Stillwater vs. Woodbury Schools? (St. Paul, Cottage Grove: fit in, houses, buy)

[LisaKMax]

Hello,

Can someone post a ranking of the school districts for Woodbury, Hudson, Stillwater (Afton & Lakeland Shores) that's accurate and reliable? I am looking at homes in Afton and Woodbury, and for resale value, I'm wondering about school ratings. I know a lot of families will only look in certain districts once they decide that's where they want their kids to go to school. My personal research has been in private schools, so I'm a bit out of the loop for public.

Thank you in advance.

[iNviNciBL3]

Woodbury South Washington County School District in Cottage Grove, MN | GreatSchools

Stillwater Stillwater Area Public School District in Stillwater, MN | GreatSchools

Hudson Hudson School District in Hudson, WI | GreatSchools

They all seem the same but i know Stillwater is better than Woodbury. Not to sure about Hudson
Alot of people in Woodbury send there kids to Hill Murray and i hear nothing but great things about it

Hill Murray School - St. Paul, Minnesota - MN - School overview

[danielle_pal]

according to this Woodbury's high school scores are better than stillwater and edina and everyone except Woodbury's math and science academy which is lottery system to get in.
Also I own a home in Woodbury but the school district is Stillwater, 7 miles away. I guess the school district lines were made 100 years ago and
have never been updated/changed.

Top 10 Best Minnesota State Elementary Schools - MN School Rankings

sorry the link goes right to elementary but switch it to high school and see the rankings below

[cinnamon_toast]

The word on the streets is Stillwater is the better of those three. But -- they are facing some big budget cuts.

Budget Adjustments (http://stillwater.k12.mn.us/Budget_Adjustments2.html - broken link)

[golfgal]

Personally I would look at the Stillwater schools over Woodbury. Test scores are going to be about the same but I think the towns in the Stillwater district are just nicer areas to live. I think the overall feel in the Stillwater schools is going to be better as well. It's a highly educated, pretty down to earth type town. Woodbury, not so much.

Hudson does not have a good reputation.

[HKB]

Originally Posted by golfgal

It's a highly educated, pretty down to earth type town. Woodbury, not so much.

What evidence do you have to make this kind of a statement? Have you even lived in Woodbury?

Stillwater
High school or higher: 94.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher: 37.5%
Graduate or professional degree: 10.4%

Woodbury
High school or higher: 96.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher: 49.3%
Graduate or professional degree: 16.3%

[danielle_pal]

I think golfgal was implying Woodbury is a little more snotty. You can see that the median income in woodbury is almost 20K more a year compared to Stillwater.

WOODBURY: The median income for a household in the city was $76,109, and the median income for a family was $84,997. About 0.8% of families were below the poverty line.

Stillwater: The median income for a household in the city was $57,154, and the median income for a family was $72,188. About 3.0% of families were below the poverty line.

stats from wiki

Personally, I don't like most of the homes in the city of Stillwater. I would, of course, love to own one of those million + dollar homes with river bluff views there but don't we all?. Stillwater homes are on average older. I would buy in Woodbury or Afton. I do like the downtown part of Stillwater but it is so congested in the summer I avoid it.

[eastside38]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Personally I would look at the Stillwater schools over Woodbury. Test scores are going to be about the same but I think the towns in the Stillwater district are just nicer areas to live. I think the overall feel in the Stillwater schools is going to be better as well. It's a highly educated, pretty down to earth type town. Woodbury, not so much.

Hudson does not have a good reputation.

Funny that, a significant amount of people I know in Woodbury grew up on the East Side of St. Paul and are the opposite of snooty. Stonemill Farms, Dancing Waters, and Prestwick GC are the snooty hotspots in town, but that's pretty much it. Now the Southwest Metro on the other hand...

Only a small portion of Afton is in District 833 (South Washington County Schools, which includes the city of Woodbury). I should add that this area is entirely agricultural, so not much in the way of homes. The rest of Afton, and the majority of homes, is zoned to Stillwater.

NE Woodbury is also zoned to Stillwater. It's a real pain in the rear to drive 15 minutes up to the high school and 5-10 to Oakland JR High when plenty of 833 schools are nearby. I'm sure this archaic setup comes from back in the early 50's when the county consolidated its schools (yes, Washington County still had one-room school houses in the 50's!) and Farmer Bob living near Powers Lake decided that Stillwater HS was closer to him than St. Paul Park, which is where Park High was located at the time. The time to redraw lines was back in 1990 at the latest. There's no way that Stillwater would agree to give up the tax base that resides on that land now.

Regarding Math and Science Academy's test scores, the school is full of, with a few, but glaring exceptions, naturally high achievers born to 3M engineers and Ecolab chemists. The teaching was good enough when I was there to definitely factor into the high test scores, but some teachers have left since I left, so I can't give a fair comment.

As for Hill-Murray, there are a lot of parents that send their kids there because they went there -- a family tradition. I knew plenty of nice HM kids growing up, but by no means was it a Catholic Mayberry. The Benedictine's should've never left the place.

[LisaKMax]

I really appreciate all the feedback here. It is very helpful to get extra views. I used to live in Hudson, myself, for a couple years about 10 years ago, and I personally did not feel very welcome there at all.

I have seen the 40 year-old+ women with dyed blonde hair and size 2 figures with who knows what size busts in Woodbury at the grocery store of all places, dressed to the nines. But then again, it was Kowalski's, which I love for their selection-and hey, it is fun to people watch there! I think I might fit in better though at the local WalMart or Cub Foods myself. And no, I am not against dying your hair, do it myself-just happen to be in a brunette phase ever since I turned 36.

It's interesting to hear different viewpoints. My husband makes very good money (but I guess that's relative too), and we currently live in a very depressed area, where I end up feeling very judged against, even though I certainly don't drive new cars, live in a hoity toity house, etc. It all runs down to each individual I guess. I have to be open-minded and accept there will be snobs or judgmental people everywhere, and it doesn't necessarily have to be from people who make more money.

And yes, I would love to be able to afford one of those houses on the bluff in Stillwater too! https://www.city-data.com/forum/image...ies/oglvvd.gif

[PullMyFinger]

Our experience between Woodbury and Stillwater? Woodbury people are higher class and much more friendly and social. Stillwater is cliquish, not friendly at all. I would take Woodbury over SW any day-town and schools.