Family needs advice soon... (Tucson, Oro Valley: appointed, crime, buying a house)

[Tumbleweed65]

Originally Posted by galove

I'm reading a lot of negative comments about the schools, but nothing specific. What is bad specifically? Low quality Teachers? Violence? Drugs? Class size?

Class size is a major issue, the average is around 28-30. We have teachers aides but most are not qualified to work in the classrooms under the NCLB ACT and therefore the end up using them as playground monitors, lunchroom monitors, crossing gaurds and basically anything that is NOT in the classroom!! My experience with the teachers has been 50/50, I have ran in to some great ones who truly care about the students and want to teach and others who are unprofessional idiots! I have a son that is 23 who attended a year at Marana HS. He was very, very bored and was by far more advanced than the majority of his peers. This observation came not only from me but most of his teachers as well. I have a daughter who is in the 3rd grade and she is also very bored with school. She is in the gifted program but it still does not provide what she needs.

One other concern is that depending on where you live in the district, or to plainly put it,whether or not you live in a house or a trailer makes a difference in the school. Sad but true. It makes a difference in the attitudes of some of the teachers and staff by way of the poor kids are not held to the same standards as the other kids. I am a former employee of the district so I had a front row seat to this garbage. You may consider a charter school, there are some good ones out there and they are funded by the state. Tucson/Marana has many other options to public education. As a mattter of fact, my daugther will be attending a private school next year.

Then there is the racism thing that goes on.... We have quite a collection of skinheads in the Marana school district. They (the school district) really doesn't do much about it, they pretend it doesn't exsist. We are italian and my son was mistaken for a mexican and was given a really hard time. Of course he never told anyone that he wasn't mexican because hate is hate all the same. He got in a fight and his life was threatened and they wanted to kick my son out of school and let the white supremists/skinheads skate for what they did. All my son did was defend himself to keep from getting the H** knocked out of him. I haven't heard much about the white supremacy problems in the other districts around Tucson but it is a known problem here in Marana. I have a friend who is a policeman who has shared this with me.

You can get on the Marana Unified School District website and check out things for yourself as well.

Well, thats my .02 this evening!!

Have a good one,
Tumbleweed

[amymaha]

Hi-

Just wanted to help regarding schools if I can. We are relocating this summer to Dallas and I know how stressful it can be to relocate to a city you know nothing about!

I'm a former teacher in TUSD (Tucson Unified School District) so I am pretty familiar with this district and know a bit about the others. Our daughter goes to Collier Elem. (TUSD Excelling school) and we've been more than pleased. As you can imagine I did TONS of research! The Vail school district has an outstanding reputation and the area is growing like crazy with lots of shopping centers planned in the near future. I think it's also a bit more upscale. We know a physician and an IBM programer who love living out there. It is a bit isolated but the convenience stores are all being established (target, malls, grocery stores etc.). Everyone we know who has children in Vail is very happy.

In terms of High Schools the top rated in the recent Newsweek Top High Schools in the U.S. are BASIS and University High School (Housed on the Rincon H.S. campus in TUSD). Both are located in Central Tucson.

Feel free to message me direct if you need more specific questions answered. We also have a very articulate realtor if you'd like a name to interview. I know this process can be so overwhelming! I'm a native of Tucson so ask away!

[amymaha]

Oops! Forgot to mention....

Both University High and Basis have enterance exams and are enrolling this month for next year. My husbands co-worker's son said the exam at UHS was easy- he is very bright!

Also there are magnet self contained Gifted & Talented programs in TUSD. If your child places in one of these programs the district will bus them from your home area to the school. Another option for bright children to be challenged! The district office can give you a list of the GATE self contained programs. There are a handful for elem. and middle schools (a few on west and a few on east side of town).

[sierraAZ]

Originally Posted by amymaha

The Vail school district has an outstanding reputation and the area is growing like crazy with lots of shopping centers planned in the near future. I think it's also a bit more upscale. We know a physician and an IBM programer who love living out there. It is a bit isolated but the convenience stores are all being established (target, malls, grocery stores etc.). Everyone we know who has children in Vail is very happy.

Vail school district does not include Vail alone. Here are the boundaries of all districts:

School District Maps (http://www.schools.co.pima.az.us/school_districts/default.htm - broken link)

[potranco]

I am no expert but do not forget about the oro valley area. The schools are good and the views in area are outstanding. You can find a home in you price range right now because of the down market where normally 300K would not buy you anything for the size of your family.

[jen_vineyard]

Having lived in Tucson most of my life, I thought about moving back a few years ago. With a middle schooler and a young preschooler, we opted out because the schools were very hard to like in most areas. We did figure if we moved there, we'd opt for private schools for both kids.

Having a huge family and network there, most mentions of schools came up with negative remarks, and most suggested private schools. This was the main reason we stayed away. They cited violence, gang activity, drug use, sex in schools and on buses (the school district where Rita Ranch is was one that had a lot of mentions of sex in schools by parents), and poor teachers as reasons not to go the public school route.

I took to investigating more and realized the price of homes vs. what Tucson has to offer just wasn't a good fit for us.

Good luck!

[nikkj123]

galove..its simple, keep your kids out of TUSD, and half your problems are over. Next issue is where to live, stay away from North west side...the traffic is horrible. Especially the so called freeway. I live on the North east side and love it. My kids go to Catholic schools. All the stuff about Vail is true..it is nice, schools are good, just a bit to far out. good luck !

[nikkj123]

To be more specific about TUSD, I can say they have serious money issues. Until I moved to Tucson, Ive never seen a community that was so unwilling to support there local schools by raising taxes. ( Tucson taxes are very, very low )

[galove]

I'm still trying to determine a good area. My husband isn't fond of the idea of commuting from Oro Valley which was the area we both liked the best. We both loved the Rancho Sahuarita neighborhood but we don't want to live so far from shopping, restaruants, etc. I also felt that Vail was isolated. The Marana area seems to be our best bet for his commute. I think the area east of Houghton Road would be a decent commute. Any suggestions on subdivisions in that area. We looked at Civano, but didn't like the enormous power lines running behind the homes. It appears we'll have to increase the amount we wanted to spend : )
Is I 10 really that bad for commuting? We've heard conflicting reports on this.

[jaindow]

Regarding schools, I am not sure if you are concerned about where Arizona falls in comparison to all the other states, but at least one source ranked it dead last for 2006-2007. That could also account for some of the negative comments about the school system there.

Smartest State 2006-2007