Fam of 4 w/ dog maybe moving to Louisville (Dayton: house, transfer)

[InkFiend]

Originally Posted by Dayton Sux

JCPS has suffered a big flight of white upper-middle class professional and managerial parents...who send their kids private.

This is all personal anecdote, but from what I know: my nephew is going through the JCPS system..Brandeis/Myzeek/Manual...in a math/sciences magent program. He and his fellow students are very good in math and science and probably will go on to college to major in engineering, medicine, etc. The JCPS magnet program, combined with motivated parents and some private tutoring, provided a good foundation.

However, his classmates in these schools are mostly non-white...in that they are from Asia (Indian, Pakistan, Mideast, East Asia, etc). So what you have is a program made up of the kids of immigrants (which would include my nephew). While there are white kids in these schools most of them are Jews (not that there is anything wrong with Jews). All these kids are pretty competetive, too, so its a very driven academic environment.

Generally speaking, though, white upper middle class professional and management types in Louisville send their kids private (either KCD, Collegiate, or the Catholic system) or move to Oldahm or Spencer counties.

Magnet programs are fantastic for the kids they serve, and I've read good things about Myzeek and Manual (and about some controversy regarding redrawing the boundaries at Myzeek). Unfortunately, my kids, especially my daughter, tend more toward languages and the arts, so our family wouldn't benefit from the math/science track.

I get that the self-selecting segregation in education is problematic, and I would prefer that my kids attend school with kids from diverse backgrounds. At the same time, I can't justify risking their education for the sake of diversity alone. If it were just my husband and me, we would likely choose to live in one of the quirkier neighborhoods in JeffCo, but the uncertainty—however large or small—of being sure where our children will go to school certainly puts a damper on our enthusiasm for living in JeffCo.

[InkFiend]

Originally Posted by Dayton Sux

No one has addressed this:



From my experience (since I use the bus a lot when I'm in Louisville, riding in from Valley Station), the system is OK only if you want to do things in the city. Then it can be good....esp on weekdays when certain bus lines run on 15 minute headways, which are a good frequency for a mid-sized city like Louisville.

(on edit) The system also has a very long transfer policy so it's entirely possible to make multiple trips on one fair depending on where you are going and the frequency of the routes.

From my experience the busses are heavily used, with standing-room only as you get closer into & out-of downtown.

If you live in suburbia the service is poor. I'm fortunate as there is a bus line near where I stay in Valley Station and I can park and ride, and my destinations are usually in the city, but if you want to go "crosstown" in sububria there are no suburban crosstown busses. There is also very limited service to certain suburban areas (like Prospect) or none at all (like Fairdale).

Thanks for this information! This is all hypothetical at this point, of course, but my husband would be at the UL business school, which I assume is fairly well served within a certain range in the city (I may be assuming incorrectly). That said, we would likely be living in suburbia if we end up in JeffCo. Sounds like I need to do some research on the park and ride options; accessibility to public transportation could influence our choice of where to live.

[tomocox]

Originally Posted by Peter1948

But...why? ..

Do you guys propose that the city isolate West Louisville further by giving it its own poor performing school district, and let the hundreds of suburban cities in Jefferson County run their own schools? This is the format you see in many other rustbelt states like Ohio.

If it were just west Louisville (the town of West Louisville is in Daviess County) the fix would be much easier. What you fail to understand is that Dupont Manual is considered to be west as is every thing west of I-65. You also fail to understand that Waggener is set right in the middle of what should be the best student resides area of all Jefferson County. Then let's look at the four Dixie corridor schools, Iroquois, Valley, PRP and Butler Traditional. Then let's go to what should be the red neck capital of Jefferson County (I am proud to be considered red neck because I am conservative and from a rural (but educationally leading McLean Co.) and relate very closely to the good people of Fairdale. So, what happened to Moore and Fern Creek?

Once again, your racist approach to Louisville and JCPS shows.

[tomocox]

Originally Posted by InkFiend

Thanks for this information! This is all hypothetical at this point, of course, but my husband would be at the UL business school, which I assume is fairly well served within a certain range in the city (I may be assuming incorrectly). That said, we would likely be living in suburbia if we end up in JeffCo. Sounds like I need to do some research on the park and ride options; accessibility to public transportation could influence our choice of where to live.

I understand from my daughter in law that the Parc and Tarc from Exit 14 (Crestwood) to Humana downtown was a good ride although somewhat crowded occasionally. The UL College of Business is a simple and frequent connector away as UL is only about 2-3 miles south of downtown.

[Dayton Sux]

Unfortunately, my kids, especially my daughter, tend more toward languages and the arts, so our family wouldn't benefit from the math/science track.

There used to be a magnet school for the peforming arts, but not sure if this is relevant to your situation. The tradeoff is cost. It would be cheaper (as in no tuition) to send your kid to a public school in Oldham County, but housing prices might be higher ....can't speak to that. Transportation costs would be higher since Oldham County is far from UofL and many workplaces.

Thanks for this information! This is all hypothetical at this point, of course, but my husband would be at the UL business school, which I assume is fairly well served within a certain range in the city (I may be assuming incorrectly).

UofL would be on or near Route 4, which has that 15 minute frequency I mentioned. So if you take Tom Coxes suggestion and use a park and ride express into the city from Oldham, then transfer to 4th Street bus your husband should be able to get to and from campus fairly quickly. Depending on where the express busses come in at.

Louisville, unlike Dayton or Cincinnati, does not have a single transfer hub or station downtown...the busses come in and out of the center city and load/unload at street corners. Best bet is to suf into the TARC website and study the maps, particularly the downtown map, to determine how to make the transfer.

But yes, UofL is served by a relatively high-frequency bus service

[Dayton Sux]

You also fail to understand that Waggener is set right in the middle of what should be the best student resides area of all Jefferson County.

Waggoner used to be the best peforming (academics) high school in the county before bussing.

[Crazee Cat Lady]

Hey, also if Louisville is anything like Lexington - we have a lot of home school co-ops going on, a man that I work with changed over from Private school (spending over 10,000 a year to send his daughter), to a co-op and loved it. They had a regular teacher in his, and the parents
would each teach the small group of children they had once a week, on a subject that they knew a lot about/worked in. They would take lots of field trips and had lots of hands on learning. It was a smaller group, so all the children received extra attention, provided social interactions still, and the costs he tells me were much lower than the private education.

My cousin moved right across the river in Indiana, when her son was in High school, and she loves it there. It's only a few minutes away from Louisville (except rush hour is probably not so great) I am not sure TARC buses run there though...probably not.

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by Dayton Sux

There used to be a magnet school for the peforming arts, but not sure if this is relevant to your situation. The tradeoff is cost. It would be cheaper (as in no tuition) to send your kid to a public school in Oldham County, but housing prices might be higher ....can't speak to that. Transportation costs would be higher since Oldham County is far from UofL and many workplaces.




UofL would be on or near Route 4, which has that 15 minute frequency I mentioned. So if you take Tom Coxes suggestion and use a park and ride express into the city from Oldham, then transfer to 4th Street bus your husband should be able to get to and from campus fairly quickly. Depending on where the express busses come in at.

Louisville, unlike Dayton or Cincinnati, does not have a single transfer hub or station downtown...the busses come in and out of the center city and load/unload at street corners. Best bet is to suf into the TARC website and study the maps, particularly the downtown map, to determine how to make the transfer.

But yes, UofL is served by a relatively high-frequency bus service

True but also a bit, untrue. Have you looked at Tarcs maps recently? Almost all routes that come through downtown come within a 3-4 block radius of 5th and Jefferson/Liberty. So, while the 4 block walk can be annoying, there is definitely a "hub and spoke" pattern to Tarc, and there is no way I believe Dayton has a better bus system because I have rode that system several times.

You are correct though that Louisville, unlike the Ohio cities (or most major cities I have been to), lacks a major downtown transit center hub, a "central station" if you will. Incidentally, a multi modal downtown transit hub including bikes is under development downtown, but still on the drawing board.

[Dayton Sux]

So, while the 4 block walk can be annoying, there is definitely a "hub and spoke" pattern to Tarc, and there is no way I believe Dayton has a better bus system because I have rode that system several times.

Where did I say the Dayton system was better...I was pointing out there is no central transfer point? Yes you may have to walk to make a transfer, but no big deal if one reads the maps and understands the routing dontown

[InkFiend]

So, just for fun, I looked at a housing site and found about 30 houses that would meet our needs in various parts of Louisville and then went to the JCPS school finder. I looked up the elementary, middle, and high schools for each house and then checked them against the most recent school report cards from the KDE. I think this exercise has confirmed for us that we will look in Oldham County or homeschool (checked prices on private schools and with two kids, that's just not a realistic option).

The only good news was that I learned that middle school and high school students go to their resides schools unless they choose a magnet school. But the rest was just sad. Of nine potential elementary schools, one (1!) was ranked as distinguished. The rest were ranked as needs improvement. Of eight middle schools, one was ranked as proficient; the rest as needs improvement, and at least two of those rank in the bottom 10% for the entire state. Of four potential high schools, one was ranked proficient, the rest as needs improvement, and again, at least one of those was in the bottom 10% for the state. (And yes, I did look at previous years as well and at the various assessments for reading, math, science, etc. Year to year there's not that much difference in school improvement overall, although certain groups did improve dramatically in certain grades and certain areas.)

I read the JCPS lit on magnet schools and magnet programs, which sound great on paper, but the thing that stands out to me over and over again is that there are no guarantees for elementary-aged children that you will get a school or program you want. Even if chances are good that you will get one of your top choices, it's just not worth the risk.

I'm not saying JCPS is any worse than any other school system in any other large metro area, but these are my kids we're talking about, and I'm going to keep them out of that kettle of fish!