[Fumblerooskies]

Sly started something good. Let's expand it...because school choice is an important consideration in where to live. Within a 30 min drive to LU, you have several public school districts.
1. Heritage (AA)
2. EC Glass (AAA, barely)
3. Brookville (AA)
4. Jefferson Forest (AA and growing)
5. Liberty (Bedford, AA))
6. Staunton River (AA, Bedford Co...school is about 40 mins away)
7. Altavista (A)
8. William Campbell (A)
9. Appomattox (AA, will move to A next year)
10. Rustburg (small AA)
11. Amherst (large AA)

Thus, the purpose of this discussion is for people in the know, who either teach or have taught in those districts, or have children attending those schools, to offer input.

[SuperJon]

Hey Prof. Rooskie,

You mind putting enrollments on there? I don't mean exact numbers, but A, AA, or AAA just to give us an idea of how big they are?

[LUconn]

I think my kid will being go to Rustburg as far as I can tell, if I can't save up the green for LCA. Is this good or bad? I wasn't too keen on it, when it firt occurred to me, but I don't really know.

What I do think I know:

EC Glass is where it's at for the theatre.
Herritage is seems to specialize in sience/tech stuff
JF seems to have a pretty loyal following in football


That's all I got.

[Fumblerooskies]

Heritage
AA school for sports. Solid all-around athletic program. Building built in late 70's...not a really functional design. Not over-crowded at all.

Student population pretty much in the middle of the socio-economic spectrum.

With the SOL's in Virginia, you theoretically should get the same thing in most of the public schools. I was very pleased with the education my son got. We never felt he was un-safe at all there, either.

With Lynchburg City schools, if one of the schools (HHS or ECG) offers a specialty course, the students can get a bus from one to the other, if interested. Also available is the dual enrollment option, where you can take college-level courses through CVCC, that are taught at the high schools. My son transferred 14 hours into LC.

Two middle schools feed Heritage: Sandusky and Dunbar (the artsy magnet school located off of 12th street, downtown, where half go to HHS and half to ECG). Sandusky is old and the city hopes to either renovate or build a new MS to replace it. Dunbar, in addition to being a magnet school, also has district boundries encompassing HHS and ECG...so that certainly is a consideration in where to live (the area around the N&A, New Towne, etc is Dunbar and ECG).

[Libertine]

The JF's (there's a middle school there, too) are far and away the best public schools in Bedford County, mostly b/c that's where most of the tax base is. Liberty HS isn't horrible but the rest of the district is just horrendous, particularly at the elementary level.

[ATrain]

I remember competing against Dunbar in Odyssey of the Mind competitions way back in the day (I went to Appomattox County then) and they were always tough but we managed to beat them somehow to get to states.

Anyway, regarding Heritage's design, I heard from people who went and go there that it was supposed to be solar powered but someone built it backwards? Is that true?

[Libertine]

Anyway, regarding Heritage's design, I heard from people who went and go there that it was supposed to be solar powered but someone built it backwards? Is that true?

I've heard that story, too, but I don't think it's legitimate. Reportedly, there were supposed to be solar panels on the roof of the upper lever there and, to the naked eye, the design seems to bear that out. But, the building was not built backward. If you think about it, it couldn't be. I've heard that the solar plates would be at the wrong angle to the sun but that doesn't make any sense either b/c the sun is in different parts of the sky from month to month and it's nearly always overhead anyway. I think the truth is that installing the solar panels and keeping them maintained was less cost-effective for the school board than not putting them in the first place.

However, if you stand down in the student parking lot and look back toward the high school, the whole structure bears an odd resemblance to a typewriter.

[Fumblerooskies]

Recent N&A articles about Heritage.

An intitial feature:
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... 3350995042

and a decent follow-up:
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... 3351047121

[Purple Haize]

As a person who is WELL acquainted with a person who is WELL acquainted with the local schools:
1. EC Glass is your best academic school. However, while it has the "Best of the Best" it also has more than its share of "Not so bests"
2. Heritage is a great school and "above average" while they do not have the academic reptuation that Glass has, they have a VERY solid student body, very good athletic teams and since most of the downtown administrators send their kids there...........
3. JF, and Brookville are about the same. GREAT rivalry.
4. As for Private Schools I would rank VES and Holy Cross as the best two. LCA and TCS are about the same, although LCA obviously has more access to facilities etc. (Although the TCS gym isn't too shabby)
5. For you outlying schools they are all pretty good.