Moving to KC from Dallas

Hi E.,

I am moving to Olathe, KS next week from Sugar Land, Texas. The schools and shopping are amazing in the Olathe/Overland Park area. Let me know if I can help with anything else. We just bought a house in Arbor Landing. Good luck with the move.

-L.

Hi E.,

I see you have had many good responses. I actually have had experience living in Missouri and Kansas with my oldest child attending schools there.
The Park Hill School District in Missouri is wonderful and probably the best you will find in the MO side of the city. I actually live in KCMO right outside of Parkville which put me in the Park Hill school district. It also was a beautiful area with great people for neighbors. All around great place to live.
Due to a change in work location and marriage, I moved to Lenexa, KS where my son is in the Shawnee Mission School District. This is also a good school system but I see some flaws. It is definitely dependent on the specific school. The outer edges of the city seem to offer the best schools (DeSoto, Mill Valley, Blue Valley, etc).
If you find a house and want to know about the school I would ask about it specifically on here and see what feedback you get.

Good luck,
K.

Good School Systems in KC are: Shawnee Mission School District, Blue Valley School District, Olathe School District, DeSoto School District

Most of these districts are in pretty good locations (Overland Park, Leawood, Olathe, Prairie Village, Lenexa).

I know out south (Blue Valley School District) seems to be the happening place on shopping too.

Good luck and hope your move goes smoothely.

Hi,
I suggest you don't rush into a quick decision. The entire KC area has so many wonderful places to live! I moved here in 1997 after never having been in the area before and I was pleasantly surprised how many nice areas I had to choose from. Of course your price range will be a major deciding factor. I am a realtor as well and specialize in out-of-town buyers. You can contact me at ____@____.com or go to my ____@____.com I am also a proud mother of 4 who loves the Blue Valley School district. Every school district has a great website as well. There is practically a church on every corner! You absolutely will not have a problem finding an awesome day out program; but I'd narrow down home choices first. I would recommend you visit for a weekend and have a realtor (I would be happy to be that realtor) take you from one end of the city to the other and look at different areas. Often, new home communities are great for young families, as everyone is new and it is easy to make friends. Where is your husband going to be working? Good luck.

Lee's Summit School District is great as well. It is in Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. There is a new area that they are building homes in called the New Longview. It has homes that are the style of urban homes (close together, small lawns, community park and swimming pool). They are building a large area of shopping with banks, coffee shops, grocery store and more. It's really a neat area and you can find it on the web also. I think you can type in The New Longview Lee's Summit. That should get you there. Good luck!

Hi!
Congratulations on your move- are you excited?
I can help you with advice. I am a realtor and have worked all over KC are. Are you moving here for a job? Kansas has great schools. Olathe and Blue Valley/Leawood have great ratings! I can send you some links, if you would like. I also have a home search website program that I can set you up on - if you are interested. It allows you to save searches, save properties, view school and neighborhood information, etc. Just let me know some specifics of what you would be looking for. It's fun to play with.

Thanks and talk to you soon!
R.
____@____.com

Hi E.,

I grew up in Tyler, TX and now live in Overland Park (OP), KS - I actually live on the OP/Olathe, KS border. We really love the area. The Overland Park church of Christ has a Monday-Friday pre-school/mother's day out program, however I don't know if they would have any openings at this time. This area also has a wonderful children's hospital - Children's Mercy Hospital, just an fyi.

I hope your move goes smoothly and that you enjoy KS once you get here.

Overland Park and Leawood, KS are going to be your best bet for excellent schools. Blue Valley is one of the nation's top rated school districts, and Overland Park is safe, loaded with great places for shopping and food. - We live in Overland Park and are just about 5 minutes from an outdoor shopping center - "Town Center" with tons of great shops, a mall, A couple of Target's etc.
Mother's Day out programs - one of the best is just a few minutes from here: Colonial Presbyterian Church. They have 2 campuses, one in KS, and one in MO. Their website is www.colonialkc.org
Their phone number is ###-###-####
For a good realtor, we really like and know personally, Steve Potter with Reece and Nichols. Reece and Nichols is an excellent local realtor firm.
www.reeceandnichols.com
Good luck with the move! KC is a great place to live, and there is a surprising amount of fun family things to do in the city and surrounding areas. I think you will really enjoy it!

I grew up in KC so I know some of the history and the like. I will say that many of the places are great! The only thing i am going to give you is a warning. The school system in KCMO itself (This does not include Lee Summit...) is really bad! I remember kids that would transfer to my highschool from their highschools and they couldn't read or even count to 10! I grew up in Leawood, KS and went to Shawnee Mission East. The Shawnee Mission Schools are great, though I would not move into an area that feeds into Shawnee Mission North. They have the most teen pregs in the whole district and I know I wouldn't want my kid in with that sort of crowd.

I noticed most of your replies were in regards to Kansas, so I thought I'd give you a Missouri perspective. Kansas City Missouri is divided into Kansas City and the northland - those of us who live north of the Missouri River - but are still in Kansas City. North of the river you will find wonderfull suburbs. Park Hill school district is wonderfull and boasts a new shopping area, Zona Rosa. It has top rate resteraunts and stores. Nearby is Parkville, a small town along the river which is home to Park University and a quaint shopping area. There are new upscale shops going in just a few minutes away in Briarcliff. This is all on the west side of the northland. On the east side you will find the town of Liberty which has great schools, a quaint downtown square and several new strip mall shopping areas. There are many churches in the area which have Mom's Day out, but they fill up fast. Pleasant Valley Baptist Church has a terrific program (in Liberty), as does Platte Woods Methodist Church (on the west side). If you want to live south of the river, there is another suburb - Lee's Summit which has good schools and is enjoying a boom of development with new shopping and restraunts. It is also close to the shopping in Independence. The United Methodis Church of Lee's Summit has a good mom's day out program too. You do not want to live in the Kansas City school district as it lost its accreditation a few years ago and is still struggling. There are nice, old neighborhoods to be found in that area, but most of the parents send their children to private schools. Go to www.reeceandnichols.com to find information on houses. We know a great real estate agent named Julie Grundyson who works for Reece and Nichols. Our husband are on the fire department togather. Her number is ###-###-####. Good luck in your move and feel free to ask me any other questions. I have lived in the northland since 1994.

South Overland Park hands-down! It has everything you're looking for - it's pretty much ALL families with young children, you can't beat the Blue Valley school system and there's a mamoth state-of-the-art mall going in that will bring in all the shopping and restaurants you could want (as if they don't have enough of them already. :)

If you are interested in a realtor, I have to suggest
Nancy Sigir w/ Realty Executives
11115 Ash
Leawood, KS 66211

###-###-####

She is very honest & straight to the point at finding exactly what you are looking for. I have to say I've never know anyone better at there job.
Good luck on your search & welcome to KC! K.

I think that you want to be in the Shawnee Mission School District. We have a top ten rating in the country. There are a wide range of housing costs. I live in a community called Roeland Park. Most of the houses are 2,3, and 4 bedroom. You are minutes from downtown, shopping (Plaza). Really you are minutes from most everything. I will tell you that the homes are older. Not sure the price range you are looking but the "norm" for the rich is to move south Johnson County. I personally prefer a little more character than the cookie cutter homes that you will find farther south. Hope this helps out and good luck. I think you will really like KC. D.

GOOD SCHOOL IN KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI ARE NOT THE BEST. BUT IF YOU LIVE OUT TOWARDS THE SUB-BURBS. LIKE INDEPENDENCE, BLUE SPRINGS, I MYSELF LIKE OUT NORTH KANSAS CITY, LIKE PARKVILLE, MISSOURI HAS GREAT SCHOOLS, OR GLADSTONE MO, SHOPPING IS PRETTY MUCH SET UP FOR YOU ALL AROUND THESE AREAS. IF YOU ARE LOOKING IN MISSOURI THESE ARE GOOD PLACES TO LOOK.

Hi E.,

Shawnee, KS is a great place to live. Shawnee has tons of young families in the area and a new school district with great young teachers. We are a growing community with lots of shopping around us and more being built on a daily basis. Westside Family Church has a great children's ministry. They also have a mom's day out program. Go to www.westsidefamilychurch.com.

Hope this helps.

M. S.