Charlotte NC Anyone?

[bean]

I know this is not Disney related but you all have such good advice. My family is most likely relocating to the Charlotte area next summer and my DD will then be entering pre-k. Any advice on where the best school districts are? We were thinking of the Fort Mill SC area but there is an enrollment freeze on some schools due to growth. Having grown up in SC I know the public school experience can be hit or miss. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated! I'm a stressed out mom. Hey, at least I'll be within a days drive of WDW!

 

[momto2girls]

I moved away from the Charlotte area about 4 years ago. We lived in Fort Mill actually. I know that the Fort Mill schools were highly regarded in South Carolina (although SC schools aren't at the top of the national rankings to begin with). I don't know anything about an enrollment freeze, but Fort Mill is a very nice place to live. We enjoyed it there.

I'm not as familiar with Charlotte schools, but I know that Mecklenberg County is huge and going through a lot of growing pains. Most of the people I know in Charlotte send their children to private schools. A few that don't live in the northern part of Charlotte near Lake Norman.

I hope some others here are able to offer more help!

 

[Desnik]

I have done alot of research on this very subject because we are really looking into relocating there from NY. I have talked with people who actually live in the areas I am interested in and researched the schools, statistic, reports, etc....
We have heard/been told that the Mecklenberg County schools aren't desirable and we should look elswhere to live and send our children to school! Now the outside surrounding areas of Charlotte are alot different. We were told to stick to the surrounding counties. One in particular we really are interested in is Union County. My mothers friend and her whole family relocated to the area and her daughter lives in Union county after living elsewhere in the Charlotte area. Her children go to school there and they are very happy with everything.
Some sites I used to research schools were:
theschoolreport.com
greatschools.net
Also the county and school websites.
I also PM'ed some DIS'ers who lived in the area and they were so nice to help me out and answer all my questions.
Do a search over at the community board because this topic has been discussed alot over there.

 

[james'mommy]

My family is moving to Charlotte in June (well provided our house sells soon). Job transfer. Big bank ate little bank for breakfast and spit us out like watermelon seeds. Facing eminent layoffs in 5 months DH wowed Big Bank and now we're packing up and heading south. We're buying a house in Raintree which is in South Charlotte. Our agent said that most of the money spent in Charlotte is spent in South Charlotte (which includes the school) There are several top rated public schools in the south charlotte area. The reason we picked the house we did was because of the schools. The house is older than we would have liked but we can live with that and fix it up in a few years. Private school tuition in Charlotte is very high imo. we didn't look in other counties because we will be working in uptown and the traffic is terrible. But anyway, south charlotte is the place to be.

Shannan

 

[CarolinaBlue]

I live to the west of Charlotte in Gaston County, and I agree with mom2togirls. If I had to choose between Charlotte and SC, I would much rather live across the state line in South Carolina. Taxes are lower. I'm not familiar with their school system, but we are always hearing on the local news about Charlotte/Mecklenburg county school system problems.

 

[prestonsmomma]

I don't live in Charlotte but about 1 hour NW of it. I can tell you that Char-Meck school board is constantly on the news fighting about something (and I do mean FIGHTING). Good luck with the move though. It's really a nice area to be in.

 

[plutolovr]

We're from NJ now and are currently having a home built in Rock Hill NC. I'm not sure how the schools are, but the area is growing and is rather nice. My kids will all be in college in Sept. so I really didn't need to know about the schools, all I needed to know is that the taxes are lower, car insurance is lower and it's NOT NEW JERSEY!!!

My husband is a consultant and we just need to live near an airport. When we started looking in the area we were concentrating on the Lake Norman/Huntersville areas and everyone let us know that if my hubby needs to commute to the airport weekly, that it's a much better commute from the south of Charlotte than from the north. So we started looking over the state line in SC. Just 15 miles to the airport.