West St. Louis County to Wright City/Warrenton Move

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by twheeler.stl

I work in Chesterfield now. The commute will be a shock for me no matter what. Forty miles vs. my 4 miles now is going to be tragic no matter what.

I'm all for moving out to the country if that is what you wish, and I think the emphasis on school ratings and such is somewhat overrated, but I question why you are possibly downgrading schools and taking on a much longer commute?

[twheeler.stl]

Originally Posted by flynavyj

If you don't mind me asking, what are the costs now for private grade school?

From our findings online (no official meetings with schools) it is $400 a month for the first student and a 10% discount for the second.

This is from a Wentzville k-8 school.

[twheeler.stl]

Originally Posted by MUTGR

I'm all for moving out to the country if that is what you wish, and I think the emphasis on school ratings and such is somewhat overrated, but I question why you are possibly downgrading schools and taking on a much longer commute?

The house and property in Warrenton is paid for and if we sell our home here in Ballwin we won't have a house payment. We stand to save $2,000 a month on a mortgage payment alone.

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by twheeler.stl

The house and property in Warrenton is paid for and if we sell our home here in Ballwin we won't have a house payment. We stand to save $2,000 a month on a mortgage payment alone.

Gotcha. I subscribe to the theory that home influence are actually more important than school rankings, etc.

[aragx6]

My understanding from some family who lives out that way is that Warrenton is significantly better than the Montgomery county schools further west (i.e. Jonesburg), but you're going to see a huge difference between Warrenton schools and the Parkway ones your kids are in now. Some of the differences will be of the skin-deep variety (the cell phones and cars the kids have like you mentioned), but others are more serious: Older textbooks, fewer teachers with advanced degrees, less access to technology, and fewer after-school activities. Warrenton simply doesn't have the tax base of the Parkway schools and because of that can't offer the same things to its students.

Whether those differences are serious enough for your family is something only you can answer, but there will be some real adjustments you'll need to make.

My gut says don't do this. Look at the private school options near your work in Chesterfield perhaps?

[OzarkChickenLover]

I live outside Wright City a mile from Innsbrook and my daughter's kids go to Warrenton Schools - they live in New Truxton.

As a Tampa transplant, albeit from a smaller town (Kalamazoo, MI) before that, I will say that you will find that living out here is a whole different critter. This is as country as where my dad lives in South Carolina. Some of the folks out here were born here, raised here, and have lived here their whole lives. Some of them have never, and I mean never, been to St. Louis. The school dropout rate is higher than I would have believed, and in the year my daughter graduated, we had, in Wright City, the highest per capita high school pregnancy rate in the country. Yep, the country. There's nothing out here for the less fortunate kids to do but smoke pot, drink beer, make meth and have sex.

No, I'm not knocking the area; I'm being honest. I've been here 11 years now and I know enough about the area.

You also have the countrified attitude that comes from people living somewhere next to forever. Many of our neighbors have been here upwards of 30 years. Everyone knows everyone else's business. Most everyone is related. If you're not from here, you don't belong.

Now when you get to Wentzville it's different, and if you have enough money to keep your kids involved and can drive them around, I suppose it's not all that bad. The problem is, there's not much out here at all to do. There's no YMCA; Warrenton does have an outdoor pool and they give lessons in the summer; after-school activities are limited and facilities are pretty non-existent.

My daughter's biggest adjustment was the fact that she was in the orchestra from jr. high age and took lessons in Tampa and there's not an orchestra out here at all. We're not the type that can afford to truck her into town for lessons or a youth type orchestra - does St. Louis even have one? I don't know - so she basically stopped playing once she moved up here.

If you can, I'd stay where you are, unless you have the time, inclination, motivation and money to take your kids to town for activities and definitely put them in private school, though even those out here are questionable. Liberty is okay, and the Catholic school in Warrenton isn't bad, but you're just not going to get the caliber of teachers that you'll find nearer the city, and partly because there's not much to keep them out here. It's a jumping off point for many teachers; they come out here to get experience and get their feet under them, and then they move on.

We're relocating as soon as hubby retires and we can sell. Being so close to Innsbrook and with the property we have, selling shouldn't be too hard - we hope. We're going south, where there's water close by and warmer weather, and where people are more open-minded and less - please forgive me - backward. Lest you think I'm being judgmental, by backward I mean living without running water in the house for a year or so and getting it from a hose from the house next door, keeping a year's worth of garbage in the pantry because you owe all the trash companies so much you can't get service, your kids not going to school because you don't make them get up in the morning, and having a septic tank you haven't had pumped since it was put in 30+ years ago. That's what I mean by backward. And yes, it gets worse than that out here. We're not in town, though, but aside from the scary stuff, it's still country out here. Not Nashville country, not Branson country, but redneck backwoods country.

Just an objective point of view from an ex-city dweller living out here dream in the country....not necessarily in the best situation now, but it will get better....

Trisha

[inahandbasket]

"My daughter's biggest adjustment was the fact that she was in the orchestra from jr. high age and took lessons in Tampa and there's not an orchestra out here at all. We're not the type that can afford to truck her into town for lessons or a youth type orchestra - does St. Louis even have one? I don't know - so she basically stopped playing once she moved up here"

Most certainly!! There are many excellent independent private string instrument teachers in the St. Louis metro area. There is the Community Music School of Webster University which has been in existence for some seventy five years beginning as the St. Louis Institute of Music, then grew into the St. Louis Conservatory and School for the Arts, taken over by the St. Louis Symphony for about five years and then became part of Webster University. Check it out: Webster University: Community Music School: Music Education Programs for St. Louis

CMS has four orchestras, two string orchestras and two full (strings w/ woodwinds, brass, percussion). Then there is the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra that is one of the premiere youth orchestras in the nation.