The Florida Department of Education released their School Grades for 2013.
You can follow the link below to view all of their listings and historical information for all Florida schools.
http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org/
Mark.
Category Archives: City Information
New Service To Help You Find a New Church
There’s a new service online that will help you find a new church when moving to a new area, including Central Florida.
FaithStreet will use the info you provide to help youy locate a church that bests fits your need.
Getting To Know – Winter Park
For this entry in our ‘Getting to Know’ series on the places you can look at moving to in Florida, we have information on Winter Park from Beatrice Feeney. We are very happy to have Bea’s information on this area of Central Florida.
We live in Winter Park. I believe it is the PERFECT neighborhood for us, but not for everyone. For us, we needed a nice neighborhood close to work. My hubby & I have had good experiences finding jobs in the Altamonte Springs area, north Orlando area – and that has been very convenient to home. Our area on the Lynx Bus System that services the Orlando area – I don’t know the schedules or how things are done, but for someone who needs transportation, that could be very useful.
I must warn people who move here to be closer to Disney that if you live on the north side of Orlando, you either have to deal with TRAFFIC on I-4 or Toll Roads. We have tried both. I can get from home to EPCOT (22 miles) in 45 minutes or sometimes it takes an hour and a half to get into the parks because you go 16 mph on the highway for 15 miles.
If you want to move to a great community with a lot of FUN activities around your HOME then Winter Park truly is a GREAT place! There are always activities for holidays in Central Park – free music, free outdoor movie to relax in the park with neighbors and friends. We’ve been to free events for Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, 4th of July, Christmas Parade…it truly is a wonderful town to call home.
I also want to share that we don’t have kids, but have heard that around our area in Winter Park and Maitland there are good schools – I’m sorry that I can’t help too much more in that area. (Mark’s note: School info has been added below.)
Our Realtor has been amazing with questions as we were new to the area and he was one of the FIRST non-Disney Florida friends. He continues to keep in touch and helps us anytime we ask, as he has lived here all his life. That sort of trust in a Realtor is something that I have never found with anyone else. He helped us find both the house & neighborhood that was perfect for us. Just remember, if you want to be able to go to Disney every day after work, this may be a bit too far but it’s not too far to go weekly.
I hope some of this information is helpful to you – but if I can give you other information or help in any way, just let me know & I will be happy to help!
You can reach out to Bea via Facebook: www.facebook.com/beatrice.feeney. Bea also authors a great blog you should all check out at adisneygirlinorlando.blogspot.com.
Some Places of Interest in Winter Park
The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, which houses the largest collection of Tiffany glass.
For more information on Winter Park, please visit the links below.
http://cityofwinterpark.org/Pages/Government.aspx (City of Winter Park)
http://www.wppl.org/ (Winter Park Library)
http://www.communityexplore.com/winterparkfl/ (Explore Winter Park)
http://www.wphistory.org/ (Winter Park Historical Association)
http://www.winterpark.org/ (Chamber of Commerce)
Winter Park Area School Info
2012 Public School Grades
School Types: 1 = elementary; 2 = middle; 3 = high; 4 = combination
| School Name | 2012 Points | Scale | Grade – 2012 | School Type |
| LAKEMONT ELEMENTARY | 593 | 800 | A | 01 |
| GLENRIDGE MIDDLE | 641 | 900 | A | 02 |
| BROOKSHIRE ELEMENTARY | 641 | 800 | A | 01 |
| ALOMA ELEMENTARY | 559 | 800 | A | 01 |
| WINTER PARK HIGH | 1244 | 1600 | A | 03 |
| LAKE HOWELL HIGH SCHOOL | 1120 | 1600 | A | 03 |
https://www.ocps.net (Orange County Schools)
https://www.ocps.net/Students/Pages/SchoolDirectory.aspx (Orange County School Directory)
https://www.ocps.net/Parents/Pages/FindaSchool.aspx (Orange County Schools – Find a School)
Winter Park Private Schools:
Getting To Know – The Orlando Area
For this installment of ‘Getting To Know’, we have information from our friend Cheryl Perlmutter. We are thrilled to have Cheryl’s thoughts on the Orlando areas that she and Todd have lived in. You can learn more about Cheryl at http://about.me/cherylp3.
2007 – Waterford Lakes in East Orlando
While the shopping and dining is great in this area because you are close to the college. The area has had theft issues, breaking into cars.
2009 – Winter Springs – Rented a house
Lesson learned. Make sure you see your security into a bank or use a management company. After 1 year – one day the landlord came and said stop paying me rent and I haven’t been paying my mortgage for the past few months. I never saw my money back.
I had realtors knocking on my door.
I had some great neighbors though, we lived on a road lined with trees and my neighbor would blow the leaves on the street all the time.
2010-2012 Winter Springs – Apartment
I picked the place I lived because it accepted my breed of dog I had at the time. Apartment was growing mold and had large AC bills.
2012- Present Davenport by the Omni – renting condo using management – http://www.statemanagement.us
Although Todd works in Lake Mary we moved to be closer to our friends and Disney. I enjoy living here also close to 429.
We have some full time neighbors and some tourists.
It is mostly quiet here.
There are both small and large synagogues in the Orlando area.
The local Jewish newspaper is the Heritage, http://www.heritagefl.com
For women, we have a few active Hadassah groups in the area.
There is a Kosher hotel by Disney.
Traffic in Orlando stinks. You never know how I-4 is going to be.
Shopping is great I enjoy both Winter Garden and Millennia Mall equally.
It’s nice to have Ikea.
Getting To Know – Clermont
To kick off our new ‘Getting To Know’ series on the places you can look at moving to in Florida, today we have information from Greg Pabst. Greg and his family moved to Clermont in 2012 and I am glad to have his extra take on Clermont to add to what Jen and I can provide.
I thought I would share reasons why we picked Clermont since you already know everything else about the Clermont area. Orlando is very spread out and not compacted. It was important for us to find an area that would be as centrally located to potential work locations as well as Disney. Also our proximity to shopping, dining and area conveniences was important too. We don’t like living in the sticks, but we don’t like to be in the city either. Clermont offered this to us. Initially we were looking at Winter Garden, since it was closer to Disney but the housing cost more there and yards were very small with you practically looking into your neighbor’s window out your own. For the same price as Winter Garden we got a much larger house with nice extras like granite counter tops and large tile floors. Clermont did push my comfort factor regarding how far we were from Downtown etc, as a lot of tech and office jobs are in that vicinity or north of there (Maitland and Altamonte Springs etc). But, in the end it was worth the extra drive for the deal we got in Clermont. Since we are in southern Clermont (proper), near Hammock Ridge and 27, Disney is about 30 mins drive for us. We also heard of the growth that Clermont has recently undergone. We like areas that are growing and new. I was impressed by the road infrastructure improvements. I can’t wait to see new things popping up (ie. Like the new Hobby Lobby). Schools and crime rates were important to us as well. Clermont is much safer than other areas in Orlando. We were a little scared of the schools in Clermont as they aren’t as good as Winter Garden, but we have been happy so far with Pine Ridge Elementary. If you have any specific questions for me, I’d be happy to help out more.
You can reach out to Greg via Facebook: www.facebook.com/gregpabst. Greg also runs a great website for all of us Disney addicts to help us find each other; www.DISaddicts.com.
For more information on Clermont, please visit the links below.
http://clermont.govoffice.com/
http://www.clermontflorida.com/
http://www.city-data.com/city/Clermont-Florida.html
http://www.clermontdowntownpartnership.com/
http://www.southlakechamber-fl.com/home/
Clermont Area School Info
http://lake.k12.fl.us/lakeschools/site/default.asp (Lake County School District)
http://lake.k12.fl.us/Page/1542 (School Directory)
http://lake.k12.fl.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=272 (School Zone Address Look-up)
2012 School Grades
School Types: 1 = elementary; 2 = middle; 3 = high; 4 = combination
| School Name | 2012 Points | Scale | Grade 2012 | School Type |
| CLERMONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 495 | 800 | B | 01 |
| SAWGRASS BAY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 525 | 800 | A | 01 |
| EAST RIDGE MIDDLE SCHOOL | 635 | 900 | A | 02 |
| MINNEOLA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 512 | 800 | B | 01 |
| LOST LAKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 576 | 800 | A | 01 |
| CLERMONT MIDDLE SCHOOL | 600 | 900 | A | 02 |
| WINDY HILL MIDDLE SCHOOL | 573 | 900 | B | 02 |
| PINE RIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 533 | 800 | A | 01 |
| CYPRESS RIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 634 | 800 | A | 01 |
| SOUTH LAKE HIGH SCHOOL | 998 | 1600 | B | 03 |
| EAST RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL | 1075 | 1600 | A | 03 |
| LAKE MINNEOLA HIGH SCHOOL | 552 | 800 | A | 03 |
| IMAGINE SCHOOLS AT SOUTH LAKE | 606 | 900 | A | 04 |
Wishes And Pixie Dust 