Are you pondering the idea of moving to Bend? Then you need to consider these three things to set your family up for success. If we haven’t met before my name is Amanda Ferrari and I am a Real estate agent, wife, and mother, helping families relocate to Bend.
#1 Location. One thing you can never change about your house is the location. Before moving to Bend, consider what activities your family will spend the most time doing. If you know you will be up to Mt. Bachelor often, SW Bend will give you the quickest access to the mountain. Is your family into mountain biking or trail running? NW Bend is surrounded by miles of trails such as Phil’s trail and Shevlin Park. If you are confident that your kids will be participating in year round soccer, Bend FC Timbers practices and plays their games at Pine Nursery Park which is a 159-acre community park located in the North Eastern corner of Bend.
#2 Schools. The majority of Bend kids go to Public Schools. There are currently 29 public schools in Bend and they serve over 17,000 students! Bend has one of the highest concentrations of top ranked public schools in the state of Oregon. The district's average SAT score is 57 points higher than the state average.
Something that is unique to Bend is that the school district caters to a wide range of students by offering public alternative schools. You can live anywhere in any Bend to attend. Examples of these schools include Amity Creek Magnet school which has a focus on Child initiated learning and Bear Creek Elementary School which offers a Dual immersion Spanish language program. You must apply for these choice schools and acceptance is based on a lottery system. The deadline to submit an application for these magnet schools is March 1st.
#3 School Bus eligibility. This might not seem that important, but it can give you an extra 30 minutes or more a day, and this is something I wish I knew when we bought our house 10 years ago. As parents we are busy enough driving our kids around to their activities. The school bus is often fun for kids, but most importantly, extremely helpful for busy parents. It is important to know that if you live within a certain distance from the school, you will NOT qualify for bus services. This can be tough when the weather outside is frightful or you have a meeting, or an important workout, scheduled right when school starts.
To qualify for bus services, elementary students must live more than 1 mile from their school of residents and and for secondary students, they must live more than 1.5 miles from their school of residences. This is measured from your driveway to the nearest school boundary.
Now that you are familiar with the 3 things you must know before moving your family to Bend, you may also be interested in watching my next video which will teach you the 3 things to know before relocating to Bend, so you won’t have any surprises!