Not to be outdone by Normandy, Riverview Gardens picks Mehlville!


Last night the Riverview Gardens School District gathered to select which district it would provide paid transportation for its outgoing transfer students, and it selected Mehlville down in South St. Louis County. It may also be about 20 miles away from the district (like Francis Howell is from Normandy), but Mehlville wins the "lower cost" battle since its average cost per student there was only $8,356 per student compared to $9,830 in Francis Howell. So Riverview Gardens saved $1,500 per student in annual cost per transported student over Normandy. Of course, parents would first have to actually volunteer to send their children down there to Mehlville, and the bus trip down there will be even worse than the trip to Francis Howell. There is no direct highway route from Riverview Gardens to Mehlville unless you loop all the way around highway 270. That is pretty insane.


The other interesting numbers I saw in the stltoday.com article were the numbers of transfer inquiries made for some of the other districts: 318 for Hazelwood, 232 for Clayton, 214 for Ferguson-Florissant, and 69 for Ladue. So no matter what happens, I believe my son will not have to worry about his high school (Ladue Horton Watkins) being overcrowded with a large influx of transfer students. The most problematic district of the ones listed is, of course, Clayton, which is the smallest one where 232 students would represent almost 10% of their 2,500 students. The 318 in Hazelwood would only be 1.8% of their 18,000 students, the 214 at Ferg-Flor is only 1.9% of their 11,500, and the 69 at Ladue is only 1.7% of our 4,000 total students. Luckily any of the students attending any of the "non-selected" districts will have to be transported there by themselves or their parents, so these are likely to be the more affluent, more educationally dedicated households, so I bet they are among the best students who will transfer. This whole deal may make the home prices in these unaccredited districts increase, if you can purchase an inexpensive home there and then drive your children to one of the better school districts at your local district's expense. Even though the property tax rates in Normandy and Riverview Gardens are pretty high, the property values are low so anyone buying there would be getting a steal in terms of paying for schools. For example, you could purchase this nice looking 4BR home in Pasadena Hills for only about $200,000 and then drive your children down I-170 to Clayton or Ladue schools:

The annual taxes are $4,594 for that home but that is nothing compared to the taxes on most homes in the Clayton or Ladue districts (which cost a ton more.) Maybe we will move there, and my son can just remain at the same high school and drive himself (I can purchase him several cars for the cost savings between the homes!). A bigger home for less money, same good schools, still pretty decent location - that could work out for some folks!

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