what you are looking for is more a function of neighborhood than school if your kids are at a large public middle or high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here- this is helpful. Community means carpools, kids coming in and out of houses without much adult coordination, dropping off meals when someone is sick, lending stuff out, giving and receiving hand me downs, alley happy hours, etc.

This is much more neighborhood/street dependent than school dependent IMO. I think by middle school this isn’t something really any school would provide.

+100

This type of community is block-by-block. The school doesn’t really factor in. By middle school, kids zoned for Deal/JR are going to tons of different schools across the area.

Anonymous wrote:OP here- this is helpful. Community means carpools, kids coming in and out of houses without much adult coordination, dropping off meals when someone is sick, lending stuff out, giving and receiving hand me downs, alley happy hours, etc.

This is much more neighborhood/street dependent than school dependent IMO. I think by middle school this isn’t something really any school would provide.

Anonymous wrote:OP here- this is helpful. Community means carpools, kids coming in and out of houses without much adult coordination, dropping off meals when someone is sick, lending stuff out, giving and receiving hand me downs, alley happy hours, etc.

There is a lot less of this in middle school and virtually none in high school.

Big ass schools

Anonymous wrote:OP here- this is helpful. Community means carpools, kids coming in and out of houses without much adult coordination, dropping off meals when someone is sick, lending stuff out, giving and receiving hand me downs, alley happy hours, etc.

Ok. Everyone I know who lives in the Deal zone, from AU Park to Mount Pleasant to north Cleveland park, experiences these things. I think you'll be fine.


As the parent of a middle schooler (at a different school), be prepared to be WAY less involved in their schooling, though. They will get themselves to and fro, you won't be chatting with parents every day, they solve their own academic problems, etc. it's been a transition back to myself.

OP here- this is helpful. Community means carpools, kids coming in and out of houses without much adult coordination, dropping off meals when someone is sick, lending stuff out, giving and receiving hand me downs, alley happy hours, etc.

The whole “community feel” thing is weird. Sorry.

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for specifically when you say community feel?

Another factor is that it’s middle school / high school- older kids generally have less parental
Involvement in school.

Agree. To the extent that I experienced community at Deal or JR, it was through activities my kids participated in that needed parental support (e.g. theater, sports). But the schools are big, and parents’ roles in their kids’ school lives are much more limited at these ages.

Anonymous wrote:Our experience moving our daughter to Desl has not been great. Hard to break into friend groups that formed in kindergarten. Also academically the school is not stellar. Was at one of the other suppposedly close knit schools before and also had a terrible experience. It may just be middle school, and girls.

She should join theater. It's a great place for girls to make new friends at Deal. Crew works too I think.

Our experience moving our daughter to Desl has not been great. Hard to break into friend groups that formed in kindergarten. Also academically the school is not stellar. Was at one of the other suppposedly close knit schools before and also had a terrible experience. It may just be middle school, and girls.

My daughter at deal switched friend groups from her elementary friends (whose parents I knew sort of well, but she's a second child so I made my main mom friends with her older sibling) to new friends from other feeder schools. She is welcomed and good friends with these girls, but I am a non entity. The girls' moms have their mom friends from elementary school so when I drop her off at bday parties, moms of other girls are there hanging around and they are nice to me but I won't ever be part of that scene. I don't care though. If you do, know this is the reality.

On the other hand, they are DESPERATE at deal for pto parents, so you likely could make friends that way? But not friends necessarily with your kids' friends parents. Neighbors is also a possibility - with or without kids, with kids of different ages? You'd probably have to get involved in neighborhood volunteer things and again, let go of idea of being friends with your kids' friends parents.

Having had kids in both Deal and Hardy - Hardy seems to have much greater community feel.
Also, Mann is a Hardy feeder, not Deal.

What are you looking for specifically when you say community feel?

Another factor is that it’s middle school / high school- older kids generally have less parental
Involvement in school.

Hill Family here planning to move if we strike out in the lottery. One of my concerns about moving is missing the community feel. I know some Deal/JR feeders have that feeling (Bancroft, Oyster, Mann, Shepherd), but I wonder if it can happen at the MS level with such a large boundary and with my kid not having grown up together with classmates. Thoughts? Any anecdotes or recommendations of where to look for housing in particular? The commute from some of these places seems pretty far for a "neighborhood" school.