KC Area Schools & Suburbs (Kansas City, Lee's Summit: new home, neighborhoods, school districts)

[slnews2]

Hello
Our family is relocating from New England to the Kansas City area. Schools are our priority. We are researching Leawood, Overland Park, and Parkville. I appreciate any information on these towns. What are the differences, reputations, things to consider? What are the individual schools within the towns like - elementary through high school? Also curious about Kansas City proper and NKC schools? Any information is much appreciated. Thank you.

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by slnews2

Hello
Our family is relocating from New England to the Kansas City area. Schools are our priority. We are researching Leawood, Overland Park, and Parkville. I appreciate any information on these towns. What are the differences, reputations, things to consider? What are the individual schools within the towns like - elementary through high school? Also curious about Kansas City proper and NKC schools? Any information is much appreciated. Thank you.

You should expect some good answers here. But they will be even better if you can tell us about some of your secondary and tertiary considerations. What sort of community are you interested in? What sort of house? What's your price range? Do you like new homes or historic homes? How close do you want to be to various cultural or recreational amenities?

Another big question: Are private schools an option? Hypothetically, if you were to come in under-budget on your choice of home, would you be willing to spend some of the remainder on tuition?


Side note: You mention "NKC schools" but my guess is that you're referring to the Northland in general here. "NKC" means "North Kansas City" which is a specific municipality, rather small, sitting right across the river from downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

[lovekcmo]

If schools are needed for children, I would look at Johnson County Kansas or the Lee's Summit area of Jackson County MO or the Liberty school districts up north. If you move up North though and live in the municipality of KC MO, be forewarn that you will be paying a 1 % earnings tax for being a KC MO resident. The earnings tax KC imposes turns a lot of people off and they end up looking at the Johnson County Kansas suburbs.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

If schools are needed for children, I would look at Johnson County Kansas or the Lee's Summit area of Jackson County MO or the Liberty school districts up north. If you move up North though and live in the municipality of KC MO, be forewarn that you will be paying a 1 % earnings tax for being a KC MO resident. The earnings tax KC imposes turns a lot of people off and they end up looking at the Johnson County Kansas suburbs.

If you move to JoCo to avoid paying the KCMO Etax, you are stupid because you will pay more in other taxes, more for gas, more for groceries, more in state tax (or it used to be more).

People will always ***** about the etax, but they ***** about all taxes. The Shoal Creek suburban area of KCMO has been the fastest growing suburb in all of metro KC for many years now. I don't think the etax is hurting them and KCMO residents continue to vote by a landslide to keep the etax in place. It's suburban residents, mostly JoCo people that wouldn't live in Missouri anyway, that really complain about the etax.

At the end of the day, the etax is just not that big of a deal, it's just something fun to complain about.

I pay a 3% etax and I have yet to here anybody out here say a word about it out here.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by rwiksell

Side note: You mention "NKC schools" but my guess is that you're referring to the Northland in general here. "NKC" means "North Kansas City" which is a specific municipality, rather small, sitting right across the river from downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

NKC School District covers a large area of the Northland, including the city of NKC, as well as most neighborhoods in Kansas City, MO in Clay county, probably 50% of KC North is in the NKC school district and they are fine schools.

[slnews2]

Thank you all.

We'd like a community feel. A downtown would be nice and we would prefer to live closer to town. We are open to new or historic homes. Trees and walking trails are important - a more natural setting. Private high school is a consideration, but we are planning for public schools.

We are curious about the schools within Blue Valley School district, Park Hill School District (Parkville, MO), I will look into Lee's Summit and Liberty also. What about the schools in KC proper? Class size, parent/teacher/school communication, and a positive, welcoming school culture with experiential and project based learning opportunities are important to us.

[westender]

The big consideration is where will you be working -- to commute from Parkville to Olathe is madness, when the Olathe schools are equally fine.

If the job is near the Plaza, I recommend the SME (Shawnee Mission East) high school catchment -- extends from Fairway south to old Leawood including all of Prairie Village.

[slnews2]

Working in downtown KC.

[westender]

Downtown is generally understood as 31st Street to the Missouri River and between the West Bottoms and Troost.

The commute from Prairie Village/ Fairway to downtown (via Ward Pkwy or SM Pkwy) to the Plaza to Southwest Tfwy and into downtown takes 20 minutes. Approximately 15 minutes from Parkville to downtown across the Broadway Bridge. You could of course live in Brookside/ on the Plaza or in midtown, but you would probably want private schools.

I would not recommend Olathe or other far suburbs (the areas near Lake Lotawana or southern Johnson County like far Leawood) if you are working downtown. Downtown is not so far from old northeastern JoCo and from the northern suburbs.

[slnews2]

Thank you. Let's talk about schools because that will really drive our search on where to look. Currently Blue Valley, Park Hill, NKC. I am also researching Lee's Summit and Shawnee Mission East h.s. area (IB program is appealing). I can look up stats and rankings but that is only a piece of the story. I need real experience and anecdotes. Are there differences between the individual schools within the districts? It has been our experience having been in a large school district that individual schools within a district have their own unique culture, ways of doing things, class sizes, teaching methods, resources, etc. We do not want a school that is heavily focused on testing, teaching to the test, and overly focused on discipline/behavior management. We prefer a school with small class sizes, focuses on academics, individual paced learning and achievement, creative teaching methods and learning, experiential learning, with a positive, personal approach. Is there transparency and open communication? Parent involvement/partnership is essential. What is the state of education in Kansas and MO? Do you see programs being cut, resources being cut - which ones? Can you share info on individual elementary, middle, and high schools?