Need advice on neighborhoods/schools/activities. (Indianapolis, Fishers: home, school districts, subdivision)

[golden98]

We are moving to Indy area this summer. My husband will be working in the southwest corner of the city. Nevertheless, I think we would desire to live north of the city in Carmel or thereabouts. Our youngest son will attend a day therapy center in Fishers, so it seems to make the most sense that we would live nearby his "school". Here are my questions, please feel free to chime in on any of them:
1. Can someone please explain (or direct me to a website) that explains how schools are districted. We are coming from a state that each county has a county school district. I'm reading on the forum about townships, IPS, southeast Hamilton, Carmel-Clay, etc. How are the schools districted?
2. If we do live in Carmel, would there be an elementary school or middle school we should avoid?
3. We are also considering catholic schools- anyone have any experiences there to share? Also catholic churches- one with lots of young families, loud spirited music, very active...
4. Are there any elementary (or middle) schools that are actually *in* a neighborhood? Right now my son attends an elementary school that is in our giant subdivision- he's only 8 but I feel comfortable that he can walk home because of the way this is all set-up. If not in a n'hood, are the schools walkable from some neighborhoods? It's very difficult to tell from google maps.
5. Are there any neighborhoods, especially in that north area, that are kind of large and have amenities like green space, playgrounds, large pool club with swim team, possibly even shops/restaurants?
6. My kids like to play sports- where would we do that? Like the Y, or parks/rec, or other private orgs?
7. If we live in carmel, is my husband's commute going to be atrocious to the south part of city? What is the traffic like? Where are the worst traffic zones?

[Broadrippleguy]

If your working in the southwest corner of the city i would recommend areas like Zionsville/Pike Township that are close to I-465 for an easy commute.
Zionsville is a nice suburb with a nice old building Downtown with some history to it
Pike Township is part of Indianapolis and is a mixed racial part of Indy with about even black and white population and other races too.
Traffic in the Indianapolis at rush hour pales in comparison to many major cities like Charlotte/Chicago/St louis etc.
So traffic isn't an issue here and people will say I-69 is bad but if its moving thats better than Chicago. I have been stuck in Chicago on the beltways going 2 MPH. I could get out and walk faster than that .

[golden98]

Yeah, we considered Zionsville but since I have to get my little boy to Fishers every morning, I thought that might be too far for us. We'd rather the husband do all the commuting. Also he will usually be at that work-site but he'll also have some days where he'll be at various locations around the city/suburbs. Do you think the drive from Zionsville to Fishers would be long? It doesn't look like there is a really direct way to do that.

[Broadrippleguy]

Originally Posted by golden98

Yeah, we considered Zionsville but since I have to get my little boy to Fishers every morning, I thought that might be too far for us. We'd rather the husband do all the commuting. Also he will usually be at that work-site but he'll also have some days where he'll be at various locations around the city/suburbs. Do you think the drive from Zionsville to Fishers would be long? It doesn't look like there is a really direct way to do that.

If your close to I-465 it wouldn't be that long. Just make sure though when your commuting its in the morning cause I-69 gets heavy traffic during rush hour in the morning heading to 465 so if your going to Fishers in the morning you should be ok. People will use I-69 to commute into Indianapolis and downtown.

[rrah]

Having a bit of knowledge and experience with kids that need to go to therapy regularly, I WOULD NOT recommend Zionsville. That says "nightmare" to me even if traffic is fine. Depending on location it could easily be 30 minutes or more door to door.

I would encourage you to look at Fishers. You will find neighborhoods with some of those amenities. I don't recall the name of my sibling's neighborhood, but it had a pool and playground. It did have a McCordsville address although it was in the Hamilton Southeastern School District.

I don't really know the history of school districts in Indiana, but generally counties may have multiple districts. IPS is the Indianapolis School District. The townships in Marion County also have districts. Look on a district website to see the area it covers. Most have maps of the district.

My nephews and nieces participated in many different sports while living in the Fishers area: football, boxing, wrestling, soccer, gymnastics, diving (I think?) and maybe a few others. Most were through private organizations. The Fishers area has two private swim teams: both are among the best in the state. Carmel also has a swim team that is consistently top in the state.

Traffic: It's all relative to your expectations. Some of the worst traffic in the Indy area is near the Carmel/Fishers area. That's directly related to, in my opinion, the desirability of those areas for many families.

DormerGurl, our lovely moderator, lived in Fishers and will be able to answer your questions from that perspective.

[msamhunter]

Originally Posted by golden98

We are moving to Indy area this summer. My husband will be working in the southwest corner of the city. Nevertheless, I think we would desire to live north of the city in Carmel or thereabouts. Our youngest son will attend a day therapy center in Fishers, so it seems to make the most sense that we would live nearby his "school". Here are my questions, please feel free to chime in on any of them:
1. Can someone please explain (or direct me to a website) that explains how schools are districted. We are coming from a state that each county has a county school district. I'm reading on the forum about townships, IPS, southeast Hamilton, Carmel-Clay, etc. How are the schools districted?
2. If we do live in Carmel, would there be an elementary school or middle school we should avoid?
3. We are also considering catholic schools- anyone have any experiences there to share? Also catholic churches- one with lots of young families, loud spirited music, very active...
4. Are there any elementary (or middle) schools that are actually *in* a neighborhood? Right now my son attends an elementary school that is in our giant subdivision- he's only 8 but I feel comfortable that he can walk home because of the way this is all set-up. If not in a n'hood, are the schools walkable from some neighborhoods? It's very difficult to tell from google maps.
5. Are there any neighborhoods, especially in that north area, that are kind of large and have amenities like green space, playgrounds, large pool club with swim team, possibly even shops/restaurants?
6. My kids like to play sports- where would we do that? Like the Y, or parks/rec, or other private orgs?
7. If we live in carmel, is my husband's commute going to be atrocious to the south part of city? What is the traffic like? Where are the worst traffic zones?

Living in Fishers and commuting to Decatur Township, hope you have a nice gas budget. Hubby's only real bottleneck will be 69 to 465W and it normally clears up after Meridian St. Indiana State Police love the exits between 86th and I65 so be careful. The Commute home will probably take longer than the commute to work.

As far as schools, I would recommend calling the district and they will be able to answer all of those questions. I think there's only one Y that services Carmel and Fishers but there are several youth organizations that offers sports all year around for your son to participate in both local and travel (more competitive). I guess first you would need to pin point a general area. The Geist area actually sits on both the Indianapolis and Fishers sides so it may be a good area to start looking.

[rrah]

I didn't mean McCordsville. I should have written Fortville. Big difference.