Moving to the area, looking for a good school zone (Durham: rent, crime rate)

[mrmakebelieve]

Looking for some assistance from folks in the area. We are a family of six (married couple w/ four children ranging from 12 to 5) and will be moving to the area next year. I will be attending Duke University for the nursing program and my wife will hopefully work at a local hospital.

Our concern is that we would like to find an area to locate to that has good schools for the kids. Any surrounding city/area that is withing 30 minutes of Duke would be something we would consider. Since I will be attending school full time, this will mean my wife will be the sole provider. Therefore, affordability is important too, with a price range of $150,000-$200,000 for a home, or rent of less than $2000 per month.

Thank you in advance for any help.

[Francois]

The best schools in NC are generally agreed to be the Chapel Hill/Carrboro system which is quite convenient to Duke. However, it's also among the most expensive places to live n the state (these tend to go hand in hand--better schools = high cost of living).

There are many, many threads in this forum on the school systems (in NC, schools are at the county level with rare exceptions such as Chapel Hill/Carrboro which is separate from Orange County system. If you are coming from an area with lots of tiny, local-centered schools, you will not find that here at all.

There are also websites that rank school systems on various factors--you will find those by searching the forum for school threads.

[branjkroll]

I was looking in that area. Our realtor gave us a good website to check out any school. ReDir. You have to spend some time to compare school stats but it is a start. Also look up crime rates per 100 students in school. Also ask people there if they know anything about the schools. We spoke to someone who mentioned that they put up affordable housing by one school in Durham and the school went downhill with gang activity and the crime rate in the school went up. So be careful and visit the school.

There is a little high school that is in or near Hillsborough called Cedar Ridge High School. They have an International Bacclaureate program for the 11th &12th grade about 6% of students enroll in that program. they also have AP classes. It is a new school and very nice.

here is a list of schools from the Orange County website

Orange County Schools

there is also an address tool but I am not sure where it is in on that website. You can plug in the address you are looking at and find out where the children will be going to school. I do know that 100% of students from AL Stanback middle school go to Cedar Ridge High School.

Hope that helps.