Lake Country Elementary Schools (Merton, Hartland: how much, houses, neighborhoods)

[cdgator]

We are moving to the area this summer and looking into the feeder schools for Arrowhead High School. We have a 6 and 8 year old. We have heard the feeder schools are good but would love personal experiences with them (richmond, merton, lake country...). We are house searching now! Thank you!

[admiralsfan24]

All good schools. Merton and Lake Country are probably the best. I went to Hartland North and North Shore back in the 90's but you might not want to do that since they made a stupid switch a few years ago where kindergarten-2nd grade goes to North and 3rd-5th grade goes to South instead of just making both schools K-5 and then making the decision on where you kid goes based on where you live like they did when I was in school.

I only really know most of these schools from visits there when I played basketball.

Richmond - The old school. The school itself seemed kind of dumpy to me.

Merton - Two different schools right next to each other. The primary school is newer and does 4K-3rd grade. The 4th-8th graders attend the intermediate school.

Lake Country - This seemed to be the nicest school to me. It was bright (Richmond and Merton intermediate were kind of dark and dingy.) I think it's the newest as well.

Stone Bank - Nice school but kind of out in the middle of nowhere.

North Lake - Same as Stone Bank.

Swallow - Where the rich kids go.

North/South/North Shore - This is the one I'm most familiar with. I went to Hartland North and North Shore back in the 90's but you might not want to do that since they made a stupid switch a few years ago where kindergarten-2nd grade goes to North and 3rd-5th grade goes to South instead of just making both schools K-5 and then making the decision on where you kid goes based on where you live like they did when I was in school. North and South are both old schools. I never really had a problem with North even though it was pretty dingy. I only went to South a couple of times, it seemed nicer than North but still nothing compared to Lake Country.

North Shore is a really nice middle school for 6th-8th graders. It's fairly new (I started 6th grade the second year it was open which was back in 1999.) They had a really crappy school for 5th graders that had the whole 9 yards. Mold, mice running around etc. but they tore that down.

So basic rundown.

Unless you can afford a McMansion, Swallow is likely out of the running.

If you're okay with your kids being at separate schools, then Merton and North/South/North Shore are in the running. Though Merton probably isn't that big of a deal because of the close proximity of the schools. I think they may actually share a playground though I'm not 100% on that. If it's a big deal for your kids to be together I'd check with the school on that.

Your kids will be a couple miles apart if you choose the Lakeside District (North/South/North Shore). If that concerns you, they should be out.

If you're good with not really being around anything, you'll be fine with North Lake, Stone Bank or Richmond. My personal preference on those would be

1. Stone Bank
2. North Lake
3. Richmond

I think Lake Country is probably the best overall school in the district. It's fairly new. There were good teachers there from friends I trust that went there. It's just a very nice school overall from what I've seen and heard.

You need to make sure you're looking for a house in the specific district of whichever school you choose because open enrollment closed a couple of weeks ago. Here's a map of the districts.

http://www.arrowheadschools.org/newsfile15992_1.pdf

The Hartland-Lakeside district has downtown Hartland, a bunch of parks and some nice, older neighborhoods with reasonably priced houses and some newer, more expensive housing if you want and can afford that.

Swallow as I said earlier is the McMansion district.

Merton is kind of like the Lakeside district but a lot of the houses are newer and more expensive.

Lake Country - Now that I'm thinking about it, Lake Country is kind of expensive too. I don't know your budget but I don't know how much housing will be available in the district if you can't spend a ton of money.

I'm just going to be honest here, there really isn't anything wrong with any of the schools. Some are better/newer than others but your kids will be fine anywhere. The teachers care, they're helpful, they're friendly. I'm being completely honest when I say that. If you find a house that you love in say the Lakeside district, they'll be fine. It will probably be tough on them when they get separated (depending on how close they are) but really, they'll be fine. I would probably actually prefer that area because there are a lot of starter homes there which means a lot of young kids so it will be easy for them to make friends before school even starts.

[cdgator]

Thank you so much for that information! It was very helpful!