Hi, i hope someone out there might be able to help me narrow down areas to look at when I'm playing MLS monopoly !.

We are a family of four, and hubbie will be work in Calgary (SE, 8th street) and doesn't really want to spend much more than about 30 minutes driving to work, so we are looking for property's within that sort of distance, we will also need access to a good high school, and it would be nice to have nearby shops/play park etc. Can anyone suggest areas that would be worth checking out.

Also, opinions please on Chestermere, as Mr.W. likes the look of this, is it within a 30min commute ? have also had mixed reviews about the high school there, does anyone have any first hand knowledge of it ?

Thanks in advance, wonderwoman

8th Street is a long street with breaks in it, so Mr. W's place of work could be in one of at least three different areas. However, you did say the southeast quadrant, so that does narrow it down somewhat.

I think Lake Bonavista or thereabouts would fit your criteria. I think it would be within 30 minutes of Mr. W's place of work. It has a little lake and a surrounding park for the use of residents. It's old enough that it's now well treed. It's close to Southcentre Shopping Mall and all kinds of other shops along Macleod Trail. It has a fairly decent bus service, and it's close to the C-Train line that you can use to access downtown, the university, etc. Edited to add that the Family Leisure Centre (indoor swimming pool, gym facilities, indoor running track) is located across the street from Southcentre Mall.

I am guessing Chestermere also would provide Mr. W with a commute of 30 minutes or so. I have not been out to Chestermere since its development has taken off. I understand there are some nice houses out there. I don't know what the shopping facilities are like. Probably there already are basic shopping facilities, such as a supermarket. In time more shops may be attracted to the area. But I'm guessing it's still at the point at which you need to go into Calgary if you want to do serious shopping. I am guessing that public transportation into Calgary is confined to a couple of express buses during morning and afternoon rush hour. That is the case with other satellite towns around Calgary. So you will almost certainly have to provide your older teenagers with cars. That's how it is with our friends who live in Airdrie, Cochrane, etc. They have about four cars per family, and those cars are necessities, not luxuries.

There is not a huge difference between Calgary's best high school and its worst high school. At least the difference is not as big as it is in other places in which I've lived.

That said, if I was looking for a high school for my kids, I would be looking for one of the better ones. I know the Fraser Institute's rankings are suspect, because they use a narrow slice of information to judge schools. The FI concentrates mostly on academic results, and I do know that there is more to a school than academic results. But the irony is that some schools that get good academic results also have good arts programs, good sports programs, and a good school spirit. A school about which I have heard countless favourable reports on all fronts is Sir Winston Churchill High School in the northwest quadrant.

If you take the Fraser Institute's list and strip out the private schools and Catholic schools, you're left with the following ranking of public schools:

1. Western Canada
2. Springbank (Rocky View School Division)
3. Sir Winston Churchill
4. William Aberhart
5. John G. Diefenbaker
6. Henry Wise Wood
7. Dr. E. P. Scarlett (serves Lake Bonavista)
8. National Sport
9. Queen Elizabeth
10. Lord Beaverbrook
11. Central Memorial
12. Bowness
13. Ernest Manning
14. Chestermere (Rocky View School Division)
15. Lester B. Pearson
16. Crescent Heights
17. James Fowler
18. Forest Lawn

Centennial High School, which is located in Sundance in the far SE, does not appear in the Fraser Institute's rankings. I suspect that is because the school is too new. At present it caters only to grade 10 and 11 students. Grade 12 students in its catchment area attend Lord Beaverbrook High School.

Here is the Calgary Board of Education's list of Community Districts and Designated Schools.

In the next post I will share my subjective opinion of each of the schools in the top half of the Fraser Institute's list.

Someone on this forum sent me a private message asking my opinion about Calgary's schools. I will share here the e-mail about Calgary's high schools that I sent them in response to their question.

Please note that this is my highly subjective opinion that reflects my highly subjective values. I don't pretend to be an authority on the topic.

Furthermore, inspite of the fact that we have lived in Calgary for most of the time since the late 1970s, our children ironically did not attend senior high school (grades 10 - 12) in Calgary. During the relevant period we were on an expat assignment in Australia.

However, judging from anecdotal reports from friends and acquaintances, this is my assessment of the top 50% of Calgary's high schools, as they are ranked by the Fraser Institute.

Also, to put the text of my e-mail into context, the person who had asked me about schools had indicated that they could not afford an expensive house but nonetheless wanted good schools for their kids. You will notice that my response tries to address that. That is, I try to indicate which are the more affordable neighbourhoods within a couple of the good schools' catchment areas.

1. WESTERN CANADA HIGH SCHOOL - Offers a regular English program, an English International Baccalaureate (IB) program, a regular French Immersion program, and a French IB program. The IB program is more demanding, academically, than the regular program. Although the school draws students for its extra programs from a wider area, it draws its students for its basic English program from the affluent area of Mount Royal. I see this as problematic, because you might not be able to afford to live in the catchment area for the regular English program when you first arrive. In addition to that I consider very affluent and very poor peers both to be challenging for kids.

2. SPRINGBANK - Very affluent area. Large houses on large plots of ground. To the west of Calgary's city limits. This school technically belongs to Rocky View School Division, not Calgary Board of Education. The area is not affordable and, in any case, I would regard affluent peers as a challenge.

3. SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL - This is the most ideal school in Calgary, from what I can tell. It offers a regular English program and an English IB program. It draws its students from some quite affluent neighbourhoods and some modestly priced neighbourhoods. It does not draw students from any super rich neighbourhoods, but neither does it draw students from any poor neighbourhoods. Its catchment area includes the University of Calgary, and it's a part of the city in which a sprinkling of university professors lives. In my opinion they are a good influence. They value learning and encourage their children to go on to tertiary education. Yet they earn relatively moderate salaries, and cannot afford to spoil their children. In addition to that, in my experience university professors tend to have an above average interest in worthy causes, like preservation of the environment. The more affordable neighbourhoods from which Sir Winston Churchill High School draws its students are Brentwood (west of Brisebois Drive), Dalhousie, Varsity Acres, West Dalhousie. The more expensive neighbourhoods from which it draws its students are Edgemont, Hawkwood and Varsity Estates.

4. WILLIAM ABERHART - Judging from its location, I would say this school probably shares many attributes with Sir Winston Churchill High School. It does not have an IB program. It has a regular English program, and a regular French Immersion program. One possible downside is that its French Immersion program draws students from a vast geographic area. That large area encompasses neighbourhoods that, for the most part, are okay. It's just that there is the potential for your kids to befriend other kids who live far away, and transportation could become a challenge. The regular English program draws its students from Banff Trail, Brentwood (east of Brisebois Drive), Capitol Hill (west of 14th Street), Citadel, The Hamptons, Lynx Ridge, Ranchlands, Charleswood and Collingwood. Of those areas, the middle of the road communities that would suit you the best probably are Charleswood and the non-estate part of Ranchlands.

5. JOHN G. DIEFENBAKER - It offers a regular English program, an English IB program, and a Fine Arts program. It's located quite far north. It draws its students from Beddington Heights, Evanston, Harvest Hills, Huntington Hills, Kincora, Panorama Hills, Thorncliffe. Most of those residential areas are fine. Huntington Hills and Thorncliffe are rather old, rather modest neighbourhoods. The communities at the north end of this group would represent quite a long commute to downtown. They are about as far north as Somerset and Bridlewood are south.

6. HENRY WISE WOOD - It's located in the SW quadrant. It offers a regular English program and an English IB program. Although we live in Henry Wise Wood's catchment area, our family has no experience of it. We were living in Houston and Melbourne at the time that our children would have attended Henry Wise Wood. I've heard from two friends whose kids went there that spoiled kids from affluent neighbourhoods presented problems at times. (Sometimes too much money goes hand in hand with neglectful, absent, holidaying parents. Also too much money sometimes translates into drugs, fast cars, wild parties.) The affluent neighbourhoods that this school serves are Bayview, Bel-Aire, Britannia, Eagle Ridge, Kelvin Grove, Mayfair, Oakridge Estates, Pumphill, parts of Woodbine and parts of Woodlands. Yet the school serves a couple of low income areas as well, and I regard them as challenging too. I'm thinking of communities like Manchester and Meadowlark Park. These fairly stark contrasts amongst the socio-economic backgrounds of the students would give me pause for thought. That said, the school does draw from some respectable, moderately priced neighbourhoods. They include Braeside, Cedarbrae, Chinook Park, Haysboro, Kingsland, the non-estate part of Oakridge, Palliser, and parts of Woodbine.

7. DR. E. P. SCARLETT - It's quite far south in the SW quadrant. It offers a regular English program and a French Immersion program. Students who attend the French Immersion program comes from a broad swath of communities in the far SW and the far SE. Its regular English program serves Canyon Meadows, Evergreen, Lake Bonavista, Southwood, parts of Woodbine, and parts of Woodlands. Although Dr. E. P. Scarlett ranks just behind Henry Wise Wood, my gut instinct is to favour Dr. E. P. Scarlett. The reason is that the communities that it serves generally fall into a narrower middle class range. Please don't misunderstand me. There is some variation in this population too. However, the extremes are not as wild as they are in the case of the students who attend Henry Wise Wood.

8. NATIONAL SPORT HIGH SCHOOL - I don't know anything about it. I assume, from the name, that it caters to students with a special interest in sport. I'm guessing they are very competitive when it comes to sport. Apparently the National Sport High School is located in part of Ernest Manning High School's building.

9. QUEEN ELIZABETH - It's located in a fairly close-in community in the NW. It's a dual junior high and senior high school. This is quite an unusual school in that it has a number of programs taking place simultaneously. It houses a school for the deaf, a ballet school, and a Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program. I'm guessing. somewhere in there it may have a regular English program as well. It probably draws its regular English students from nearby communities. However, since it's the only school for the deaf and the only ballet school in the city, it must draw some of its students from all over Calgary. I've heard that it's a good school. If I remember correctly, those comments were in the context of the GATE program. I don't know what the regular English program is like.

At this point I ran out of steam. Besides, since the person who originally had posed the question to me had indicated an interest in good schools, I assumed (rightly or wrongly) that they would target schools in the top 50% rather than the bottom 50% of the list.

Anyway, I hope that helps.