Albemarle County Schools offer academies at each of the high schools. Any County student is eligible to apply, but if you live outside the district, you are responsible for your own transportation. I don’t often…
Browsing Category Education
Look Beyond Test Scores When Evaluating Schools
School quality matters with respect to home values; this is inarguable. Zestimates and locality assessments matter to a certain degree when evaluating home values. What about school ratings on websites? Take the following email exchange…
Why Are Albemarle County Schools Building a Fiber Network?
Why is Albemarle County building their own private fiber network? I noted in early 2014 that Albemarle County Schools were looking for money to build a dark fiber network; now it’s real. Charlottesville Tomorrow reports that the…
Albemarle and Charlottesville Raising Taxes, Schools Closing and More
A few things to know for Monday – from Charlottesville and Albemarle seeking tax increases, a grocery store is moving, and Albemarle County’s lost week of school.
How to Pay for Albemarle County Schools?
It costs nearly $12,000 per year to educate a kid in Albemarle County Schools. This year, the County Schools are facing a proposed funding gap of nearly $7 million and the cry from many parents, administrators and citizens has been to “fully fund the schools. (including emails from the schools’ email distribution newsgroups).â€
Rather than repeat myself, this is a story I wrote three years ago and it’s still relevant. Schools matter for housing values. Period. People move to the Charlottesville area all the time for the schools. Schools. Matter. (this is as good a time as any to remind folks to check your school district before you write an offer to purchase a home )
But …
How should the citizenry pay for the schools?
Would people support an Adequate Public Facilities legislation?
Asking for “more!†without referencing the “how?†in my opinion diminishes the argument.
* note: one of my kids graduated from Western Albemarle schools and one is currently enrolled.
No High School Rankings in Albemarle County Schools?
Albemarle County is in discussions about whether to stop ranking students.
In response to calls from parents to stop reporting class rankings to college admissions offices, Albemarle County Public Schools is in the process of reviewing its policy.
Currently, Albemarle reports class ranks to colleges and universities in deciles, but many parents feel that doing so paints students below the top 10 percent negatively in the eyes of selective universities.
Questions –
– Does *not* rewarding kids for achievement disincentivize them from trying harder?
– How could we focus educating kids on actually educating kids rather than passing tests in order to get better ranked?
– When folks are moving to Charlottesville – Albemarle what rankings to they consider in public schools? Do they factor in what percentage of
There is a great discussion at RealCrozetVA.
Update – Charlottesville Tomorrow has a poll – Should Albemarle County report student rankings to colleges?
Verify your School District Before you Buy a Home
There’s nothing worse than buying a home, a large part of that buying decision being the school district, to then find that you’re not in the school district you thought. (hopefully before you close)
It happens.
“School District” is one of the most important criteria identified by my buyer clients searching for homes – school districts matter. Better schools = higher home prices.
Bad data entry happens. To all of us.
A client emailed me the other day about a new listing … great home, great location, great school district … just not the current great school district; it was marked as being in an adjacent school district, pre-redistricting.
So – Check your school district before you buy a home. Seriously.
I tell my clients that I trust the Charlottesville MLS about 83.875% of the time … it’s greatest flaw is that it’s run by humans, humans, many of whom don’t give a second thought to the value of accurate data.
Here’s what happens when a realtor in Charlottesville inputs a new listing into the MLS:
– Cloning is more efficient.
– Double-checking is not.
If a property last sold 7 years ago via the Charlottesville MLS, there’s a darn good chance that the school districts have shifted.
So:
– Search the MLS for homes by school district.
– Assume it’s accurate.
– Verify for your own self whether it is accurate.
– Check the website of the school system to verify whether your house is in X school district.
– Call the school system to verify. (take notes and names)
Proceed. 🙂