Obligatory School District Post/Discussion

carcrashheart

Talk to me about some school districts, please. In particular:

USC

Mt. Lebo (do they, or do they not, have a bus system?)

Bethel

Moon

Montour

West A

Peters

Chartiers

Also, what did you take in to consideration when it came to deciding? How important are rankings to you? How much of a difference do you think it is between the #1 school and the #16 school? What about the #26 and #44 schools? (Respectively, those would be USC, Moon, Montour and Chartiers).

The last time we purchased we only mildly cared about the school district and essentially chose the house because of the benefit of being able to send our hypothetical child to St. Gabriel's through 8th grade free of tuition. That area/school district is no longer an option.

Any insight in these districts would be helpful.

AmandaJLewis

Mt Lebo does not bus. So you have to be ok with that. 

we moved to bethel, and the district was one on our list of schools we are happy with in the area.  However- I don't think I would discount any district on your list.  I feel like they would need to be weighed with other factors.  I think as a region we are lucky to have a great many good school districts and am always surprised/saddened that it isn't a universal thing across our country to have high quality public options.  Anyway. 

My commute was important to me- as in I wasn't willing to be further out from town than we ended up. We wanted a semi-private back yard with a decent amount of usable space.  A house with character, a good neighborhood. 

Jcubed2003

I am familiar with two of the districts from my childhood, but that was a LONG time ago. I graduated from a dramatically different West Allegheny School District. They also cover a somewhat large geographic area. Having just switched jobs to something with a shorter commute, I second Amanda's points!

carcrashheart

That's what I thought about Mt. Lebo and wanted to be sure that I was still correct. I am not ok with that whatsoever. I'd rather not add school bus driver to the hats that I wear!

I feel the same way. DH, however, is insisting on going by the school rankings and feels that we should reside in USC to send DS there because it is the best. I can't quite determine how much weight to put on the school rankings or how to go about figuring out other determining factors. 

Right now, DH is working in Southpointe, so his commute should be within reason. I would like to consider Moon, Montour and Chartiers Valley. He is hesitant on Moon and refuses Montour and Chartiers. It's time to get to the nitty gritty, figure out how the school district is outside of PSSA scores, and hash this out. I'm just not sure how to go about it.

egpitt22

We took rankings into account to a certain degree...mainly in that we wouldn't consider schools at the bottom of the list, but if they weren't all the way at the top, that was ok, too.  I think that a lot of student success seems to rely on parental involvement and so many other factors, that it isn't really fair to judge a school simply by the test scores and rankings they can produce. 

I just looked at the latest rankings, it looks like our district is #25 in Western PA, and while we are not very far into the educational system yet, we've been happy with things so far and have heard great things from other parents with older kids in the district.

lala5507

We live in Moon.  My first child will enter the school district next year.  I've heard/read great things about new programs and different things within the district.  I feel confident that my children will get a quality education.   The high school and middle school are both brand new and pretty state of the art.  Also, RMU is right down the street and I know the high school offers some courses in connection with RMU. 

Of course, with any district you will hear good things and bad things.  No district is perfect. 

gwennythepooh

Have you considered Canon Mac or South Fayette schools? Those are supposed to be good as well. Out of your list, I didn't see any I'd be completely opposed to sending my kid to attend. We're in Fort Cherry district and several of those are near us and we've heard good things.

carcrashheart

Woops, yes to South Fayette! That has been the district that we have sort of compromised on until now. But the more I feel DH pull towards USC the more I feel like I need to point out that SF is still not as centrally located between our parents as I would like to be and I start pulling in another direction. He doesn't think distance to family should matter. Which is easy for him to say since we have always been within 10 minutes of his parents and he takes DS to see them and the pups about every weekend. My parents we are lucky to see every 3-4 weeks and most of those times don't involve DH because of schedules.

egpitt22

carcrashheart said:

Woops, yes to South Fayette! That has been the district that we have sort of compromised on until now. But the more I feel DH pull towards USC the more I feel like I need to point out that SF is still not as centrally located between our parents as I would like to be and I start pulling in another direction. He doesn't think distance to family should matter. Which is easy for him to say since we have always been within 10 minutes of his parents and he takes DS to see them and the pups about every weekend. My parents we are lucky to see every 3-4 weeks and most of those times don't involve DH because of schedules.

After dealing with so many delays and cancellations this year, I can tell you that being close to grandparents would be very handy if they're able to help out during those times!! 

carcrashheart

Good point! Actually, really good point.

The IL's have typical 9-5 jobs. My parents do not. They work weekends, making them either fully available or more likely to be available during the week (depending on the parent and the day). Whether or not this will be the case in 5 years, I'm not sure. Then again, in 5 years I bet FIL is retired. Though I don't know if he would really be ok to watch a child frequently by then. He doesn't like to do it now. It's really MIL doing the watching. FIL just hangs out.

waltsgirl102503

egpitt22 said:

  I think that a lot of student success seems to rely on parental involvement and so many other factors, that it isn't really fair to judge a school simply by the test scores and rankings they can produce. 

I totally agree with this point.  Those tests aren't always indicative of the education that your child will receive.  We are in a district that I think everyone would likely turn their nose up to.  But, so far, we've had a good experience - but we care and are involved.   One thing about our district, too, that most don't know is that it has an excellent special ed program.  But, those kids, who can barely function, have to take the PSSA's too.   And their scores are included along with my child who is in the gifted program. That being said, though, I'm not sure how else to evaluate a district if you don't live there or know of people who do.  

(Disclaimer: I think the PSSA's are absolute crap and hate that people use them as the only determining factor on where to send their kids to school, so I do have a bias against them!)  

kris356

Chartiers Valley is growing and investing in a lot in the district. The primary schools are newer, they are talking about building a new middle/high school. We moved into the district last year, and while we don't have kids, I wouldn't hesitate to send them there if we did. I went to a top ranked school and while I got a great education, it was in no way that much superior to the one my cousins got at the neighboring district (NA vs NH).

My husband works for CV and they actually have a lot of things planned for the future. They got a new, young superintendent a couple of years ago who is very active, they are talking about building a new middle/high school, our taxes are reasonable (we moved from Shaler Area and our taxes were outrageous). Plus, I am a believer that your child gets out of school what you want them to.

carcrashheart

That's great to know about CV!

Like I said, it's DH that is wanting to live and die by the rankings. I am hoping that I can talk with him and get him to realize that going by the rankings and allowing the PSSA to dictate those rankings is not the greatest way to go.

Anne22202

Our son attends school in USC. I cannot say enough about how wonderful his first two years have been. On top of that, resale in the district is quick because of the demand for homes within the s.d. All of the homes on my street have sold within days.

amyjoy18

We're in the West A school district.  DD doesn't start kindergarten until next year so I don't have any first hand knowledge into the district but my first complaint is that kindergarten is only half day--but other than that it does have a good reputation.  As we were looking into buying land and building reputation did play into our decision.  One of their elementary schools is brand new, and they are beginning to remodel the other two this year. 

In our research I did check out greatschools.net for their rating--but didn't consider PSSA scores the end all be all.  We knew we wanted to be in the west and there were some schools we eliminated based on reputation or other factors. 

Montour--high taxes
Burgettstown-bad rep

Our old daycare teacher experienced both Peters Twp and Canon Mac and said she much preferred Canon Mac.

If you still want to go the catholic school route, I've heard good things about Holy Trinity.

lishie

We live in the city, and PPS is not known as an amazing district, but in the two years we've been sending our son to a magnet school I've had a great experience. I'm on the PTSC board and have a decent amount of interaction with the teachers and principals. They've been great.

I agree that a lot of the school experience depends on the parents and their involvement with their kids.

carcrashheart

lishie said:

We live in the city, and PPS is not known as an amazing district, but in the two years we've been sending our son to a magnet school I've had a great experience. I'm on the PTSC board and have a decent amount of interaction with the teachers and principals. They've been great.

I agree that a lot of the school experience depends on the parents and their involvement with their kids.

Can you talk to me more about the magnet school? How does it work? Do you have to apply or can basically any child attend? Is it cyber or is there a brick & mortar building? Someone mentioned this to me last night and I don't know anything about it beyond the basic PA Cyber School stuff. 

I actually went to Kindergarten in West A, so I knew they did half day Kindergarten. I think it's a long day to put a child in for a full day, but that's just an opinion I have as an outsider. And while Montour taxes are probably high we're also looking in South Fayette and their taxes are the highest in the county so...what it means for us is that if we look in the high tax areas the overall cost of house has to come down some than in other areas with more reasonable taxes. 

MrsAmers

Our DD goes to a PPS magnet school as well. They are bricks and mortar schools that you get into by lottery. You can put down several selections when you submit your lottery form, ranked by preference. I believe that non-residents of the city can apply but residents are given preference.

Like Lisa, we have been happy with our PPS school. There is an active PTA and most of the teachers seem to be great and enthusiastic.

kris356

carcrashheart said:

That's great to know about CV!

Like I said, it's DH that is wanting to live and die by the rankings. I am hoping that I can talk with him and get him to realize that going by the rankings and allowing the PSSA to dictate those rankings is not the greatest way to go.

I worked in a district that received all kind of awards. They spent a lot of time creating the image. One of my friends was a reading specialist who spent most of her time doing the applications and making things look really good. The district also had one excellent elementary school and another that was horrid, there was a housing project that should have gone to the "excellent" school but by creative drawing they went to the other one. I take all of those things with a grain of salt.

Plus, schools in affluent areas usually do have better test scores and results because the kids come from homes that value education. When education is valued at home, kids tend to succeed. This is why kids succeed and excel in districts with "poor" reputations like Pittsburgh Public. 

carcrashheart

So I guess it isn't a great idea to move to wherever we want without caring about the SD and banking on getting in to a magnet school, huh? We would love to live in the City again but not sure we would risk it. 

erinandrick

My kids go to Chartiers Valley and we are very pleased with the district. My daughter starts high school next year and I'm amazed at how many courses she has to pick from. She is in tons of great activities and sports and just today we found out she got picked to go to an awesome summer camp all expenses paid because one of her teachers recommended her for it.

I totally agree with the you get out what you put in mentality and how involved parents are, etc. my husband and I didn't go to top ranked high schools and we are doing just fine. Good luck with your decision!

MrsAmers

carcrashheart said:

So I guess it isn't a great idea to move to wherever we want without caring about the SD and banking on getting in to a magnet school, huh? We would love to live in the City again but not sure we would risk it. 

There were three magnet schools that we would have been happy to get into and we would have been satisfied with our feeder school for a few years, but likely would have kept trying magnets or charters for 1st or 2nd grade.

As long as we're in Pittsburgh and capable of navigating stairs, we will live in our current house. We live our neighborhood and prefer living in the city.

I only know about the East End, but everyone in our neighborhood who wanted public school has found a place in a magnet or charter by 1st grade.

MaryM

So I am super late to this discussion, but wanted to add that sometimes people get too hung up on the school, when focus should be parenting.

I know a lot of great people who came from USC and Mt Lebo. But I also know a drug dealer who went to USC and an old friends brother who was a mt lebo grad and he went to med school only to be part of that Gosnell case where he performed illegal abortions and killing fetuses...

My siblings and I went to a school district that would be low on any ranking "list" but we all stayed away from drugs, my brothers are surgeons at good hospitals (one was even on the show Mystery Diagnosis) and done well, despite the non -elite school district.

Sorry this is so long, but when we looked into schools we were hung up on it too, but I really think that parenting is essential. I mean yes there is a huge difference between city schools and suburban ones. But to dissect moon vs south fayette vs montour - I think at that point it's more parenting vs the school.

Luckystar2

I couldn't agree more with MaryM! Where I live (in ny) there are a ton of great schools but people get so hung up on the rankings. IMO it's splitting hairs! But people seem to focus a lot on it like going from a district that is ranked 8th to the 6th, etc. but they are all good!

And as others have said there is so much more that goes into it than the school. If you want your child to succeed that starts at home.

We are a decent ranked school but it's not top 10 and I swear people act like we are destroying our kids future! When we moved here 7 years ago before we even had a kid we were told we shouldn't. Personally there are a lot of other reasons why we chose where we live with school district only being part of it. Having decent commute times so we can be home more with our kid and spend time with her and helping her learn is huge!

Honestly there are reasons why I wouldn't want to send my kid to the top ranked schools in my area. Even though the scores are great there are social issues that concern me and are part of the school experience.

carcrashheart

I don't have a huge concern with SD. It's DH, and he won't lay off of it. It' driving me crazy. I don't want to send DS to USC or Mt. Lebo largely in part because of the social environment. I truly believe it outweighs the benefits. I hope that when we find a home that we love DH will relax on the SD.