, would recommend (feeds to mainly CMS and a small portion to CTMS)
Grapevine- not pretentious, fairly diverse, average in GCISD academically, would recommend (feeds to HMS)
Heritage- above average in GCISD academically, only slightly pretentious (feeds to HMS)
Bear Creek- average in GCISD academically, very diverse, good environment (feeds to HMS)
Colleyville- one of the strongest academically in GCISD, pretentious, some bullying, would not recommend (feeds to CMS and CTMS)
Bransford- one of the strongest academically in GCISD, a lot of bullying, would definitely not recommend (feeds to CMS)
Glenhope- average in GCISD academically, fairly good environment (feeds to CTMS)

do not know much about other elementary schools, but they are either poor to average in GCISD academically

I would recommend OC Taylor over Bear Creek, but OC Taylor feeds to CTMS or CMS. You should also consider Grapevine, I would recommend it over Bear Creek, and is still fairly diverse and feeds to HMS.

If we had to redo it again we would go to Grapevine Elementary, Heritage Middle, then Colleyville Heritage.

[ChristieP]

Middle school is always tough. Kids are dealing with puberty, change in environment from elementary school, etc. It's very rare to find an outstanding middle school, even in the best school districts. Thankfully it's only 2 or 3 years. I would never base a decision about where to live on a middle school.

[4Movingeast]

Cherry picking schools because of bullying concerns doesn't make sense to me. GCISD has installed many anti-bullying measures and while no district is perfect, I think they do a good job. The culture at Bransford is very healthy. The negative poster might not know that BES has had a new principal for several years and she has worked very hard to protect the great things about the school while improving the weak areas (all schools have them). "A lot of bullying" - no. "Would definitely not recommend" - No clue whatsoever where this comes from, but it sounds an awful lot like someone has an axe to grind. We have friends all over the district and yes, there are negative experiences but there is always another side to the story. "Poor to average in GCISD academically"- these numbers are accessible via many sources both from the state and the district, and I think what anyone will find is that even the "lower performing" schools are great academic environments once you adjust for socioeconomic factors. Do your research on a district, then find a house you can afford/works for what your family needs, and go from there! We are very happy with our decision to buy in GCISD and love the area.