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Hi,
My name is Scott. I recently got promoted to open a new store in Rapid City. (I am Store Manager for Tractor Supply Company) Myself and my family are on here looking for information about Rapid City. Schools, Jobs, and Day Care and so on. We are also looking to make new friends and just get ready for the big move in Feb of 09.
If you want to know more about me and my family you can check out our Myspace pages. Mine is MySpace.com - www.myspace.com/77598389 and i will accept a friend add.
Me and Family are simply looking for the basics before the big move. Also making new friends never hurts and so on. We are Really excited for the move. Any advise will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.
Respectfully
Scott Skutnick.
TSC Store Manager.
Scott, are you interested in renting or owning? Do you prefer to be close to your job or would you rather be close to schools? How old are your kids? What are some of your hobbies (ie: hunting, hiking, skiing, swimming)? Do your kids do any activites? Does your wife like to shop? Do you guys like nightlife?
Rapid City has pretty much everything for all tastes but you just gotta be a little bit more specific so we can get to know you. Tractor Supply Company is going to be built out on I-90 by Cabela's and the new mall. That's just north of Rapid City but unfortunately the Northside isn't really the most attractive part of town so you may want to consider a commute. Do you have a price range?
If you live in Big Sky it will be a short 5 to 10 minute drive to work with a nice Elementary school within walking distance for little ones. But for Junior high they would need bussed and the school is really old. They are considering closing it down. My hopes are that they build a new one along Elk Vale Rd someday. Big Sky is in Rapid Valley.
If you want the best schools, you need to live on the West side, which would result in a 20 to 30 minute commute.
Ditto to Danny, don't live on the "north" side of town, which isn't actually the furthest north of town, it's south of the mall. Really far north, north of the mall, there are new homes that are nice. I've heard they are building an Elem school out there but I haven't driven in that area for at least a year, so no idea if it's just talk or in the works. But the middle school they would go to if living north of the mall, has a lot of challenges.
Sorry I can't contribute any help, but the Rapid City people always have good advice...
Good luck on your move and welcome to our state! Rapid City, South Dakota - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There's a link for the Wikipedia article on Rapid City.
Like ashnat said, rapid Valley may be your best bet for good schools and being close to work. Southside is also nice and your commute to work wouldn't be too bad because there is the Southeast Connector that links the Southside to the Interstate via Superhighway. I can get to Cabela's from my house in probably 7-10 minutes.
Really, no commute in Rapid City should take more than 10-15 minutes unless you live way on the Westside and you work out on Ellsworth AFB.
"If you want the best schools, you need to live on the West side, which would result in a 20 to 30 minute commute." quote from above
You do really have to be careful of these sites, people give their personal opinion, so okay I will give mine too.
I don't see any difference of "better" schools on the west side of town compared to the Robbinsdale (south side) or Rapid Valley area, or Black Hawk area, they are all part of the Rapid City Area School District. The only reason one school might "seem" better than the other is the family group or the PTA dumping money into the school that the district should be doing, making one school have an unfair advantage over another. Not that this or that school does better. When the parents don't volunteer or the PTA money dries up the schools are all equal.
The schools in Rapid Valley definintely do seem to try harder to bring new ideas into the learning curve ahead of other schools in the district, and they have received alot of critism for it, having 1 day a week that is a half day every week.
If you want good schools, don't send children to public schools any where in the US, go private or religious. They have several good religious schools in Rapid City, if you are of that mind.
Rapid City is a great place to live, Hunting, fishing, a couple small ski slopes, Hot Srings has Evans Plunge which my kids love. Walking/Bicycle paths in most of Rapid City, but could use more.
jobs are not the greatest paying, and the city council seems to have something to do with that, refusing to let business pay top dollar? Still haven't figured that one out yet.
Vehicle insurance should be comparable to ND
Licensing is reasonable $35.00 give or take for more cars.
More for trucks.
A Drivers license is $8.00 and the office off Highway 79 like you are going towards Hot Springs. They are closed on Mondays. It is good for 5 years.
A Couple things to watch for
Farmers Market in the summer on Wednesday and Saturdays
Central States Fair in late August
Motorcycle Rally in early August
Duck Race at the Rapid Creek
Canyon Lake is great if your kids are older and they still let you do the spillway, (I am not sure if they have closed that off now).
There are kids soccer leagues for little guys and gals to big ones.
Great Baseball and Softball for the young people
and a great Adult Softball league.
Thursday night music downtown in the summer
Light Parade Friday after Thanksgiving
Ski for Light Ski Swap the first weekend in November
Special Ski days at the slopes
There is an off road group there if you are into ATV, off road motorcycles.
There are several churches in the area, a good place to meet people from the neighborhood you decide to live in.
Watch out when buying a home in Robbinsdale, much of it is on the dump,
West side homes tend to be more money and not anything greater than anywhere else.
West Boulevard is the historic home district.
When you drive East to West on St. Joseph Street, when you get to the area near West Boulevard to Jackson Boulevard people call it the GAP.??
If you stay in the middle lane while going down Main Street or St. Joseph Street you can almost always hit the lights right and not have to slow down. Omaha Street isn't synchronized for street lights.
My pick would be Rapid Valley, near one of the two elementary schools
and your taxes have been lower there, but the city is trying to get that annexed in to add more taxes to us "out of towners"
And for home improvements there no place like MENARDS!!
And for the best steak EVER, Alpine Inn in Hill City.
My kids go to Rapid Valley Elem. It is a Title 1 school. We have a "math sponsor" and a "reading sponsor". Meaning, we have 2 teachers that JUST help the other teachers teach math and reading. And these sponsors work directly with the kids that are behind, and the parents that actively seek help.
This can be viewed as a good thing, or a bad thing. It can be viewed as the solution the district came up with to improve the scores of the 3rd and 5th graders on the testing. Many schools in Rapid City are not meeting math, or reading, or both criteria to NCLB. I sincerely hope Obama trashes or changes NCLB!!!!
I went to "math night" at my kids school 2 weeks ago. A school of 500+ kids and ONLY 30 kids were at math night, many of them siblings and kids of the teachers that don't even go to our school. I find that really really sad.
2007 results show that my kids school met the math criteria, 2008 results show that they failed the math criteria and are meeting the reading. Here is a link.... http://public.rcas.org/administration/CA/Documents/District%20Report%20Card.pdf (broken link)
Rapid Valley elementary has a Multiage program also. Where 2nd and 3rd graders are taught in a classroom together, and 4th/5th graders. I chose not to join the program. I hear good things about it, but it's not for my kids. And yes, we get out at 1:15 on Wednesdays. (which isn't half day, it's only 90 minutes early compared to the other 4 days) For reasons, I still have no clue!!! It seems just like a good time for teachers to have meetings and training.
To work on math, we have math binders. Each week on Friday, the kids get a new math game in the binder, we have to play the game Fri to Tue then the math binder get's turned back in. Then Friday a new game. My kids never have any homework other than the math binder. My 1st grader get's a new book to read at home every day, that I have to sign off, but my 3rd grader does not.
Dakota and North Middle schools are both on level 5 for corrective action for not meeting scores. Westside schools are not anywhere near in the level of needs. Westside schools are better.
Most of Rapid Valley is outside city limits, which means cheaper. But you have to hire one of the 2 trash companies to pick up your trash, it is not city supported. Around $20 a month. Property taxes are dirt cheap out here. $1800 on a 2200 sq foot home on a 1/4 acre lot. That's all I pay. When I lived outside Omaha city limits, I paid $2600 for a 1200 sq foot home on a 1/4 acre lot. Inside city limits would have brought that up to over $3000.
Rapid City is a great place to live, Hunting, fishing, a couple small ski slopes, Hot Srings has Evans Plunge which my kids love. Walking/Bicycle paths in most of Rapid City, but could use more.
jobs are not the greatest paying, and the city council seems to have something to do with that, refusing to let business pay top dollar? Still haven't figured that one out yet.
Vehicle insurance should be comparable to ND
Licensing is reasonable $35.00 give or take for more cars.
More for trucks.
A Drivers license is $8.00 and the office off Highway 79 like you are going towards Hot Springs. They are closed on Mondays. It is good for 5 years.
A Couple things to watch for
Farmers Market in the summer on Wednesday and Saturdays
Central States Fair in late August
Motorcycle Rally in early August
Duck Race at the Rapid Creek
Canyon Lake is great if your kids are older and they still let you do the spillway, (I am not sure if they have closed that off now).
There are kids soccer leagues for little guys and gals to big ones.
Great Baseball and Softball for the young people
and a great Adult Softball league.
Thursday night music downtown in the summer
Light Parade Friday after Thanksgiving
Ski for Light Ski Swap the first weekend in November
Special Ski days at the slopes
There is an off road group there if you are into ATV, off road motorcycles.
There are several churches in the area, a good place to meet people from the neighborhood you decide to live in.
Watch out when buying a home in Robbinsdale, much of it is on the dump,
West side homes tend to be more money and not anything greater than anywhere else.
West Boulevard is the historic home district.
When you drive East to West on St. Joseph Street, when you get to the area near West Boulevard to Jackson Boulevard people call it the GAP.??
If you stay in the middle lane while going down Main Street or St. Joseph Street you can almost always hit the lights right and not have to slow down. Omaha Street isn't synchronized for street lights.
My pick would be Rapid Valley, near one of the two elementary schools
and your taxes have been lower there, but the city is trying to get that annexed in to add more taxes to us "out of towners"
And for home improvements there no place like MENARDS!!
And for the best steak EVER, Alpine Inn in Hill City.
RoxAnn, I think you and I are soulmates! I absolutely LOVE the steak at The Alpine and I could spend days in Menard's. And just so you know, they call it "The Gap" because it's between the two mountains downtown and it's very narrow. Traffic gets kind of hectic there too. I consider Baken Park part of "The Gap" too. I hate driving there at 8am, Noon, and 5pm!
By the way, try the fillet at Delmonico. You won't be disappointed!
Like ashnat said, rapid Valley may be your best bet for good schools and being close to work. Southside is also nice and your commute to work wouldn't be too bad because there is the Southeast Connector that links the Southside to the Interstate via Superhighway. I can get to Cabela's from my house in probably 7-10 minutes.
Really, no commute in Rapid City should take more than 10-15 minutes unless you live way on the Westside and you work out on Ellsworth AFB.
I don't know it seems snaking ones way though the gap takes more time than I like. Depends on time of day. But it generall takes more like 15 to 20 to get through town east to west.
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West side not the best side.
I absolutely LOVE the steak at The Alpine and I could spend days in Menard's. And just so you know, they call it "The Gap" because it's between the two mountains downtown and it's very narrow. Traffic gets kind of hectic there too. I consider Baken Park part of "The Gap" too. I hate driving there at 8am, Noon, and 5pm! 
