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Old 07-09-2008, 05:34 PM
j1n
 
Location: Southeast of the Northwest Territories
1,245 posts, read 4,665,056 times
Reputation: 469

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Quote:
Originally Posted by bethybb View Post
But - there is a very "inner-city" feel when I drop her off
In what ways?
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Old 07-09-2008, 09:03 PM
 
Location: Roanoke, VA
246 posts, read 783,292 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bethybb View Post
If you have the option, pick a place that has county schools. They have much larger budgets, and each kid even gets issued a laptop to use throughout high school. I think there is a $69 annual fee for maintenance on it, and it gets turned in over the summer.
Ah, Roanoke County. Their motto is, "We mooch off of the services the City of Roanoke provides, and don't pay taxes for any of them."

It will be a grand day when Virginia changes its annexation laws.
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Old 07-10-2008, 12:04 PM
 
696 posts, read 1,431,286 times
Reputation: 461
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diamond Dave View Post
PH is a fine school. The two Roanoke City high schools in general are rated a little low due to the proximity of the Roanoke County high schools, which tend to be almost exclusively white and wealthy, while the city schools have significant minority populations and poorer clientele (I think PH is about one-third black). Not that poor minority kids aren't as smart as wealthy white kids, but more of the city kids are going to have home problems and other distractions that lowers their performance in the classroom. However, you never hear of any serious problems at PH with drugs, guns, or that kind of thing. People who rate PH low have probably never seen a "real" city school like you might find in Baltimore City, so it's all relative.

Roanoke City also has a new superintendent of schools, Rita White, who has almost overnight changed the mood of the city schools. She is emphasizing art and music, foreign language instruction, and doing things to keep kids from falling through the cracks. Now, instead of students and teachers leaving city schools for county schools, they're trying to get back into the city.

PH is in a brand new building with a brand new football stadium. It's in a great part of town, the Raleigh Court/Grandin Court neighborhood in Southwest Roanoke, right next to a library, a park, and the Roanoke Valley Governor's School. I live about 1/2 mile from there . James Madison is a good middle school, right next to a huge park, an aquatics center, and a community college. If your elementary is Crystal Spring, then the house is probably in South Roanoke, which is the "best" neighborhood in the City.

In short, don't let these schools discourage you from looking at that home--if anything, they should be a plus, as South Roanoke and Southwest Roanoke are wonderful, safe areas with plenty of soul and charm.
Nicely said DiamondDave --- we looked around the whole area and seriously considered Cave Spring before deciding that what we are really looking for here in Roanoke is quality of life, not necessarily the highest test scores. We moved to Raleigh Court last week --- my kids will walk to school, I'll bike or bus to work, we walk to the library, the grocery store, even the movies. None of us will have more than a 10-minute commute anywhere. We moved here from a very vanilla (read: segregated) community with no minorities or immigrants in the top-scoring schools, and I do not think that their top-quality academic education made up for the absence of real-world civic education. Like parents who choose private or suburban schools, I want my children to have every opportunity to discover and make the most of their intellectual and creative talents --- for me that means exposing them to, rather than sheltering them from, other students whose history, home life, and socioeconomic status might differ from theirs.

Also it doesn't hurt that the city schools have the IB program, and the Governors school is on the PH campus. My 12-year-old is on track for those highly competitive programs as well.
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Old 07-11-2008, 05:49 PM
 
Location: Roanoke, VA
246 posts, read 783,292 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by headnsouth View Post
Nicely said DiamondDave --- we looked around the whole area and seriously considered Cave Spring before deciding that what we are really looking for here in Roanoke is quality of life, not necessarily the highest test scores. We moved to Raleigh Court last week --- my kids will walk to school, I'll bike or bus to work, we walk to the library, the grocery store, even the movies. None of us will have more than a 10-minute commute anywhere. We moved here from a very vanilla (read: segregated) community with no minorities or immigrants in the top-scoring schools, and I do not think that their top-quality academic education made up for the absence of real-world civic education. Like parents who choose private or suburban schools, I want my children to have every opportunity to discover and make the most of their intellectual and creative talents --- for me that means exposing them to, rather than sheltering them from, other students whose history, home life, and socioeconomic status might differ from theirs.

Also it doesn't hurt that the city schools have the IB program, and the Governors school is on the PH campus. My 12-year-old is on track for those highly competitive programs as well.
Hi neighbor! It is indeed a great area. Well said on your part, too.
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Old 08-05-2008, 02:35 PM
 
Location: Roanoke
6 posts, read 22,400 times
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Honestly the Grandin area is a very sought after area and PH is a new building but don't let that fool you....I lived in the area 7 years ago and many of my friends wouldn't come over after dark...it was not the side of town it is today and I don't think that is enough time for the school to change either...I have friends who went to PH who would not send there children there now or in the future.
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Old 08-05-2008, 03:37 PM
 
Location: Downtown
10 posts, read 25,592 times
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As far as "lockdowns" go, let me tell you, you're very mistaken if you think that that is somehow only an inner city situation. I went to school in the newest high school with the highest test scores etc, in one of the most highly ranked school districts in the state outside of NoVA, and one of the more affluent counties. We had lockdowns all the time, and 9 times out of 10 they were for stupid reasons that really shouldn't have led to the type of interruption in the school day that resulted. "Lockdowns" are an unfortunate prisony-sounding name for a new invention that schools use as a "CYA" method for the type of "fights" that some of you older folks would have laughed at in your day. I know I didn't go to Roanoke City Schools so I'm pretty much generalizing, but that's the type of stuff that's just going to happen in modern America, since nobody likes to take chances in the post-Columbine era.

I was in high school as recently as 2004, and these things are going to happen no matter what school you go to.

Edit: Don't even get my started on the number of bomb threats, etc. we had to deal with.
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Old 08-05-2008, 07:00 PM
 
Location: Roanoke, VA
246 posts, read 783,292 times
Reputation: 60
Quote:
Originally Posted by brobertson1 View Post
Honestly the Grandin area is a very sought after area and PH is a new building but don't let that fool you....I lived in the area 7 years ago and many of my friends wouldn't come over after dark...it was not the side of town it is today and I don't think that is enough time for the school to change either...I have friends who went to PH who would not send there children there now or in the future.


Are your friends sissies?

It's all in the data, folks. Check the Roanoke Times datasphere and see where the crime is occurring. It ain't the corner of Grandin and Brandon.

Roanoke Valley crime data map and search - Roanoke.com
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Old 08-09-2008, 09:44 AM
 
Location: Daleville, VA
2,283 posts, read 4,073,125 times
Reputation: 2423
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diamond Dave View Post


Are your friends sissies?

It's all in the data, folks. Check the Roanoke Times datasphere and see where the crime is occurring. It ain't the corner of Grandin and Brandon.

Roanoke Valley crime data map and search - Roanoke.com
Thanks for the link!
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Old 08-09-2008, 01:29 PM
 
Location: Richmond va
1,570 posts, read 4,623,936 times
Reputation: 671
Dont know if it matters or not (i didnt live here 7 years ago) the op said that he lived there 7 years ago and that it wasnt the safe back then like it is now. So perhaps times have changed and the crime isnt there anymore. Just a thought and thanks for the link!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diamond Dave View Post


Are your friends sissies?

It's all in the data, folks. Check the Roanoke Times datasphere and see where the crime is occurring. It ain't the corner of Grandin and Brandon.

Roanoke Valley crime data map and search - Roanoke.com
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