Help with schools Pittsburg area

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by tinman1412

Thanks in advance for the feedback thus far. We will likely rent and get comfortable with the area before we buy. Our budget is in the $500k-$600k range.

While I agree that in general renting before buying is a good thing, I'm not sure how good of a plan it is with three school-age kids, with the younger two at least in elementary school. If you move into a rental house, you're essentially going to have to decide the next year (or whenever) to choose between only looking for houses within your local elementary school's feeder zone, moving you children to a new school twice in a two-year period, or just staying put for a longer term in your rental. That would be a hard decision for me to make as a parent, personally.

[Knepper3]

That is a hard decision, my kids come first as a parent but you are talking investing 500k+. Kids are pretty adaptable but I do agree it is easier to not let them get settled for a year and then move to another school again. My kids switched schools several times but our final move to Pgh they were in middle school and about to start HS. We said this was it, I would not want to make my kids change in HS but most middle schools funnel up so the start of HS is already a mix of various MS kids coming together which being new isnt as hard.

[tinman1412]

Yes I agree as well. I will look to rent in the school district that we would eventually buy so the kids are not having to switch schools.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by tinman1412

Yes I agree as well. I will look to rent in the school district that we would eventually buy so the kids are not having to switch schools.

I dunno what it's like where you are from, but most school districts around here have multiple elementary schools. For example, Moon Area School District has five different K-4 schools. Thus if you moved there, you wouldn't just need to stay in the district, but stay in the same elementary school feeder in order to ensure that your kids wouldn't have to switch schools.

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I dunno what it's like where you are from, but most school districts around here have multiple elementary schools. For example, Moon Area School District has five different K-4 schools. Thus if you moved there, you wouldn't just need to stay in the district, but stay in the same elementary school feeder in order to ensure that your kids wouldn't have to switch schools.

I agree with Eschaton. You are really limiting your housing options if want to buy in a specific elementary school feeder zone.



For the most part school districts that are similarly ranked are basically the same. Some are bigger some are smaller. But the education is comparable. The variables are the geographic location of the district and the type of houses that are available in your price point.



We had friends move back to town and they rented for a year. They sent their kids to private schools for the first year due to the location of their rental and then moved them to the public school. They did it because they were fairly specific in their needs in a house and they just couldn't find on that they liked.