Best schools in The Woodlands?

KelleyA

We're just browsing, but since DD will go to kinder in 2 years it's something we're thinking about now.   I'd love to know your favorite parts of The Woodlands (street borders are great!)

Edit: we'd move sooner if we could...not sure if the housing market will yield us what we'd need/want from our house. 

ayersfam20

Between my siblings and I, we've been to almost every public school in The Woodlands.  They were all great. 

I went to:

David Elementary, Galatas Elem., Collins Intermediate, Mitchell Inter., Knox, and McCullough.  Never had a problem except for the "GT program" at Galatas, but that was when the school was brand new.  I have a friend who teaches there now and says the school is great.

My sisters went to Bush Elem, TWHS 9th grade campus and TWHS - again, no issues

My brother went to Sally K Ride for Elem, and a friend of mine has her daughter there now.  Also, no issues.

Abbie is in private school since we are in Beaumont, but if we were still in The Woodlands, I'd send her to any of the public schools with no problems.

monkaloo

I'm biased of course, but I really like our area.  We're in Cochrans Crossing, off Research Forest, opposite of TWHS.  DD is starting first grade at Powell on Monday (which is right across the street) and so far we've been pleased with the school.

Location wise, I like being sort of "halfway" in TW.  The houses in our area were mostly built in the 92-ish time frame, so you've got more mature trees, etc - but it really doesn't take too long to get out of town.  Especially now that they've finished the Research Forest expansion.  We work from home a lot, but when we do need to get to the office (off Sawdust and near the feeder) - it only takes about 15 minutes.

Our cul-de-sac is awesome.  All of our friends are super jealous at how great our neighbors are.  We have a nice mix of families with young kids, a couple families with teenagers, some retired couples, and the newest neighbors are expecting baby #1.

We have a pretty wide range of house in our immediate area.  Some smaller and less expensive, some in the middle, and some rather pricey ones as well.  

I also really love the Cochran's Green subdivision.  They are across Research from us and across the street from Powell.  They have some great houses over there -- many are very different looking and they always do the super cool Christmas lights over there every year. 

 What kind of requirements do you have for your house?   

sad5781

I really dont think you can go wrong with the schools in The Woodlands proper.  This includes all the elementary, middle, jr and high schools (The Woodlands High School and College Park)

The only thing I'd look at/think about is that Creekside (Off gosling, south of Woodlands Pkwy) and May Valley (Between Kuykendahl and 2978, south of Woodlands Pkwy) are not Conroe ISD. 

For you, knowing where you live now and where you may want to stay close to, I'd probably suggest Creekside since its on Gosling, south of the main part of the Woodlands.  But, the schools are Tomball ISD.  I don't know if that is bad necessarily, especially not in elementary age, but I know its a concern for some people.

If you arent concerned about being on the south side of the woodlands/closer to spring, my main suggestion would be to try to find something East of Gosling, definitely east of Kuykendahl.   Since I know you are out and about alot with the girls and for work, the further west you go, the further away from 45 and the longer the commute.  Of course, you arent goign to be doing rush hour so maybe it wont bother you like it did me. We lived in a neighborhood called Queenscliff that is west of Branch Crossing, off Woodlands Pkwy.  We felt like it was such a chore to get to the mall/hospital area.  We call it the "back" of the woodlands.  We almost feel closer to things now that we live in Woodforest (by 2-3 minutes, ha).

So specifically... if you want to do an older/fix up home, maybe look in Panther Creek (Woodlands Pkwy, Gosling, Lake Woodlands borders).   I'm not sure your price point and not sure what house go for in that area but it would be my top choice of where to live because its so convenient.

The other area that come to mind is Grogan's Forest (off Research, east of Gosling, maybe even east of Grogan's mill too). Again, I don't know how much the houses are here.

 

In general, I think if you could find something you loved between Research and Woodlands Pkwy for your N/S borders and Gosling and 45 for your E/W borders, you'd be in an awesome location.  Other than some of the oldest parts of Grogan's Mill (and the houses are probably way small for what you want), you can't go wrong with any of the areas, just definitely think about how far west you go! 

TMI? 

plaidfrogg

We moved to TW a couple of years before my older DD was to start kindergarten so I had the same questions. We started off leasing a home in Sterling Ridge that was zoned to one of the newer schools, Coulson Tough. Neighbors couldn't say enough great things about that school. I looked into it, but there were things about it I didn't really care for, specifically the size of the student body. It's a K thru 6th school and, at least for kindergarten when I looked into it, there were 8 to 10 kindergarten classes. Tough Elementary has over 1,200 students. Deretchin Elementary (also k-6) is a little newer and and has almost 1,100 students. ?That just seems huge to me. Also, friends of kindergarteners reported some bullying on the school bus by the 5th and 6th graders.? I really wanted to find a home zoned to one of the elementary schools that just go through the 4th grade (which is the majority in TW). They may be a bit older but I like the "feel" of those schools (I've visited and/or been active in 4 or 5 of them)....how the staff seem to know all the kids by name, how the playground and lunchroom times are utilized, etc.? In general, the CISD schools in TW fare quite well in community approval and standardized testing. Even the older campuses (Lamar and Glen Loch) are getting renovated. ?You can find stats for comparison on the district's website. A word of caution: stats/scores can be handy but can paint an over-simplified picture. In looked at scores just to get a baseline sense for each campus but then took into account things like parent feedback, location, size and demographics. Also, I mentioned just the CISD schools b/c there're are now a couple of new areas which have new schools but are not in CISD: May Valley is the newest section in Sterling Ridge but the last I checked they were zoned to Magnolia ISD (It was Ellisor Elem, but I heard they may be re-zoned this year). Creekside is still developing. Creekside Forest Elem just opened last year...it's in Tomball ISD. I've heard good things about Magnolia ISD; mixed things about Tomball ISD. ?We didn't consider either area for home buying so I don't know much else about those schools.? All of that said, we narrowed our search to a few main areas of TW based on preference for home style, accessibility, mature trees, and schools. I don't care for new construction, though that's often where the highest concentration of younger families can be found. After much looking our favorite pockets of neighborhoods were in Cochran's Crossing, Panther Creek, and a little of Alden Bridge. Those schools included: Buckalew, Galatas, Powell, David, and Ride. ?DD started kindergarten last year and now I can't say enough great things about our school. She loves it, I love it, the teachers are wonderful, and it just has a nice vibe. I was active at the school and will be on PTO this year. A couple friends in TW bought homes this summer and both specifically chose homes zoned to this same school (switching from other schools), which reinforces its appeal. That was more long-winded than intended. Hope that helps....feel free to direct any questions my way.?

plaidfrogg

Sorry....not sure why my post comes across as a huge run-on paragraph. I typed it using several paragraphs but on my iPad it looks all lumped together.....

AmyDrinkie

We live in Grogan's Mill and are zoned to Hailey/Wilkerson/Knox/College Park.

Our neighbor is a teacher at Glen Loch Elementary in Panther Creek.  She said she liked Glen Loch better than Hailey elementary, mostly b/c she didn't like that there were so many apartments that feed into Hailey and it's on a busy street, and she wasn't comfortable having the kids walk to school.  Well, honestly, I'm not comfortable with elementary aged kids walking to school in the first place - the fact that it's on a busy street and near apartments isn't going to change that for me.  Plus, I met a lady who used to teach special ed at Hailey and she said it was a great school.

I haven't heard any complaints about the other schools.  Grogan's Mill is my 2nd favorite village here; Panther Creek is my favorite.

BettyJoe

plaidfrogg:

We moved to TW a couple of years before my older DD was to start kindergarten so I had the same questions. We started off leasing a home in Sterling Ridge that was zoned to one of the newer schools, Coulson Tough. Neighbors couldn't say enough great things about that school. I looked into it, but there were things about it I didn't really care for, specifically the size of the student body. It's a K thru 6th school and, at least for kindergarten when I looked into it, there were 8 to 10 kindergarten classes. Tough Elementary has over 1,200 students. Deretchin Elementary (also k-6) is a little newer and and has almost 1,100 students.  That just seems huge to me. Also, friends of kindergarteners reported some bullying on the school bus by the 5th and 6th graders.  I really wanted to find a home zoned to one of the elementary schools that just go through the 4th grade (which is the majority in TW). They may be a bit older but I like the "feel" of those schools (I've visited and/or been active in 4 or 5 of them)....how the staff seem to know all the kids by name, how the playground and lunchroom times are utilized, etc.  In general, the CISD schools in TW fare quite well in community approval and standardized testing. Even the older campuses (Lamar and Glen Loch) are getting renovated.  You can find stats for comparison on the district's website. A word of caution: stats/scores can be handy but can paint an over-simplified picture. In looked at scores just to get a baseline sense for each campus but then took into account things like parent feedback, location, size and demographics. Also, I mentioned just the CISD schools b/c there're are now a couple of new areas which have new schools but are not in CISD: May Valley is the newest section in Sterling Ridge but the last I checked they were zoned to Magnolia ISD (It was Ellisor Elem, but I heard they may be re-zoned this year). Creekside is still developing. Creekside Forest Elem just opened last year...it's in Tomball ISD. I've heard good things about Magnolia ISD; mixed things about Tomball ISD.  We didn't consider either area for home buying so I don't know much else about those schools.  All of that said, we narrowed our search to a few main areas of TW based on preference for home style, accessibility, mature trees, and schools. I don't care for new construction, though that's often where the highest concentration of younger families can be found. After much looking our favorite pockets of neighborhoods were in Cochran's Crossing, Panther Creek, and a little of Alden Bridge. Those schools included: Buckalew, Galatas, Powell, David, and Ride.  DD started kindergarten last year and now I can't say enough great things about our school. She loves it, I love it, the teachers are wonderful, and it just has a nice vibe. I was active at the school and will be on PTO this year. A couple friends in TW bought homes this summer and both specifically chose homes zoned to this same school (switching from other schools), which reinforces its appeal. That was more long-winded than intended. Hope that helps....feel free to direct any questions my way.

Thats NUTS. Waaaayyy too many kids for an elementary school.

melrrr

BettyJoe:

plaidfrogg:

Tough Elementary has over 1,200 students. Deretchin Elementary (also k-6) is a little newer and and has almost 1,100 students.  That just seems huge to me.

Thats NUTS. Waaaayyy too many kids for an elementary school.

Seriously! My high school (public, in a city) had fewer than that.  

sad5781

melrrr:

BettyJoe:

plaidfrogg:

Tough Elementary has over 1,200 students. Deretchin Elementary (also k-6) is a little newer and and has almost 1,100 students.  That just seems huge to me.

Thats NUTS. Waaaayyy too many kids for an elementary school.

Seriously! My high school (public, in a city) had fewer than that.  

The Woodlands schools are crazy... DH graduated with 800 kids or something crazy like that.  His youngest brother's graduating class, right before they opened the new HS, was over 1000.   

KKMMex

melrrr:

BettyJoe:

plaidfrogg:

Tough Elementary has over 1,200 students. Deretchin Elementary (also k-6) is a little newer and and has almost 1,100 students.  That just seems huge to me.

Thats NUTS. Waaaayyy too many kids for an elementary school.

Seriously! My high school (public, in a city) had fewer than that.  

I'll let you know if it's crazy or not. Older DD will be starting kinder there on Monday. Orientation and meet the teacher is this Friday. The enrollment sounds huge to me too but none of the parents in my neighborhood have ever complained about it. Losing our bus service should make carline an interesting proposition though!

darva

KKMMex: I was just thinking about you yesterday and went to message you and you were gone (on FB)!  I hope Sarah loves Kindergarten!

KKMMex

darva:

KKMMex: I was just thinking about you yesterday and went to message you and you were gone (on FB)!  I hope Sarah loves Kindergarten!

I deactivated my FB account. Thanks very much for the kind words - is Kaitlyn starting kinder? If so, yay and I hope all goes smoothly for you guys also!

monkaloo

KKMMex:

I'll let you know if it's crazy or not. Older DD will be starting kinder there on Monday. Orientation and meet the teacher is this Friday. The enrollment sounds huge to me too but none of the parents in my neighborhood have ever complained about it. Losing our bus service should make carline an interesting proposition though!

We've also lost bus service and I'm definitely a little nervous about how crazy things are going to be.  With the high school still letting out by the time elementary releases the kids - Research is a mess around 3pm.  Ugh... 

plaidfrogg

monkaloo:

KKMMex:

I'll let you know if it's crazy or not. Older DD will be starting kinder there on Monday. Orientation and meet the teacher is this Friday. The enrollment sounds huge to me too but none of the parents in my neighborhood have ever complained about it. Losing our bus service should make carline an interesting proposition though!

We've also lost bus service and I'm definitely a little nervous about how crazy things are going to be.  With the high school still letting out by the time elementary releases the kids - Research is a mess around 3pm.  Ugh... 

RSF is a huge mess around TWHS at that time! If you p,an to do car line, give yourself plenty of time the first couple of weeks. I know that cars start lining up around 2:30. We also lost bussing for this year. That means we live close enough to walk/bike which i love to do, but when it's 100f and I've a little one to drag along it can be tough. When it's too hot or cold i drive, park in an adjacent neighborhood, and pick up DD as a walker.

plaidfrogg

BTW, I didn't realize there are other Nestie moms in TW with kids close in age to mine (DD1 will be in 1st).

monkaloo

plaidfrogg:

RSF is a huge mess around TWHS at that time! If you p,an to do car line, give yourself plenty of time the first couple of weeks. I know that cars start lining up around 2:30. We also lost bussing for this year. That means we live close enough to walk/bike which i love to do, but when it's 100f and I've a little one to drag along it can be tough. When it's too hot or cold i drive, park in an adjacent neighborhood, and pick up DD as a walker.

DD took the bus last year, but the few times I saw the car line - I wanted to run the other direction!

Like you, walking/biking isn't a huge deal because it's not far - but we do have DS (4yo) and sometimes he can be a punk about it when it's hot, etc.  I also dread rainy day pick ups since you basically have to do car line if your kiddo can't take the bus.  With all the kids no longer bussing, plus the charter school growing in population, and the regular TWHS traffic - it may get ugly.

I got so spoiled by having the bus last year.  DD loved it, and it made life so much easier for us.  I know we'll figure it out, but these first few weeks should be "interesting".  Though it does sound like we have the same plan in terms of pick up! 

 Thanks for the advice -- it's definitely nice having someone local in the same boat!  

plaidfrogg

monkaloo:

plaidfrogg:

RSF is a huge mess around TWHS at that time! If you p,an to do car line, give yourself plenty of time the first couple of weeks. I know that cars start lining up around 2:30. We also lost bussing for this year. That means we live close enough to walk/bike which i love to do, but when it's 100f and I've a little one to drag along it can be tough. When it's too hot or cold i drive, park in an adjacent neighborhood, and pick up DD as a walker.

DD took the bus last year, but the few times I saw the car line - I wanted to run the other direction!

Like you, walking/biking isn't a huge deal because it's not far - but we do have DS (4yo) and sometimes he can be a punk about it when it's hot, etc.  I also dread rainy day pick ups since you basically have to do car line if your kiddo can't take the bus.  With all the kids no longer bussing, plus the charter school growing in population, and the regular TWHS traffic - it may get ugly.

I got so spoiled by having the bus last year.  DD loved it, and it made life so much easier for us.  I know we'll figure it out, but these first few weeks should be "interesting".  Though it does sound like we have the same plan in terms of pick up! 

 Thanks for the advice -- it's definitely nice having someone local in the same boat!  

My younger is 4, too, and is usually the limiting factor in the decision to walk or not. I did do the car line twice....once the first week of school, and once the following week for a rainy dismissal. The rainy day one was so crazy....cars stacked through the intersection it was like gridlock. So stressed me out I never did it again. Lol! Thankfully DD loved the bus, too. So nice to have that option, but it often seemed wasteful, especially for those who live right across the street. Alas, we will miss it.... Is there a new charter school?? The only one I know of is at TWCPHS, but would love to know more ifnthere's another I haven't heard of!

monkaloo

It's the Vista Charter School run out of the Celebration Church right there on Research next to Powell:  http://www.spiritfilledcc.com/vista.html

It's K-7, tuition-free, and non-parochial (they just happen to operate out of the church).  This is their second year open, I believe.  It piqued my interest but the newness of the school itself (not necessarily the concept) left me a little reluctant to inquire further.

My neighbor's son is starting K there on Monday, so I'm definitely all ears regarding her experience.  From what I've learned there's only 1 K class with 20 students.  There are about 200 students in the entire school.  It was lottery based and there's a waiting list. 

So far we're happy with Powell so I don't feel the need to switch yet.  DD is very bright so we'll see how things go until about 3rd grade. If she's still excelling and I feel the G&T program isn't giving her enough of what she needs, we may explore other schooling options - including Vista.  We'll operate the same way with DS.  While I'd like them to be in the same school, I know every kid is different and I want him to be in the place that best suits his needs and learning style. 

I'll definitely let you know what I learn about Vista as the school year progresses and my neighbor dishes the dirt!