Last minute trip- housing advice for family/job at CO Children's & snow day trip (Denver: fit in, rentals)

[mec1117]

Hi! We booked a very last minute trip to Denver and will be coming this weekend for a week long trip to both check out some neighborhoods/school districts for a possible move this summer and enjoy some winter activities while in town. We have tentatively planned a couple of days for looking into housing in the area and a couple of days of touring Denver for fun.

We'd also like to fit in a day trip for snowboarding and/or other snow activities if at all possible.

We have two goals for this trip that we'd love help on:

1) Specific neighborhoods to tour for possible job relocation to CO Children's this summer from out of state.

2) Snow day trip:
-Snowboarding- If we can still swing it this close to a trip next week we'd like to do one day of snowboarding. The kids and I are still beginners so anywhere basic/close is fine as long as they have snowboard rentals for kids (as young as 6) as well as adults. Any suggestions? We're skipping lessons this time for the kids and may even just do bunny slopes for them or just some easier greens.
-Other fun snow things in the Denver area- any nearby options for tubing, outdoor ice skating rinks etc. I saw a link in another recent post to dog sledding but haven't looked into how far that is. Kids are 6-11 years old and are pretty adventurous.


Here is what we are looking for in housing/neighborhoods:

- Commute: has to be less than about 25 minutes with traffic to CO Children's Anschutz medical campus (for on-call purposes)

- Good public schools in a safe & family-friendly neighborhood:
We have three kids currently in elementary and middle school. We will be sending them to public schools and have briefly looked into Central Park/DPS and Cherry Creek School District areas. We want to tour neighborhoods/subdivisions in both areas while in town to help get a feel for them and would love any advice/suggestions on this front. It would be great if the neighborhood had green belts or parks nearby. Also a plus for neighborhood pools and being close to an ice rink with skating lessons and youth hockey programs.

We've moved cross-country several times for my husband's training and had great luck with neighborhoods/schools in a couple of other suburbs in larger metro areas with good public school districts. In our current smaller city, we had trouble finding the right school fit in a struggling public school district. Our zoned schools are not great and after a couple of expensive years of reluctantly sending our older kids to a somewhat disappointing private school, this year when our youngest started kindergarten, we moved our kids to combo gifted & arts magnet public schools.

Their current magnet schools are in high poverty areas with behavioral issues in and out of the gifted programs and the in-school violence has been worse than expected. Also, I'm in the car a ton more (3.5hr + for schools) as I sit in one car line and then another with schedules an hour apart for (and a 20 minute commute from home). My 6th grader is loving her fine arts curriculum and while it would be wonderful to continue with an arts magnet, it's not sustainable for the kids and I to be in the car this much. The gifted program isn't essential.

We enjoy parks and it would be a plus to have easy access to greenways, etc. for biking and a close commute for my husband in the Central Park area, but I don't have a good sense if we could find good school fits through zoning or would need lottery magnet options. With a summer move, we would miss all of the school lotteries/ choice applications this year. I would love to hear more from parents who have kids in public school in this area. In our current city, we have easy access to a ton of parks, beaches, art museums, good restaurants, etc within a short drive but I would give it all up to have a more stable and safe school environment for the kids.

The Cherry Creek school district is fairly large so it seems tricky to narrow down what neighborhoods we should look into, but from other posts maybe schools feeding into Campus middle school/Cherry Creek HS? Any advice is appreciated.

[AZtoCO1]

You will certainly receive plenty of suggestions on where to live. I live in Highlands Ranch south of Denver, too far for a 25 minute commute to Anschutz, so I won't be much help.

Last winter my son, wife, and I all did snowboarding lessons for "first timers" at Loveland. I grew up skiing, and after that day, I will definitely go back. Snowboarding is a young person's game! But, Loveland was great for beginners, because they have two areas. Basin and Valley. Basin has a good variety for everyone, and Valley is geared towards beginners. It's also an easy and shorter trip from Denver, which may appeal to you.

I hope that helps, enjoy your trip!

[mkwensky]

Look in the Central Park area. Some of the best public schools are in that area. Parker in Douglas County might work. Many options for snow activities - I like Winter Park but most of them are fine. Go to Loveland like a local if you can't find lodging and can only do day trips.

[mc1117]

I’ll look into Loveland and winter park resorts- thanks!

How far would the commute be from Highlands Ranch? I was hoping that area would still be an option.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by mc1117

I’ll look into Loveland and winter park resorts- thanks!

How far would the commute be from Highlands Ranch? I was hoping that area would still be an option.

Highlands Ranch is 40-60 minutes from Anschutz depending on starting location and traffic.

If diversity is important to you, you'll be better off in DPS or Cherry Creek School District.

We live in Southeast Aurora (80016) near Southlands Mall. We're probably 30 mins from Anschutz if you don't take the E-470 tollway, and the airport is 20 minutes away if you do take the tollway. We live within walking distance of Aurora Reservoir, and there are a handful of small, neighborhood parks nearby. This area is fairly new and totally suburban. I wish we had more restaurant choices, but we don't eat out as much these days. All three of my kids went from elementary through high school here (CCSD). They graduated from Cherokee Trail and the younger two are both in college at Colorado State.

[davebarnes]

What is your housing budget?

[mkwensky]

Originally Posted by mc1117

I’ll look into Loveland and winter park resorts- thanks!

How far would the commute be from Highlands Ranch? I was hoping that area would still be an option.

The eastern edge of Highlands Ranch that's close to I25 might be close enough, but you're still looking at 30 minutes. I live on the west side of HR and when I had to see a doctor at Anschutz I usually budget an hour to get there.

[history nerd]

I would think highlands ranch and Parker would be too far. The neighborhood formerly known as Stapleton and south Aurora/Centennial are probably your best bets.

For what it's worth I don't think you need to get your kids into Creek feeders to get a good education in CCSD. That's just the school with the most name ID.

[mec1117]

Thanks- it's helpful to narrow down school neighborhood options by location so that's fine Highlands Ranch is out. I know we don't want to be in Douglas County but we will explore all other CCSD and Central Park options. The area around Aurora Reservoir sounds like a great location.

Housing budget- looking for a 4bedroom for $800k-1m. Really would rather not go above that but possibly could swing 1.25m. There are a lot of contingencies including changing interest rates, selling our current home, etc. Most likely we will rent first but I don't want to have to switch schools when we buy.

[history nerd]

Originally Posted by mec1117

Thanks- it's helpful to narrow down school neighborhood options by location so that's fine Highlands Ranch is out. I know we don't want to be in Douglas County but we will explore all other CCSD and Central Park options. The area around Aurora Reservoir sounds like a great location.

Housing budget- looking for a 4bedroom for $800k-1m. Really would rather not go above that but possibly could swing 1.25m. There are a lot of contingencies including changing interest rates, selling our current home, etc. Most likely we will rent first but I don't want to have to switch schools when we buy.

The area around the reservoir is really nice. I think you can really look at anywhere in Aurora/Centennial south of Hampden and east of 225 without needing to worry about the schools.