howdy folks. my family is probably going to relocate to midland. my son will be in the 5th grade. we made a trip out there to check out the town (wife had never been, i usually go once a week for work). i've been asking around a good bit about but figured i'd inquire here as well. what ares/schools should we look at/stay away from? what do you think of greenwood? ive been reading online quite a bit but would appreciate any perspective from this board.

thanks for any help.

Public schools are pretty good. The magnet schools are well respected, and would be my first choice. Midland has a lot of good traditional neighborhood public elementary schools: Scharbauer, Greathouse, Bush, Fannin, Santa Rita, Emerson, etc. Really, if you buy in a "nice" part of town you should be ok. Some parents do feel that their "nice" neighborhood school has suffered because kids from "bad" neighborhoods have been shuffled around the district as a result of the magnet program.

There are a lot of good folks in Greenwood, and they do have a good public school. I'm not sure if you can live in Midland and go to school in Greenwood anymore. They used to let kids from Midland pay tuition and attend Greenwood. This might still be the case, but Greenwood has grown a lot over the last few years so I don't know if that policy has changed.

Private schools have been around a long time and there are some good ones: Trinity (K-12), Hillander (K-6), Midland Christian (K-12), Midland Classical (K-12). Midland Montessori.

There are also several Charter Schools, but I don't know much about them.

If you are more concerned with junior highs, then I would avoid Alamo(aka Ala-commode). Abell is the newest built school, and is in a nice neighborhood, so if you had your choice, get in an area that goes there.

I actually went to Alamo, and there's no way I'd send my kids there today. SJ isn't nearly as bad as you might hear from some people. My son goes to Abell and we've been happy. I've got one at LHS, and my youngest will be moving from Santa Rita to Greathouse this fall. No complaints about Santa Rita, but we're moving.

St. Ann's is also an option for private schools.

thanks for the replies folks. going to see some houses this week. thanks again.

Buy in Big Spring and commute. More value for your dollar. Two small schools in the county if you don't like the big school. A far better community in which to live.

quote:

---

A far better community in which to live.

---

Says you.

I'd say try to live West of Midland drive and outside the loop. Green Tree, Grasslands, (although beware of Christmas time, they're nazis about decorations), Briarwood. You're in the Abel Jr High district, closer to all of the "new" things in Midland, and there isn't a bad neighborhood anywhere.