janet2868

hi my name is janet and my family and i are moving to houston at the beginning of june we come from scotland and i am looking for advice on schools for my children i have a daughter of 17 just turned and a son of 12 any advice would be helpful

Boatgirl

Hi Kerrilou,

I hope you get to read this. We are considering moving to Katy/Cinco area this year from the uk. We have two small children. Can you tell me any pros and cons about it? Have read lots about Katy and Sugarland areas, and as you've lived there now for a while I thought you would be the best person to ask. Thanks

Bink

Weeze and Yorkieabroad both live in the Katy area. Hopefully they'll be along soon and can offer advice.

There are lots of good areas, but you will want to consider where work is for you as commuting in Houston can be a pain so you will want to be relatively close to work. I'm slightly North of Katy, towards Cypress.

Also, be aware that schools are zoned, so you'll also want to live in a good school area if your kids will be going to school soon.

Yorkieabroad

Hi there,

We've been in Katy for almost 10 years now - came here originally because of family in the area. If it wasn't for the family, I would have looked seriously at Sugarland, or the Woodlands. Started off in Cinco close to Fry/Mson, now a bit further west from there close to Fry/99 intersection

A few pros/cons of Katy as I see it, although a lot of these aren't specific to Katy

Pro
decent school district (see below)
Lots to do for the kids from toddler to pre-teen - not so sure about the older ones....
Very diverse
OK commuting if you're in the right place (see below)
An abundance of churches
Wide range of housing available from apartments to McMansions, "prices from the low 100k's to 1mill+" as the realtors say....

Con
Lack of a real town center.
Must have a car/be mobile.
Commuting - if you're in the wrong place!
Parents can become, err, hyper competitive!
High property taxes (3.5%ish)
Shortage of decent restaurants and nightlife.

We're not tied to a specific job location, but easy access to the Galleria, Downtown and the Energy corridor are an advantage for us. Our current location in South Katy is good for the Galleria (Westpark tollway, 30 minutes), reasonable for the energy corridor (15-30 minutes depending on time of day) and OK for downtown ( my wife used to use the park and ride a few years back when she was downtown - want to say it was about 50 minutes door to door, but dont quote me on that. You need to have a serious look at commuting options to wherever work is, as the traffic can be bad.

Katy has a decent scool district, but it is huge (over 65000 students), so standards do vary quite a bit within that. One of the districts to the North ( I think Cy Fair?) just got awarded one of the best large districts, so sometimes I wonder if the Katy ISD reputation is deserved, or self promoted..... That being said, we've been happy with our school so far, although I do query the need for kids from Kindergarten upwards to be getting nightly homework..... My kids are all elementary (well, the eldest goes to Junior High in the Fall) so I've not got any experience of the older schools, although folk sayu the homework really ramps up from 6th grade onwards.

You need to look not only at what catchment area you are in, but also what other subdivisions are in your catchment area. The better schools tend to be the ones that have a high level of parent involvement (including volunteering) so you watch out for schools that may include areas with low parental input/involvement. One of the issues with KISD is that it is still growing at massive rates, and they are building new schools like crazy on the west side of the district, so if you are looking at going out there, its worth sitting down with someone "in the know" as to future plans, to try to avoid the schools that are going to be continually re-zoned as the expansion continues westward.

Err, think thats about it - if you've got any specific questions, feel free to ask.
By the way, who is Kerrylou?

Bink

Yes, it was Cy-Fair ISD. That's where we're at. We looked at Katy but we wanted to remain closer to the in-laws (free babysitting is worth its weight in gold, though we don't use it that often, it's great when we do and they love spending time with their grandchild).

Yorkieabroad

You're right there, especially when my wife has been travelling every week this year, and I've needed help with getting the kids to ballet/soccer/cubs etc.... I like the Woodlands, but having grandparents an hour away instead of <10 minutes just wasn't worth it.

Weeze

Hi
We were torn between sugarland and Katy. Sugarland has a town centre, but for our commute, and the avalibilty of houses at the time, Katy worked out best. Yorkie has pretty much covered everything. I enjoy living in Katy. I don't need to go on the freeway on a daily basis as Katy has everything we need. Having not been a big driver in the UK, that is definately a bonus for me. Let us know if you have specific questions and as long as we haven't all washed away with the floods, I'll be happy to help

Boatgirl

Hi All,

Thank you very much for all that info! Very useful. My husband will be working a little to the west of the West Loop 610, just south of the Katy Freeway 10.

I suppose that's why we were looking at both Katy and Sugarland and thought that both would be a good travelling commute. Between Katy and Sugarland what would you choose if you could do it over?

We have two small children (pre-school). I therefore don't have to use the freeway at all during the week, but hubby will have to.

Could anyone descibe both? Yorkieabroad, why would you have seriously considered Suragland? I know its difficult, as I've never visited the place, but I guess what I am after is;
- not being stuck in a massive housing estate,
-nearby shops to at least drive to
- safe for kids
- restaurants/entertainment
-splash pools
- would like a 'walking environment as well, with pushchair/dog, general getting out and getting fresh air etc
- would like a little bit of a community feel, we come from a little village and its nice knowing people (I know we'll not get exactly that, but it would be nice)

From what I am picking up Katy sounds quite large? Does Sugarland have more of a community feel? We are hoping to come across to do a pre-lim visit in the next month or so, so we will obviously visit both, but I guess you guys know it a lot better already and have pearls of wisdom that you can hopefully share with me.

Thanking you in advance.

Weeze

We were told by our realtor that crime was on the rise in Sugarland. Honestly don't know if that's true though. The areas we viewed in Sugarland all appeared fine.
Shops being nearby won't be a problem in either Sugarland or Katy. If you feel like you're in a housing estate will depend entirely on which subdivision you choose in either. Some are enormous, some small. In some, everyone seems to know each other and do community events, others don't. Splash pads are everywhere. You are technically only to use them if they are in your subdivision, but we use them all anyway, as do the other members of my moms club. Walking environment isn't that likely anywhere in Texas. You can get subdivisions with footpaths. Mine has a lake to walk round. There are bits to walk round lakes in lots of cinco ranch and seven lakes. You can only really excercise your dog in a bark park though as they have to be on a leash everywhere else.

Yorkieabroad

I think the thing that attracted me to Sugarland is the feeling that it is a bit more "planned" - it has a defined town center, which Katy doesn't. Old Katy isn't really working and the couple of attempts at developing a new town center have been half-hearted at best....that being said, like Weeze, I rarely need to leave Katy as it has everything I need, albeit not laid out how I would like it! I come from a small market town in the UK, and miss the High Street feel, especially on market days.

The housing subdivisions themselves are pretty much the same in Sugarland as in Katy. There are all sorts, so I'm sure you could find something you like in either place. We started off in a 5 year old neighborhood in Cinco, and really didn't settle into it. We never saw anyone. There were footpaths, but nobody used them. There were kids, but they never went out to play. We had neighbours, but didn't even see the ones on one side in the 2.5 years we lived there!! We moved about 2 miles down the road to a new neighborhood and it is totally different. Kids out playing, people out walking, biking, jogging. We know a lot of people in the area, mainly by getting to chat to them out and about. We back onto a lake that has a footpath round it and get a lot of interaction with people using the lake. Not everyones cup of tea because of the lack of privacy, but we like it.

On the housing estate thing, its pretty much guaranteed that you are going to be living in one, unless you head into Old Katy (not really recommended) or out in to the country. They are all a little different - its just a matter of finding one you like. Most of them will have facilities - pools, playgrounds, maybe tennis courts etc. Street houses like in the UK don't really exist.

If we were going to do it again, we'd still come to Katy for the family that are already here. You don't have that anchor, so visit both with an open mind, and see what you think. It wouldn't surprise me if you went for Sugarland because at first pass, I think it "shows" itself better, but in terms of liveability, they're pretty much the same.

Bink

If he's working at 610, be aware that it can get very busy there at rush hour (I work just east of 610 pretty much @ San Felipe so fight this on a daily basis, hence why I'm in my office by 5am this morning). To keep the commute reasonable, you'll probably want to be fairly close to I-10, westpark tollway or 59. They're all decent commuting options, but my experience with I-10 specifically is that it works well on the freeway, but that it can be very busy when you get off it, so you don't want to be a 20 min drive to the freeway as in traffic that alone could take you 40 mins.

Spend a bit of time at the neighbourhoods you visit, park up and walk around. We're in a brand new section of ours and are exceptionally lucky that we have great neighbours and we're at the end of a cul-de-sac so we do have kids outside playing and we all get on great.

As Weeze and Yorkie have pointed out, very little of Houston is truly walkable, but most of the planned subdivisions have lakes and walking/jogging trails with kids play areas so it's a case of having a good look around at different options and seeing what suits you best.

Boatgirl

Thanks for the advise! Out of interest if we choose to live in Cinco (south) and hubby used the Westpark Tollway, a) how long do you think it would take him to get east of the 610 for being in the office on a good and a bad day and also how much is the Tollway? Thank you.

Yorkieabroad

A lot dedpends on when he leaves. We live about a mile from the end of Westpark, near the Grand Parkway intersection. My wife used to travel to an office on Westheimer, about half a mile outside the loop, right opposite the Galleria. She left home at 6.45 and was in the office at 7.15/7.20. In the evening, she would call at 4.15 to say she was leaving, and walk through the door at 4.50. It may take a little longer to get over the other side of 610, and depending on where his office is, he may need to experience the deep joy that is 59N........not nice!

The tolls are quite steep - I want to say its about $5 each way, but not sure. Like a lot of people, she used a vanpool with 7 or 8 people all in the same office that travelled together. They met at the local Home Depot car park and used the commuter van to get to the office. Hers was sponsored by her company (British Gas), so she didn't pay a penny for commuting, which was nice, but the reason I really liked it was because she had some discipline to leave the office on time, rather than working till all hours!!

Yorkieabroad

We looked at (and have some friends who live in) some great places round Bunker Hill, but they are just not kid friendly....no sidewalks, steep drop offs to the storm drains etc. I just wouldn't be comfortable with the kids going anywhere on their own. Here we have sidewalks, walking trails, culs de sac etc. Its not got the same a"mbience", but to paraphrase Chuck e Cheese at least the kids can be kids!

Bink

The key thing to note here is the time. 6.45am is a good time to travel. Any later than 7.15ish and you're starting to get into heavy traffic terrority. The same is true from approx 4.15 - 4.30 onwards. For me, I normally go 610 - 290 as I live closer to 290 than I-10 but I do sometimes take 610 - I-10 too.

I think Yorkie is in the right ballpark for the westpark tollway. Seem to recall it being $4.xx something last time I took it out. The tolls on I-10 (if you take the tollway, which is worth it if you're just at the beginning of rush hour) varies depending on time of day, but is a bit less IIRC (want to say the max is more like $3.60/ea way and less before 5pm).