looking at relocating to Minneaspolis with Target (Apple Valley, Lakeville: school district, budget)

[jenniferkay2]

I am looking in Dakota county (Lakeville, Apple valleyareas) I have a seventh grader who is an active athlete in track and football.We currently play football for Pop Warner however there is no Pop Warner inMinnesota. Can anyone tell me about a good youth football league that will continue to teach and prepare him for the high school football team? And school fees, I understand there are athleticfees and things to this nature are there school registration fees as well? How does all that work? In addition what high schools would you think to be a better choice I also have a sophomore who what’s to be a marine biologist has a 3.8 GPA and currently doing summer AP. So I want a good athletic department but a strong academic standard as well.

[golfgal]

Lakeville and Rosemount have the better football programs in the south metro. Rosemount has a better track program than Lakeville. Academically the schools are pretty similar. Lakeville, however, has HUGE fees for athletics because of their ongoing budget issues. I think football is close to $1000/year, track is $330. Rosemount you pay $160/sport, except for hockey. Apple Valley football is not very good at all. They are a wrestling powerhouse though and their soccer is outstanding. Rosemount has a very large in-town "Pop Warner" league that does a nice job of preparing kids for high school ball. There are also numerous lower level teams at the high school for 9th and 10th graders to get them ready for varsity, although if they are talented enough, they could play varsity as a freshman.

For your sophomore, you might want to look into the School for Environmental Science, which is part of the Rosemount school district. It's only for juniors and seniors but classes are held at the Minnesota Zoo and would give access to some marine biology courses. In the Rosemount district, they can attend one school and take classes at another so if your sophomore doesn't like SES, he/she could go to Rosemount and take a marine biology course at SES.