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I am new to the area from PA and my husband and I just purchased a new home in the Garner area not to far from the White Oak shopping. My question is to anyone one familar with the area and schools. How is timber drive elementary? Do your child like it?? and so far everyone tells us " O Wake County schools are great!!" what makes them great? so far I haven't been impressed. My son is currently in the Brier Creek Elementary (4th grade) which reminds us of the school he attended in PA as far as size, but they seem to be behind in subject area. I would appreciate any feedback!
For a large school district like the size of Wake County they do perform better than other very large districts. On average, big school districts do not perform that well. So they are not comparing Wake County in statistics with little school districts lets say in the Northeast or other places.
Wake County Schools have been nationally recognized for excellence. I can't remember if it was Forbes or another magazine but I did hear that the system was in the top 5 (performance) or so of large school systems in the nation. A few years back, the Wake Superintendent of Schools won some sort of national superintendent of the year honors.
I'm sorry that I can't be more specific. I don't have children and it's not the highest thing on my radar.
I am new to the area from PA and my husband and I just purchased a new home in the Garner area not to far from the White Oak shopping. My question is to anyone one familar with the area and schools. How is timber drive elementary? Do your child like it?? and so far everyone tells us " O Wake County schools are great!!" what makes them great? so far I haven't been impressed. My son is currently in the Brier Creek Elementary (4th grade) which reminds us of the school he attended in PA as far as size, but they seem to be behind in subject area. I would appreciate any feedback!
I'd also wait to make up your mind a bit longer then the first week of school. With so many new kids, from so many different other school districts, they need to figure out first where their students are and work from there.
Once they get a decent idea of where to start, they'll start moving forward quick enough. You just can't assume here, the first week of school, that all kids are at the same point academically.
If you continue to have concerns, become involved with your child's school and help.
I have seen so many people ask lots of questions about moving to NC. trying to be helpful, Thought i'd collect these questions and try to answer them in one posting. talking from experience...
grew up in MA. Thought we'd always be in MA, until the kids came. This is where we felt really cooped up. my kids loved being outdoors. you can only do that few days out of the year in the northeast. Wife and I began to search for areas to relocate. self employed (fortunate) and can live anywhere. We came up with NC after more than a year of search, and trips to check out the areas to see if info we found matched the actual area. NC triangle area, Charlotte area and Triad areas were top notch. We settled on the triangle area, because of the colleges, where I needed to be close to. Duke, UNC, NC State etc. and moved here 3 years ago...
The weather couldn't be better. You can be outside most of the days of the year. only August is very hot, but we go to the mountains, it's great. The beaches are beautiful too, at least you can swim in them, warm water. 30 years in the Boston area I could only swim on the southern side of cape cod. The parks and play areas for the kids, are top notch, neat, clean safe and all sort of activities for kids and adults. All sort of services are available to the citizens that outdo anything we had up in MA, for so little taxes, that I feel I was ripped-off. I used to pay close to $6000 in RE taxes on my house, where I pay here in NC almost $2000 on a newer and much larger house. The elementary schools are excellent, (though) just go to the wake county or any county schools website and look for schools that passed the "school of excellence" rating, and you'll be OK. some do not pass the rating, and not because of the quality of schooling/teaching, it's for other reasons (people who move let's say to Andover for better schools and not to Lawrence or Lowell) (for those who don't know, these are neighboring towns in MA)
the shopping is the same as everywhere. stores, restaurants, malls whatever are here (can't believe someone asked if ... too stupid to mention) all the national chains are here and more. some MA families I met here wished we had a Demoulas (market basket) here. of course there isn't, it's a NE only store. equivalent to that here would be ALDI, actually they're cheaper, it's the same campany that owns trader's joe stores. so yes NC has Marshalls, Macy's,
payscales are similar, but depends on what profession you have. professional jobs do very very well (income to cost of living ratio is much higher) non-professional jobs, it's OK but not that great, the competition is tough, so pay may not be as high as in MA, but cost of living can totally make up for the difference.
Major North Carolina areas, in reality, are no longer the south. The majority of people here are from the northeast. NY, NJ, PA are majority, the rest are from MA, NH, MI, MN and CA...
REAL ESTATE: The newcomers have caused the real estate prices to go up. they sold their homes at high prices and came here and bought mcmansions. many actually came here without jobs. moved then began to look. some found it some didn't. there are plenty of jobs (biotech, nursing, SW... etc) BUT the supply of labor eventually will exceed the number of jobs. I've met families from the northeast who moved here, bought huge houses, and wanted to change careers and expect to make the same money they made back home. it's absurd. even in the northeast, or anywhere, when you want to change careers, they never pay you what you were making at a prior job where you had established experience and seniority. get real people...
SAFETY: very safe. nice diversity. no KKK in sight as some have asked on these forums. maybe you're referring to NC of 50 years ago... some crime but so rare that when it occurs all the news stations get so excited because they have something to talk about... whoooopy.
we've traveled to many parts of the country. but, we're making NC home.
life is not hectic. there are many families were one parent stays home with the kids. which is a rarity in the northeast, where both parents have to work to survive.
My daughter was born in Lehighton at Gnadden Hutton Hospital. Small world.
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moved to NC 3 years ago
