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We live in Tampa and are very interested in the Raleigh area for various reasons. However, one thing that we don't like is hearing about the school redistricting and the push for all-year round schooling. Are there nice counties near Raleigh where we can be close, but not have to deal with that schooling situation?
Yep!
Johnston County! (Clayton) You wont get any of that. Plus, they have traditional school years (summers off). I moved here from Wake County and IMO, the schools are better.
Houses are cheaper, taxes are cheaper, its a great town.
We live in Tampa and are very interested in the Raleigh area for various reasons. However, one thing that we don't like is hearing about the school redistricting and the push for all-year round schooling. Are there nice counties near Raleigh where we can be close, but not have to deal with that schooling situation?
Thanks.
Every person has a traditional calendar option school that you can apply for when the magnet school applications come out - it just might not be one you prefer. Truly the year round school is not a bad thing, my kids and I like it. My concern was not being in our own town. So you might not want to write-off Wake county altogether. Wake county is the only county with the year-round and redistricting mess.
I'm not sure of the age of your children, but as the above poster mentioned, Clayton elementary schools are really good. Check them out at greatschools.net. My wife and I were going to move out of the Clayton area until we started researching the schools, and discovered that Clayton has a couple of the best elementary schools in the state...now we're just going to upgrade to a larger house and stay in town!
Depends where you need to be, geographically, for work and other activities. Johnston county will accomplish that goal, but it also accomplishes the goal of putting you at a horrible commute from RTP. Chapel Hill accomplishes the goal, but it also accomplishes a terrible drive in to downtown Raleigh.
Depends where you need to be, geographically, for work and other activities. Johnston county will accomplish that goal, but it also accomplishes the goal of putting you at a horrible commute from RTP. Chapel Hill accomplishes the goal, but it also accomplishes a terrible drive in to downtown Raleigh.
Very good point here...I'm not sure of Tampa's layout but this area is pretty spread out. Depending on where your job is, this is something to consider. Now, eventually, I-540 is supposed to swing around closer to Clayton, so the RTP commute wouldn't be QUITE as bad, but you would still be talking about a 40-45 minute commute (I'm guessing).
If you will be working downtown, there are some downtown neighborhoods that have not been as affected by redistricting, since they have long since been "built out". However, as the outer edges of the county continue to change in population dramatically, there will always be shifting, as new schools are open, so noone is immune.
As others have said, there are options in Wake County (were Raleigh is located) that will avoid redistricting and year-round. And of course there are private schools, too.
Durham and Chapel Hill have some very highly rated high schools. These have the advantage of being much closer to the jobs at RTP, if that is a concern.
Clayton is very far from RTP. If you are working in downtown Raleigh, it is a decent option, but otherwise is just too far to stay sane. But be aware that Johnson County has been growing very fast and the problems Wake is having today may be the problems of Johnson tomorrow. And I'd look into the quality of the schools, especially the high schools.
I drive from Clayton to RTP every day. Its really not that bad (40-45 minute commute). I moved to Clayton from Raleigh where I had a 20-25 minute commute. The way I looked at it was, an additional 20 minutes to my commute for a bigger house, better school and cheaper taxes. That was my deciding factor.
Be careful of putting too much store in the data on this website. The demographic data tends to be very generalized and the schools performance ratings viewed through a narrow lens.
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greatschools.net not so great
