HELP-Moving Again-Need find good HighSchool for Kids Atlanta Metro (mortgage, home)

[lorilove]

Cummings is very popular and yes you get a lot for your money. The schools are also good. For me, it is too far away from the city. But for many families with kids, their life revolves around work and school and kids activities and they are perfectly happy out in the suburbs.

The real difference is going to be Forsyth County vs Fulton County. I will let others speak to the pros and cons since I live in Cobb County. Some residents in Fulton get very frustrated as there are competing needs between North Fulton and South Fulton - many moons ago they were two different counties. That does not mean that Forsyth is necessarily better but the county issues are going to be more of an issue than the differences in the individual cities.

[researchnerd]

Cumming is nice and family-friendly, but the downtown isn't particularly cute. You might check out Woodstock.

[SW30303]

Cumming in Forsyth or North Fulton (Alpharetta / Roswell) are both fine choices. The schools are probably a bit stronger academically in North Fulton, but you can get a better deal for a house in Forsyth area. There are plenty of threads here on either areas if you do your research. Based on what you describe, I would go with either area. Good luck in your search.

[northwinds]

I think you should check out the City of Atlanta schools.....you can live intown and your kids will get a superior education in a "diverse environment"....the Superintenant was recently given huge bonuses for performance increases amongst the City of Atlanta schools based upon increases in standardized testing scores ("by any means necessary baby!"). There is very little violence and disruption in that school system and the parents and PTAs are constantly striving for excellence. Why in heavens name would you send your kids to a school in Alpharetta or Cumming(s)....those areas lack "diversity" and "culture" and they fail to adequately "compensate" for their students who score poorly on standardized testing........

[HoodsofATL]

Originally Posted by sparklegirl_19

Meant...we don't want housing development where the houses are so close to you next door neighbor. We've seen developments where the houses are so close to each other and where you can see what your neighbor is doing in the backyard....we don't want that. we want some privacy. i know this sounds like a laundry list. hopefully there's some subdivision out there that has most of these things and we can compromise on other things. Schooling for the kids is paramount though. I want them to be happily situated in their new school.

Probably Fayette County then...

[sparklegirl_19]

hi all,

i've been doing more research now.

1. how about WALTON high school & LASSITER high school? (is that marietta or roswell area?). does anyone know of any GOOD SUBDIVISIONS upto the $400K RANGE. i know in that area it'll probably get us into a house with less than 1 acre. ideally, we'd like a newer construction house yr 2000 and up with at least 1 acre land, but i know with that budget we probably won't get it. sigh.

2. also i know people have talked about the swim team at the high school what is the SUMMER / WINTER SWIM TEAM around that area.

3. can anyone suggest a couple of MIDDLE SCHOOLS that FEED into WALTON or LASSITER.

4. is there a county closing tax that is imposed. where i come from there was a 1% tax on the sale value of home that the county imposed that we had to pay at closing. there's also 1% tax when we sell as well. is there also a similar tax in georgia counties? is there a work tax as well?

5. is there anything else i should be aware of like redistricting of the school boundaries or proposed / up and coming property tax increases, issues with teacher strikes, issues with sewer/water, crime/gangs?

6. is it common for realtors there to give buyer rebates?

sorry for all the additional questions. we're sort of doing this blind because we don't know the area at all and we don't have a lot of time on the ground when we get there to look at homes etc.

thanx everyone in advance

[lorilove]

Walton and Lassiter are excellent schools. The area is called East Cobb which is basicaly east of Marietta and west of Roswell.

[RainyRainyDay]

Originally Posted by lorilove

Walton and Lassiter are excellent schools. The area is called East Cobb which is basicaly east of Marietta and west of Roswell.

True. Homes in East Cobb are not in either the City of Marietta or the City of Roswell - but they will have a street address that has either "Marietta" or "Roswell" as the city name. If searching for homes on a real estate website, use the search-by-school-name feature to find homes in the area you want.

[RainyRainyDay]

Originally Posted by sparklegirl_19

3. can anyone suggest a couple of MIDDLE SCHOOLS that FEED into WALTON or LASSITER.

Mabry Middle feeds entirely into Lassiter. Simpson Middle feeds partly into Lassiter and partly into Sprayberry High School. That's another good East Cobb high school although doesn't have the cachet of the "big three" which are Walton, Pope and Lassiter. (Your search seems to have skipped over Pope, which is located right between Walton and Lassiter).

[lastminutemom]

We don't have teacher strikes because we don't have unions. We do start school in 5-6 weeks depending on the system. Cobb and Fulton start August 15th.

Most on the board live N. Metro, but you might consider Fayette County. School system consistently has some of the top scores in the state and offers easy access to the airport, I think.

Most schools in East Cobb will be fine. Walton has a bit of a reputation as a pressure cooker academically and also in individual sports like tennis and golf. I can't speak to swimming.

For year round swimming, the two I am most familiar with are Dynamo and Swim Atlanta.

Dynamo's facilities are in Chamblee and Alpharetta.

Dynamo Swim Club :

Swim Atlanta has far more locations:

Cobb Swim Team ~ SwimAtlanta

Google found this serving the S. Metro area:

Southern Cresent Aquatic Team :