When Michael and Lynn Bays decided to move to Naperville a few years ago, the couple targeted the elementary and secondary schools before they looked at the Tudors, ranches and colonials the west suburb had to offer.
The Bayses even looked into the schools before they had children (they now have two daughters, ages 4 and 6). Although the couple had not yet started their family, schools were a high priority on their home-buying checklist.
”It was more important for my husband and me to be satisfied with the school in the area,” says Lynn Bays. ”Of course, the house was a concern for us, but our decision to buy one house over another was tied to the schools we thought would be best for the children we hoped to have.”
Some might say this is an example of ”putting the cart before the horse,” but real estate agents in Chicago and the suburbs say smart home seekers buy their homes with schools in mind, whether they have children at the time or not.
The checklist
But how should you go about checking out the schools in an area? And what kinds of questions should you ask?
Real estate agents in the city and suburbs encourage home seekers to call a district office or individual school and ask about class sizes and extracurricular activities and request a copy of a particular school`s test scores.
You might also want to inspect a school inside and out by arranging to meet with teachers or asking to sit in on some classes.
Real estate professionals also suggest visiting local libraries to look up newspaper articles that may have been written about a school or school system and asking parents in a neighborhood what they think of the schools.
And, to learn how taxes in a specific area are allocated to schools, you can contact the local township`s tax assessor.
Mert Gawne, a real estate agent with Doris Brown Inc., which serves Chicago`s Beverly Hills-Morgan Park community, says some parents do all such homework on their own.
”Some parents are more involved than others,” says Gawne. ”The schools in this area are used to questions from parents. And, we encourage parents to investigate on their own when they ask about schools. It`s the only way to make the decision.”
Gawne says her company helps prospective homeowners arrange meetings and tours of the schools they are interested in.
”This gives them a better idea of what to expect and an idea of the kind of learning environment their children will be in,” Gawne says. ”The process is like looking at a house, only you`re looking at a school. You have to see it, really see it, before you can make a decision.”
But Gawne says it`s important that clients not depend on the real estate sales agent to choose a school for them.
”You may have a child who has special needs, athletic or academic, and your decision has to be based on that particular child,” she says.
Asking around
But Lynn Bays wanted someone to point her in the right direction, and she got some of the feedback she needed by talking to children who attended the schools and by talking to parents.
”I didn`t feel out of line in asking other people about the schools,”
says Bays. ”Most people were happy to tell us, and they were honest in their assessment of certain situations.”
But certain situations, such as school strikes, can be harder to assess than others. In Naperville, a strike that began Aug. 27 was finally settled early Monday and students returned to school Tuesday when negotiators reached an agreement on wage, benefits and class size issues that have divided school administrators and teachers.
”Up until now, I would not have thought of asking about strikes in a school district,” says Bays. ”Now I would ask how often teacher contracts are up and what kinds of situations we could be in for here.
”Given the high caliber of Naperville schools, I don`t know if (a history of strikes) would be enough to deter me from selecting a school here. I think I would grin and bear it, but I would not be happy.”
Bays says she judges a school by its overall learning environment and asks the following questions to help in that assessment:
– What type of classes do the children have?
– How did the children like their teachers?
– What are some of the extracurricular activities?
– Were the children proud of their schools?
– How well did the parents feel their children were achieving?
”We asked for the test scores, too,” Bays says. ”The scores give you something to work with, but the scores can only tell you so much.”
Bays believes she and her family were fortunate when they began their house and school hunt in Naperville because they already had some friends and family in the area and had an ”inside track” on what to expect from the schools.
The couple then narrowed down their choice of schools and told their real estate agent the preferred geographic boundaries for purchasing a home, based on school locations.
”If we had been in another area, where the public and private school situation was bleak, it would have caused us to look for a house in another school district,” she says.
A common quest
Barbara Moskerc, a real estate agent at RE/MAX in Naperville who worked with the Bayses, says the couple are more the rule than the exception. Most of the buyers she works with are people who question her about schools in the area, she says.
”Because Naperville enjoys a fine reputation in schools, it makes it easy for buyers to make their decision,” says Moskerc. ”We`re widely known for having a good school system. I think most people have some idea how well an area is known, or not known, for their schools before they begin looking for a house. Being near a good school remains a high priority for buyers.”
Moskerc says she has seen people who ”absolutely love a house” change their mind because the schools were not what they wanted.
”If the children are not yet school age, the other factor is whether or not there are any children on the block,” says Moskerc. ”It all becomes part of the decision-making process in buying a home.”
Well-studied
That decision-making process was the focal point of a recent study by the National Association of Realtors in Washington, D.C.
Judith Meany, director of business studies at the association, says the survey asked what factors most influenced the home-purchase decision.
Of the 6,000 people surveyed, 662 people responded. While price range and neighborhood were important factors for the largest number of respondents, 53 percent said the strength of the area`s schools was a factor in their decision to buy.
In judging a school`s strength or weakness, though, parents should be sure to look beyond one year of test scores, says Dr. Barbara Radner, director of the Center for Urban Education at De Paul University.
One year of scores is not enough to base a decision on, she says. Radner advises looking at three years of test scores to judge the school`s stability and to see how students` skills increased or decreased over a period of time. ”It`s easy to look at a school`s scores and say `that looks great` for one year, but magical things don`t happen overnight. It`s important to see a trend,” she says.
And, Radner says, homeowners should also be careful not to write off the Chicago public schools.
Recognizing that the stereotype has been that the ”good schools are in the suburbs,” Radner still believes there`s a gold mine of potential in the city-both in the magnet public schools, which draw talented youngsters from across the city, and in some neighborhood schools, which attract talent from just a few blocks away.
To check out a particular school, call the school to make an appointment with the principal or other school administrator.
If you`re looking for a home in Chicago and are unaware of which schools your children would attend, call the Board of Education at 535-HELP to find out which school boundary a prospective house is in.
For city school test scores, call the Board of Education`s research, evaluation and planning division at 535-8080.
