I will be relocating to the area.
I need info on schools, area to live, do stores have double coupons, community involvement, things to know about southwest area, any info would be appreciated!

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"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us"
---Ralph Waldo Emerson---

Are you moving to Las Vegas or one of it's outlying areas?

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

We are looking at Green Valley, Solera, Anthem and a few others.
I would like to know what people think of the area if they have lived there or currently live there.

__________________
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us"
---Ralph Waldo Emerson---

I left Vegas 2 years ago... mainly because schools ranked 47 in the nation due to overcrowding. Most schools there have year round schedules. ALL of Clark County is one school district... that includes Henderson, N. Las Vegas and Las Vegas. School zoning is kind of random. We lived in the same home for 9 years and were rezoned 4 times. While my daughter was zoned for one school, her best friend (same age) who lived 2 houses over on the same street was zoned for a different school. The bus system is hit and miss. Last week was the first week of school and my friend's son's bus showed up an hour late and all the kids missed first period. My daughter had some strange experiences on the bus... foul mouthed drivers, lost routes, U turns in the desert, etc.

That being said, the areas you spoke of are good. I lived in Silverado Ranch, which borders Anthem, Green Valley and Southern Highlands. Housing is good there. You can get a new or almost new home for a decent market price... all the stores, restaurants, shopping centers are brand new and still sprouting all over the place. I was there last week and lots of new stuff has gone up in the last 6 months. Anthem is newer than Green Valley so schools/homes are newer and to some, considered better. Older (80's) homes in Green Valley tend to be considerably bigger and schools and neighborhoods are more established. Southern Highlands is nice too, but when I was there, the problem was that there was no infrastructure. No grocery store, gas station or main road in. Traffic getting in/out was literally a one/two lane road taking 30-45 minutes because they had to take Industrial Rd around Silverton Casino. I don't know if that's changed.

I have lived in southeast Las Vegas for the last 11 yrs. Not sure if I am the best person to answer this as we are in the process of trying to move out of here. Basically, our feeling is, LV is a great place to vacation, but not so great a place to raise a family. It sounds like you are definitely moving here, so I will try to give you my best, unbiased, answers to your questions.

Schools- Not so great, very over crowded and poor achievment/low test scores. As Turtle38 mentioned, most elementary schools are year round, middle schools and high schools are traditional 9 month.

Double coupons - Smith's (a Kroger owned store) doubles once a year, over the Thanksgiving weekend. Kmart recently doubled for a few days, but it was the first time I've ever seen it and I'm not sure if they will be doing it again or not.

Community involvement - Little to none. I suspect the main reason for that is that most people I run across already have one foot out the door as they are planning on moving in the near future. Seriously, I don't know anybody that has long term plans to stay here.

As far as they infrastructure, Turtle38 hit the nail on the head. There is always road construction and delays and the projects go on forever. For instance, they have been widening the 95 Fwy. since we moved here and I don't see any end in sight.

The areas you mentioned are all nice. Here's a like to metro's crime website. If you know the area you are thinking about buying in, you can look it up to see if there is a problem with crime.

CrimeView Community Incident Map

Thank you for your imput TURTLE38 and quintane.
We are still undecided on the move and have until next week to decide. I am trying to compare all things involved as it would be a huge move for my kids. I have 2 in high school and two in middle school.
We moved from California two and a half years ago and while we love this area we both have great job oportunities in Vegas. But I am not willing to do it if it is wrong for my kids.
I appreciate all the imput as it has really enlightened me to things I was unaware of.

If anyone else out there has anything else to offer I would welcome any advice.
Thanks!

__________________
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us"
---Ralph Waldo Emerson---

please refer to the Regulations of The Cafe. You may not post on this board until you have 25 post on the other boards that MyCoupons has to offer. Thank you for understanding.

Just to give you an idea of school funding, here are the field trips my daughter went on from K thru 6th grade... ALL of them:

Vons Bakery
Post Office
Wells Fargo Vault
Park that bordered the school.
Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

They may have gone to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, but I don't remember.

After moving here, my youngest dd started Kind. She went on real field trips.. community theater, science museum, natural history museum, police station, fire station, two aquariums, beach safety day at the beach held by the county lifeguards, post office, Cold Stone Creamery, a real Farm, the Zoo... this is all during her first year in school.

You can also check school stats at greatschools.net for comparison/national rankings. It's my opinion and experience, but I do not have one friend who is pleased with the level of education their child is recieving in the Clark County school district. When we moved, my oldest dd had a very hard time catching up to the new school's level. She's still a bit behind, but blending in.

It's also worthy to know that the workforce coming out of Las Vegas is largely only high school level. This is why Vegas looks outside for employees. If an 18 year old high school graduate can get a reasonably well paying job at a casino, taking home daily tips... why would he want to go to college? There is only UNLV, community college and Nevada State College for higher education. It is very hard for large corporations in Vegas to find a college level workforce coming from Nevada.

I noticed when we moved from California to Utah that my kids went from having several field trips a year to one. Plus when they started school I noticed they were bored because they had already done the work.
I have just learned that I now have to compensate by taking them to these places myself and giving them extra work to do since the standards are so low.
At the same time, I noticed that when the schools announce open house that the place is packed. This area has the highest family involvement I have ever seen anywhere. They are very driven when it comes to kids going to college so the pressure from the kids to dropout is very minimal because they all want to go. I did check the stats for the schools and wasn't too impressed.
The closer we get to decision time the more I am leaning towards staying where I am. At least we travel quite a bit so my kids get exposed to other places without having to live there.
Thanks again for your help.

__________________
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us"
---Ralph Waldo Emerson---