Moving to Vancouver, WA
There are so many decisions to be made with a move. Mary writes:
We are moving to Vancouver,WA. I need some hands-on-knowledge/information about the school districts (Vancouver Public School District and Evergreen School District). What about the neighborhoods? Where should we look and where should we stay away from? We plan to rent an apartment. Any favorite complexes? Our son is 9months old, so obviously, safety, community, and good school districts are very important to us.
I live in Vancouver. Both Evergreen school district and Vancouver school district have good schools and bad. The biggest difference I think is that in middle school and high school there are more options for the kids in the Vancouver school district since it is bigger, they have several magnet programs and the school of arts which are not available in the evergreen school district. That being said I think there are some nice apartments in the Fisher's Landing area which would be evergreen school district. For the Vancouver school district I would go up to the Salmon Creek area. The schools are good and the apartments are nice. We lived in an apartment there for about 6 months after we moved from Portland before we bought another house. We lived in the Highland Hills apartments, they are right across the street from the new Legacy Hospital. We found them to be quiet, safe and both child and pet friendly and clean !!! They have the usual pools, playground and workout areas and are convienent to I-5 and I-205. Good luck. Feel free to email me if you want more scoop.
Posted by: Mary | March 12, 2008 at 04:50 PM
Sorry did not put my link on the last comment as I said feel free to contact me if you want more scoop.
Posted by: Mary | March 12, 2008 at 05:19 PM
We live on the west side of Vancouver. In my opinion, the best elementary schools in the city are Lakeshore, Felida, Chinook and Lincoln (based on test scores & the fact that Lakeshore & Felida have so many parent volunteers that they have to turn parents away) -- all on the west side. Plus, it seriously takes me 15 minutes to get to the Pearl. Not to mention the Vancouver farmer's market in downtown, which is 5 minutes or less (by car) and bike-able from several west side neighborhoods. My favorite neighborhoods include: Lincoln, Northwest, Overlook, Felida & Ashley Heights. Of course, I am a biased west sider :)
Good luck with your move.
Posted by: Ali | March 14, 2008 at 04:40 AM