Lake Oswego, Beaverton Elementary Schools and Commute to Portland Downtown (Tigard: apartment, rental)

[go4sam]

Hello,

I will be mostly relocating to Portland in July for the school year for my kids and I will be working in Portland Downtown and need information on the schools and commute.

I did research on the web for Elementary schools(for 3rd Grade, 1st Grade) and found that Some schools in Lake Oswego(LO), Portland, Beaverton seems to be good. Best Schools seems to be in LO(Palisades Elementary School,Lake Grove Elementary School,Uplands Elementary School).

So i will have to stay closer to these school Boundaries so they can go to those schools.

I am not going to buy a home, so I will have to rent a 3 BR house or Townhome or Apartment.

So my questions are

1) Do you have any input for my assessment of schools and feedback. I am looking for schools with some diversity of students if possible.
2) How will be the commute from LO to Downtown and Beaverton to Downtown. What is recommended(Train, Car?)
3) Can you recommend what is the best way to find rental in addition to looking at web sites like Forrent.com

Thanks
Sam

[Rob Allen]

From Lake O, driving is the only option; there's no train. Buses might be possible; the bus system in Portland is better than other cities I've lived in. In Beaverton, many of the buses take you to Beaverton Transit Center, where the train will take you into Portland. Depending on the distance & time of day, your commute could be 30-60 minutes.

Other sources of rental info - craigslist is a good one. The key to the Portland area craigslist is this: Portland is listed under Multnomah County; Beaverton is in Washington County, and Lake Oswego is in Clackamas County.

There are also classified ads at these newspaper sites:
Oregon Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - OregonLive.com
Willamette Week : Portland News, Music, Movies, Events, Restaurants

[sofia76]

Originally Posted by go4sam

So my questions are

1) Do you have any input for my assessment of schools and feedback. I am looking for schools with some diversity of students if possible.
2) How will be the commute from LO to Downtown and Beaverton to Downtown. What is recommended(Train, Car?)
3) Can you recommend what is the best way to find rental in addition to looking at web sites like Forrent.com

Thanks
Sam

1. Lake Oswego's school district is #1 or #2 in the state of Oregon. Not sure what you mean by diverse - do you mean socio economically? Racially? Culturally? Academically? Lake Oswego is a wealthier town outside of Portland, the median household income is significantly (35-40%) higher than the national average and the Oregon average, so that will tell you a few things. Beaverton is about 5-10% higher than the state and national averages in terms of median household income. It is a larger school district with more students, and there is likely a lot more diversity in terms of culture, socioeconomics, and so on. You might also find that some schools within the district are better than others, whereas in Lake Oswego, they are all rated highly.

2. The commute from LO to downtown isn't far in distance, but you have two primary choices - taking the I-5 or taking Hwy 43. Both can and do get congested at rush hour. But a 30-60 minute commute should be doable by car. If you want to take the bus, you could live within walking distance to downtown LO and take either the 35 or 36 bus on Tri-Met. . There may be other options - esp. for those on the north side of LO, but those are the only ones I know of.

3. I would also suggest Craigslist, as someone earlier did. You might be able to find a house rental. Beaverton will have a lot more inventory in a wider range of prices than Lake Oswego.

[go4sam]

Thanks Rob, Sofia. I will be checking out these places in next 2 weeks.

Sofia - I meant Diverse in both cultural, economically.

[sofia76]

Lake Oswego isn't very diverse economically or culturally. Anecdotally, I have been there many times (I used to pass through to go to college), and it is overwhelmingly white and upper middle class to wealthy. Statistically, it is 90% white, with another 5% being multiracial and/or Hispanic. Just walking around, it feels even whiter than that and the types of stores that are there reflect the incomes of the people who live there. I think it is a cute little town, but the downtown portion gets really crowded with cars at certain times of day, which is unfortunate. But there are some beautiful homes in the area.

LO only has 35,000 or so people. Beaverton is much larger - over 90,000 people. It is 74% white, so it is actually more diverse than many other parts of Oregon (and the US in general, which I believe is 80% white). Economically, there is more diversity as there are lots of different types of businesses. Beaverton is where you can find good Indian restaurants, Uwajimaya's (a large Japanese grocer/general store), lots of Mexican and other Central American food, a community college, lots of malls, etc. It's the 5th biggest city in Oregon, and is within 10-20 minutes of Portland. I always feel like it's crowded and a bit confusing there, but that's because I prefer the grid-like streets of Portland, and I hate driving in traffic. Beaverton has a lot of commuters, and is not a place you can easily walk around in, so there's a lot of traffic on the roads. But there are a lot of homes of all different types there - new construction, older homes, townhouses, etc. I know many people who live in Beaverton with their families. It's big enough that there are lots of neighborhoods to choose from. Public transit is better from Beaverton - you have Max and numerous bus lines.

[go4sam]

Thanks Sofia for the details. I would like to live in Beaverton for the Cultural diversity, but for me most important is Childrens education and I want to offer best schools my kids. The problem I have noticed with Beaverton schools is only 3 schools seems to be good from my research(Bethany Elementary school, Findley, Forest Park) and it is becoming difficult to find rental home, apartment which is within the boundary of the school.

In LO i am able to find easily place to live within good schools.

Thanks again.

[sofia76]

Yes, that makes sense. LO is small and all of the schools are excellent so no matter where one lives, the schools your children would go to will be excellent. If that's the most important thing to you, you will just have to seek cultural diversity in other areas of the Portland metropolitan area on your off-days. Beaverton is right next door, as is Portland.

[figmalt]

I don't have a horse in this race, and it makes little difference to me, but there is a lot more to what makes a good school than the rating it gets on great schools.org. Using phrases like "only 3 schools seem to be good," leaves a funny taste in my mouth because there's so much more to education than how kids score on standardized tests. I've said it before on this forum, but the reality is you as a parent will make a much bigger impact on the quality of your child's education than any "good" school your child attends. Beaverton schools are fine. Tigard schools are fine. Lake Oswego schools are fine. Find a neighborhood you like and you child will do, well, fine.

[BirdInHand]

Originally Posted by go4sam

Thanks Sofia for the details. I would like to live in Beaverton for the Cultural diversity, but for me most important is Childrens education and I want to offer best schools my kids. The problem I have noticed with Beaverton schools is only 3 schools seems to be good from my research(Bethany Elementary school, Findley, Forest Park) and it is becoming difficult to find rental home, apartment which is within the boundary of the school.

In LO i am able to find easily place to live within good schools.

Thanks again.

You are way off on your assesment of the Beaverton Schools. Way off. Where are you getting your info?

[sofia76]

I would agree with this. I do think that if the OP is looking for the top rated schools, and that is his/her #1 priority, LO is probably the place. But in principle, I agree with figmalt.

Originally Posted by figmalt

I don't have a horse in this race, and it makes little difference to me, but there is a lot more to what makes a good school than the rating it gets on great schools.org. Using phrases like "only 3 schools seem to be good," leaves a funny taste in my mouth because there's so much more to education than how kids score on standardized tests. I've said it before on this forum, but the reality is you as a parent will make a much bigger impact on the quality of your child's education than any "good" school your child attends. Beaverton schools are fine. Tigard schools are fine. Lake Oswego schools are fine. Find a neighborhood you like and you child will do, well, fine.