Moving to VA Beach with 2 teenagers (Virginia Beach, Norfolk: real estate, 2014, to rent)

[meganMclean]

Hi there,

We are moving to VA Beach area in this summer 2014. My work will be near to the Old Dominion University area. My priority is looking for a good to excellent school district for my 2 teenagers, 1 will be in High school and 1 will be in middle school in Fall. I do not mind to travel at all. I have heard of Frank Cox, Salem and Princess Anne. However, the ranking of each is quite vary in different sites. My two children are both advanced students from the top school district in New York. We hope to match a good district area to further their potential. Any recent graduates / teachers or residents can recommend a good high school/middle school for me.

Thanks in advance.

[Lindsey1151]

Originally Posted by meganMclean

Hi there,

We are moving to VA Beach area in this summer 2014. My work will be near to the Old Dominion University area. My priority is looking for a good to excellent school district for my 2 teenagers, 1 will be in High school and 1 will be in middle school in Fall. I do not mind to travel at all. I have heard of Frank Cox, Salem and Princess Anne. However, the ranking of each is quite vary in different sites. My two children are both advanced students from the top school district in New York. We hope to match a good district area to further their potential. Any recent graduates / teachers or residents can recommend a good high school/middle school for me.

Thanks in advance.

Alot of Ex New Yorkers are here in Va Beach you must be moving here because New York is too expensive for you! Also Hampton Roads is very boring its mainly just houses! Im from NYC and really want to move back there! You should really have just chose New Jersey! Well anyway Cox and Great Neck middle school is the best school district in VA Beach! Well anyway thank you for joining the trend of New Yorkers moving to Hampton Roads!

[ClemsonRDUfan]

Originally Posted by Lindsey1151

Alot of Ex New Yorkers are here in Va Beach you must be moving here because New York is too expensive for you! Also Hampton Roads is very boring its mainly just houses! Im from NYC and really want to move back there! You should really have just chose New Jersey! Well anyway Cox and Great Neck middle school is the best school district in VA Beach! Well anyway thank you for joining the trend of New Yorkers moving to Hampton Roads!

While I do semi agree with the above, this is not the information the OP is looking for.

I would recommend getting into the First Colonial High/Lynnhaven Middle or Great Neck Middle/Cox High School district. They are known in the area for being good schools. I wouldn't be discouraged from any of the VB schools though, VB is known for their good school system.

[ericziemer]

Originally Posted by meganMclean

Hi there,

We are moving to VA Beach area in this summer 2014. My work will be near to the Old Dominion University area. My priority is looking for a good to excellent school district for my 2 teenagers, 1 will be in High school and 1 will be in middle school in Fall. I do not mind to travel at all. I have heard of Frank Cox, Salem and Princess Anne. However, the ranking of each is quite vary in different sites. My two children are both advanced students from the top school district in New York. We hope to match a good district area to further their potential. Any recent graduates / teachers or residents can recommend a good high school/middle school for me.

Thanks in advance.

Virginia Beach is where my wife and I live so we may be somewhat biased I get this question from clients all the time (I am a realtor). What I tell people is that the best school for your child is really dependent on your child. If your child is an honor student and is motivated to excel then there are quite a few options and where you live is not as important. If your child is an average student and needs a little bit more structure and a higher ratio of good students and good teachers then this narrows down your search some. The reason for this is that for the motivated/gifted student their is a nationally recognized academy program that allows them to go to the school that offers the program they are excelling in. Here is the website to the city's website. Virginia Beach City Public Schools - Academy Programs Elementary and High School . Some of the academy's are at schools that would not be on my list of desirable schools but if your child is in any of these programs they will be well served. If your child doesn't qualify for an academy then there are a number of schools that get great national rankings and good student/parent reviews. One thing to keep in mind though is that the cost of real estate is heavily affected by school district. A house in the Cox School district could see a 20-25% decrease in value if it was picked up and moved to the Bayside district.

If I had to rank them my top 3 would be 1) First Colonial 2) Cox 3) Princess Annne based on the general feedback I get from my real estate clients, friends and neighbors. One word of caution I would give about Cox is that it has the reputation as the "Rich" kid school which gives it a reputation for being pretty brutal for some students that don't stack up. That is why I rank First Colonial as number 1. It is a great school and a little bit more diverse in the make up of the student body. Hope this helps. My wife and I are in real estate so if you have any questions about renting or buying in the area, let me know.
Best Regards,
Eric Ziemer
Realtor
The Real Estate Group
ericziemer@realestategrp.com

[meganMclean]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the quick response. All the information is very helful for me, I will sure to check it out. I think a good school with a strong academic background and good learning atmosphere are very important. If the majority of the students are not into study, it will really have an adverse effect to the others. Also, the teachers and staff will only waste time in discipline, etc.

Take my children's school as an example, their teachers are not the "best" but the students are really eager to learn and thrive for a high score in everything. Some "lazy / laid back" teachers are forced to perform better instead of just downloading informatin from sparknotes or internet. On the top of that, the parents are really "watching" and cooperating with the school as a whole to push the standard higher. That's what I call a good school and why I love my children's school district so much.

I would love to move to VA Beach as the weather is much better than NY. I hope I can find a good one for my kids. I will definitely check out the First Colonial, thanks. I do not want too many "bragging rich kids" in a school either, thanks for the tip. We will looking to rent a 4 bedrooms house and will keep Eric in my email. Thanks.

[Chewbeca]

11 of the 12 high schools rate among the top 2000 schools in the country. Each school also varies greatly on the atmosphere they provide. Salem, Landstown, and First Colonial are my top recommendations.
Personally, I went to Salem. We had a very diverse, and very inclusive school.
For your high schooler (unless they will be a freshman) the district you live in is the school they will most likely attend.
The city has an Academy program for the high schoolers, and if the middle schooler qualifies, they could go to any of the schools. (Salem has the Arts Academy, Landstown is Tech Academy, Bayside is Medical, Princess Anne has the IB program, etc)

The nice thing about the Academies is also that the schools have rivalries, but not to the point of exclusion based on home schools. We went to Salem, but had a lot of friends from all the schools, and rivalries are (mostly) kept friendly.

[meganMclean]

Hi Chewbeca,

Thanks for your information. It is like some inside information that I cannot google it. Thanks a lot. I heard of Salem is a good school too and also about the diversity of the population. We are a mixed race family which makes this option is a plus to consider!!

[D train outta nowhere]

Megan,

I like this site: Va Beach City Public Schools District - Virginia Beach, Virginia - SchoolDigger.com

You can filter, scroll down to click a school name, and then select various tabs which display stats.

[UHgrad]

Originally Posted by meganMclean

Hi there,

We are moving to VA Beach area in this summer 2014. My work will be near to the Old Dominion University area. My priority is looking for a good to excellent school district for my 2 teenagers, 1 will be in High school and 1 will be in middle school in Fall. I do not mind to travel at all. I have heard of Frank Cox, Salem and Princess Anne. However, the ranking of each is quite vary in different sites. My two children are both advanced students from the top school district in New York. We hope to match a good district area to further their potential. Any recent graduates / teachers or residents can recommend a good high school/middle school for me.

Thanks in advance.

The city has report cards for each school that talk about test performance, demographics, and faculty characteristics.

Virginia Beach City Public Schools - Annual School Report Card Archives

They also have info on academies and advanced programs at different schools.

Virginia Beach City Public Schools - Academy Programs Elementary and High School


If you are going to be working in the ODU area the commute is also an issue and something you should consider. As far as my experience with schools (graduated about a decade ago have friends with kids in them currently), this is my opinion... I'm just gonna focus on high schools because I am too far removed from middle school to know anything plus good middle schools generally funnel into the good high schools.

If your middle schooler is advanced you can also look into the kemps landing magnet school (close to princess anne area). I am pretty sure they can get bussed to that school no matter where you live in VB as long as they qualify to attend.

http://www.kempslanding.vbschools.com/about_us.html

Virginia Beach:

Princess Anne High School would be tops on my list. It is highly rated, has good programs, a really good mix of folks go there, and it would probably be the most reasonable commute to the ODU area as you can live right off of 264.

I can also recommend Kempsville as most of my friends graduated from there and liked it, went on to good colleges, and now have good careers. The building is OLD however if that matters.

Salem or Tallwood would also both be good and have reasonable commutes to Norfolk although I will warn you that getting from the interstate to the Salem area during the afternoon rush SUCKS.

FC and Cox are further down by the beach (30min commute on a good day to ODU), a lot more white (if you care) but are perfectly good schools as far as I know.

The only high schools that seem to have a bad reputation are Green Run and Bayside and I don't have a lot of personal experience with those to comment. A couple friends graduated from Green Run, they said it was OK if you avoided certain folks but I think that is anywhere.

Chesapeake:

Great Bridge or Hickory actually have areas that aren't a bad commute to ODU down I-464 and both are highly rated schools. FYI though, they are a little more rural and less diverse than the schools in VB if that matters.

Originally Posted by meganMclean

We are a mixed race family which makes this option is a plus to consider!!

I am in a mixed race marriage with a multiracial child, and although my kid is not old enough to go to school yet I don't have any reservations about sending her to any of the schools around here when she is old enough. Multiracial children are common in VB and most don't even take a second glance at my wife and I when we are out with our daughter. As you can see from the school report cards I posted the link to above, most of the schools have a population that is 5 - 10% multiracial.

[meganMclean]

Thanks D train and UH grad, this forum is awesome !!! Any more recent high school graduates and parents would like to speak up for your school? You are all welcome.