Dual residency in Durham/ Chapel Hill

[fester600]

Originally Posted by Cruiser66

Thank you all for your replies. We are still considering all possibilities. We are not high income and cannot afford the monthly cost of private school. We did not get chosen for lottery of the magnet school, so we're off to plan B. My husband lost his job recently so we couldn't afford to move since they don't hand out mortgages to unemployed people anymore. I still work, but it's not enough.

We would have to divest ourselves of money from investments and pay cash for the condo. The only reason to justify it is that we can resell and recoup some of our money. I would consider the taxes, HOA dues, utilities, etc. as investment into the education and say good-bye to it. We're VERY involved in our children's education, but we've hit a wall with DPS. All we are doing is exploring our options.

~Cruise

by the way - it's not 'just a garden', it's THE garden. Oh, and we adore our neighbors.

Just curious what school system in DPS are you in? You could send me a Direct Message if you want. Thanks!

Matt

[no kudzu]

I can understand your not wanting to leave your garden. Only a real gardening lover would understand.

We lived in the Atlanta area for 30 years. My garden was featured several times on HGTV, Southern Living Magazine, local koi pond and house and garden tours. It was my soul but we adopted new children and did not wanto raise this set in Atlanta schools. So we made the heart breaking decision to leave my paradise and move to Chapel Hill.

We bought the house here and then made numerous 8 hr each way trips with U Hauls digging up and transporting most of my garden from Atlanta to Chapel Hill. I had 5 cubic feet of top soil delivered to the new house and just heeled in my plants until we could actually move and I could start my garden.

My husband kept telling me "They have plants in N.C." but I refused to leave all that work much less expense behind probably to somebody who did not know or care about what was there.

All this was done for the education of our children.

What I'm saying is you can move your garden from Durham to Chapel Hill much easier than I did from Atlanta to Chapel Hill.

And BTW I was 62 when we moved just a year ago. This is my last start from scratch garden and I am still grieving for my Atlanta garden but starting a new garden, trying new plants and designs is making it worthwhile to say nothing of the happiness and welfare of our cxhildren.

Good luck

[PDXmom]

Originally Posted by Cruiser66

We're VERY involved in our children's education, but we've hit a wall with DPS. All we are doing is exploring our options.

~Cruise

by the way - it's not 'just a garden', it's THE garden. Oh, and we adore our neighbors.

I totally get THE garden thing. My young daughter still misses our garden at our home in Portland. Moving plants 3K miles was not an option and honestly a lot of what I grew there I would not try to grow here. I think there is a whole education and lifestyle that children can get in a really great garden.... which your children are probably getting now.

I understand the hitting a wall comment as well. We've had our ups and downs with DPS. For us it keeps coming back to if our children are happy and if we feel like they are learning enough. We like most parents everywhere provide additional at home enrichment for our kids. We would do this no matter where they went. (It sounds like you are that sort of family too.) My children want to stay. They like their school (most days), they LOVE our neighbors, they LOVE their friends and community activities that we do. But IF they were not happy and IF they wanted to move, we would seriously consider it.

I know (so does my older child) that they are learning certain real life, people skills in their DPS school that they would not learn in just any school. Our school is very economically and racially diverse. The school we moved from was not (they were all white, middle / upper middle class kids from educated homes). I definitely see that my children have developed compassion, interest in other cultures, and a desire to help others.

I always thought there should be some sort of parent support group for kids in any school district so we can commiserate and help prop each other up on the discourage days.

Good luck figuring out what is best for your family.

[sourdate]

I saw a couple with one kid living in a small Chapel Hill condo during weekdays only but spend time in their big home elsewhere during weekends. They are effectively maintaining two homes at the same time, and I don't see why this is illegal for their boy to attend Chapel Hill school.

[StoneOne]

Originally Posted by sourdate

I saw a couple with one kid living in a small Chapel Hill condo during weekdays only but spend time in their big home elsewhere during weekends. They are effectively maintaining two homes at the same time, and I don't see why this is illegal for their boy to attend Chapel Hill school.

I think in this case, there would be nothing wrong with it. The residency requirement is more than about simply taxes - a local public school system assumes at least some sort of community presence, which would be negated by a commute from a neighboring district. Five days a week would involve a community presence; an empty condo would not.

[Cruiser66]

We've decided to abandon the idea as it was just not panning out financially. Condos do not appreciate much and are difficult to sell. once we looked at how much we would lose by not investing in other areas, it just wasn't going to pan out. Add on taxes, HOAs, etc. it was really not a deal by any stretch.

Catholic school, here we come...

[dcgrl]

any chance you'd consider homeschooling? there are a couple of excellent homeschooling coops in the community and they offer an alternative.