woolies

Hi there,

We're moving to Houston this September and will have a year before our oldest starts Kindergarten. Could anyone recommend a good public elementary school in the area? I've been researching schools in the Katy ISD but there are so many choices. We will be staying in an apartment to start with but plan to buy a house once we find a good school.

Bob

Welcome to BE

Have a search for Houston, and there were loads of threads over the last month or so about the place, but a lot of it will depend on where you live because of the whole catchment area thing.

TruBrit

hi woolies,

the areas of katy, the woodlands and kingswood are all purpose built communities and the better public schools are out there. the communities were built some yrs ago to entice the families to move out of the city and so mainly private schools here in houston. beware taxes are high to pay for them.

although i lived out in katy for a couple of yrs, sorry can't recommend a school. katy is full of schools and kids and you are moving to the right location!

mandana has just moved to katy and may have an idea of which school, i think she has children, not sure. maybe you could send her a PM if she doesn't reply to your thread.

good luck.

penguinsix

Hi

Do a quick search on Education as there have been a lot of threads lately.

The elementary school you go to will be entirely dependent on where you house is located, right down to the specific street. As you look at houses, you'll see the school listed on most of the listing (http://www.realtor.com) and you can ask the agents which houses are associated with which schools (it's one of the first things a real estate agent will learn about a property).

http://www.greatschools.net will tell you more about the specific school. You can search by zip code too if you have a general area you want to live in.

Also look here:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=456231

And a more general post here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educati..._United_States

woolies

Hi Thanks for the info.

I'm going to start my search in the Katy area. There is a lot of data on the websites for pass rates in maths, reading etc but it still seems hard to narrow the choices down. In the UK all the schools are ranked together. How do you know over here what the gap is between the quality of education b/w public versus private schools?

woolies

ps can anyone recommend a Realtor for this area?

TruBrit

http://www.davidyoungteam.com/

be sure and check out David H Young SNR and not his son David Young JNR.

David sold our house in Lakeforest, Katy and is well known in the area. Best of all the sharks imo

Philgr

we used www.greatschools.net when moved last time - it gives parent reviews as well as the national statistics. You might find it useful.

Mandana

I'm allergic to children!

Can't help with the school question, but can re: realtor.

We used Har.com - Suzzane Carpenter was our realtor and she was fantastic. Really knew her stuff.

[don't think the link worked. try this http://har.com/AWS/aws.cfm?Agent_Number=483346&t=n ]

Yorkieabroad

Katy ISD has just been downgraded on the national league table thingy...can't remember what it went from but it went from top notch to slightly below. If you go on katyisd.org you can probably find the press report on it. I wouldn't worry about it too much though - I was chatting to one of the more senior teachers last week and she reckoned that it was a lot of the schools in a particular area pulling down the scores for the whole district. Apparently a large influx of kids from out of state due to a bit of a weather phenomenon a couple of years ago, and they weren't up to the same level as the existing kids...

I expect most realtors you would speak to would recommend staying south of I-10, although that doesn't mean all of the schools north of 1-10 should be avoided.....
.
We're at Griffin Elementary which just opened last year, and is already overcapacity until the next new school opens (about 2 miles up the road) next year. Its not ranked yet as its only been open a year, but we've been pretty pleased with it so far. Although we've got nothing to compare it to!!Just be prepared for ridiculously large school populations (1400 kids at our elementary - 10 Kindergarten classes, 10 First Grade etc etc)

One thing I would say, is be careful where you buy. The school expansion is incredibly rapid, and the zoning boundaries are very fluid as new schools open. If you dont want to be school hopping, aim to buy somewhere that is close enough to a school to ensure you dont get caught in the shifting zones. I know one family that have a 3rd grader here and he's already been in 3 different schools - and they haven't moved house once. That has to be unsettling! Again, on that website you'll be able to pull off a zoning map and the plans for additional campuses.

snowbunny

Surely The Woodlands would have good schools?

I've seen the "league tables" but don't recall which districts are considered "best".... it's really down to individual schools IMHO. We have a mediocre rating as a district (for many reasons) but we do have the right to request transfers and that's what I've done. My daughters have gone to (federally recognised) Blue Ribbon schools and then the eldest on to magnet programs.

TruBrit

that's why we left katy

Mandana

Our street if full of them, but not either side of us or opposite. We got away lightly

TruBrit

Sugarland and The Woodlands are all full of them however Katy in particular seems to have more than ever. Saturday in the grocery stores was a definate NO for us

Yorkieabroad

Sugarland too I think. I was just replying from a Katy ISD point of view cos I thought the OP meant they were moving here (Katy)