lI Am Ooking for the Best Elementary Schools in the Charlotte Area

It depends on which side of Charlotte you want to live on. Many people will not live within the Charlotte city limits due to issues with the schools. Overcrowding for some schools is one huge issue. I live in Fort Mill, SC, which is adjacent to Charlotte. It is also growing like crazy. Many people have been told to come to this area because of its schools. Fort Mill is building new schools as fast as it can to keep up with the population burst. Two of the elementary schools are no longer accepting new students so if you are considering this area be aware. Links to school boundaries and growth as well as test scores are all available on the school district website. Search using the words Fort Mill School District. The taxes in general are lower in SC which also makes this an attractive area. If your husband is working on the north side of Charlotte the commute would not be desirable. Although there are people from this area that make the commute. It truly depends on the route he would have to take. Fort Mill just finished building a second high school and is in the process of plans for a third middle school and two more elementary schools. Right now the third middle school and one of the elementary schools are on the slate to be near the area called Regent Park. A second elementary school is tentatively planned near property behind a neighborhood called Whitegrove which is on the east side of Fort Mill.

I've heard from others that tell me Union county has good schools and the Audrey Kell schools which are in Ballentyne are good...they are new and part of the Charlotte school system.

SC legislators are trying to pass a law to allow students to choose the school they want to attend. (Just like Charlotte area) Which means students outside of the Fort Mill area could choose to attend Fort Mill schools. So far due to the growth in Fort Mill there has been a fierce fight to oppose allowing this action to affect this area. Fort Mill has in the past dealt with residents from surrounding cities attempting to attend, some successfully. There have been a number of NC residents trying to avoid NC schools by using rental units to get their child into Fort Mill schools. You could say the school adminstration down here has seen just about every trick in the book.

There are some terrific Pre School Programs! I enjoyed Leroy Springs for the teachers and the weekly swimming and crafts they offered onsite. They still have a great program. However my daughter attended almost nine years ago, since then the need for pre school programs has grown and there are many more available.

By the way Kindergarten down here is a full day program. One well kept secret is the school system does offer a pre school program if you apply for it. And lastly there is a program called Leap Ahead for younger children that meets weekly, there's no cost, they may have a web address now, but this program is filled with interactive activities to insure your child is learning skills appropriatly and answer any questions parents have. Leap Ahead will also visit your home if you wish. I participated and enjoyed the information they provided.

Good Luck!

Hi K.,
I understand your predicament as I was there a year and a half ago trying to figure out where to move in Charlotte. I didn't know anyone in Charlotte to ask, nor did I know about this website so I did all my own research. Two websites you can look to are the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school site at www.cms.k12.nc.us
This is the official website of the school district and can give you information on a specific school. The other site, and the one I looked to more, is www.greatschools.net This site allows you to compare schools, look up schools in a specific zip code, will tell you the percentage of kids who passed the End-of-year exams, the diversity of the school, student-teacher ratio, etc. It can be a little cumbersome to navigate their site at first (try to find the toolbar that allows you do to an advanced search). For instance, if you look up elementary schools in the 28277 zip code you find that there are 5 schools with scores in the high 90% for reading and math. I don't personally think that high test scores alone mean it's a good school, but it's all we have to really judge a school by. Also, keep in mind that the statistics can be a bit deceiving. For instance, Hawk Ridge Elementary scores in the 95th percentile for number of kids passing the exams and has a fairly low student-teacher ratio, but it is also one of the most overcrowded schools in the entire school district. Last year there were more kids having class in trailers than in the school. There is a new elementary school opening this year to help the overcrowding, but the school is still overcrowded. A second elementary school is slated to open in 2008 to finally alleviate the overcrowding at Hawk Ridge. Because of all the school openings, my next door neighbor will attend kindergarten at one school and then move to another school for 1st grade. So Hawk Ridge, which serves the area south of Ballantyne is a good school, and I anticipate that the 2 new schools opening in the area in the next two years will also be very good. I have a friend whose son is at Endhaven Elementary, which serves the Ballantyne area, and she is very happy with his education there (he had attended kindergarten and 1st grade at a private school). It's hard to tell you that a specific area has good schools because the truth of the matter is that there might be one school serving an area that is really good, but you move a block into a house just as nice but you end up going to another school that isn't as good. You really just have to look at each individual school, which I know doesn't make your house hunting search very easy.

Another thing you should know is that when a real estate agent is checking their MLS for houses for you, one of the criteria she can put in is high school. But they can't do elementary. So my husband and I researched the better high schools in Charlotte and started our search that way (our thought was that the better high schools would be fed by the better middle and elementary schools). Our realtor only looked up houses that fit our price range that were served by those high schools. She would give me the MLS page for the house, which listed the elementary school, and I would use the greatschools.net website to learn more about the school. Also, the schools in Union County, which is just south of Mecklenburg County and includes the towns of Weddington, Waxhaw, Marvin, are supposed to have excellent public schools. I hope this helps and feel free to email me if you have any other questions about moving here. I'll try to help.

Hi K.,
My vote is Fort Mill, SC! We just moved here in March from Michigan and love the schools so far. It is a 10-15 commute for my husband to go to the office in Charlotte. We were steered away from Charlotte schools because we were told they were poorly managed. I know you have your hands full, but I would HIGHLY recommend visiting a few schools if you can.
Good Luck!
P.

I am new to the Charlotte area also and have been told that the schools in Cabarrus or Union Counties are the best. Mecklenburg Counties are not as good. I recently bought a home in Concord near Rocky River Elementary and everyone says it is a great school.

Hi K., My family just moved to Concord, NC which is about 10 or so miles outside of Charlotte. We moved from California, and as you I wanted to move to a place with an excellent school system. My son starts kindergarten next month and we moved to Cabarrus county, which is outside of Charlotte. I did alot of research on test scores and I wanted to see what the schools looked like and that it was in a nice area. Unfortunately, the people I talked to who lived in Meck county didn't really have nice things to say about that school system. So, I knew that I wanted my son to go to Cabarrus county school, which I felt for my situation was better. I am not saying there isn't a good school in Meck county, just for my child I chose Cabarrus county. He will be attending Rocky River Elementary and I am very happy with our decision on where our home is, the neighborhood and the school he will be attending. Best of luck on your move and your decisions that lie ahead.