New to Area, Looking for Input...

Welcome to the area! Jon Cabot is the best pediatric dentist. He's on Middlebelt at 14 Mile in West Bloomfield. ###-###-####.

E.,
I can't help with the schools or dentist, but I love my church and would recommend it! I attend Clarkston Free Methodist Church (5482 Winell, Clarkston). It is much smaller than Saddleback, but is warm and inviting. Our services are 9 & 10:30 Sunday mornings. As for a great group of women, The Mom Squad meets at the church on Tuesday mornings from 9:30-11:15. I love the group and get the encouragement I need to be a better wife and mom!

Welcome to the area!
A.

Rochester Schools Rock! I have lived in Rochester all my life and I love it. Very cute downtown, wonderful schools with excellent teachers, lots for kids to do and friendly place to live. Close to may things in the surrounding areas. Not sure about the church you attended in CA, but Kensington is fabulous! There is a main campus in Troy and a satelite one in Rochester at Adams High School. I am very partial to Rochester since I grew up here, but I don't think you can find much better. :) Good Luck!

Rochester is a nice area to live in but it has a higher cost of living than some of the surrounding areas. (I used to be a real estate office coordinator.) I currently live in Oxford and have also lived in Lake Orion. They are only a short distance to Auburn Hills. The Lake Orion school district is a great place for kids to attend. I have three special needs boys and they are accelling. Lake Orion schools are nationally accredited "schools to watch" which means school districts from around the country come here to learn how to make their school more productive and get after school involvenet on the rise. Orion Family Dentistry is a great place for the kids, too. Kimberly A. Thomas is the dentist located at 3226 Hidden Timber, Suite D, Orion Township, 48359. If you're looking for a larger church with many groups and programs you can try Christ The King Church on Drahner in Oxford. They have a larger congregation with lots going on all the time. If you need a realtor to help you find a home to buy or lease let me know and I can hook you up with my landlord that is a great realtor, too.

Hope this helps - S.

Hi E.
Welcome back to Michigan, Im in Hartland so not far from you now. Rochester Hills is a nice area, up and coming not sure how the schools are, my kids have went to Hartland, where I went as well. But as far as a good non-dem. church, I hear several good things about the Cornerstone Church on Clyde Rd. pretty close to you. And I even hear they have busing and come pickup your kids to take to bible study.
Good Luck!

Welcome to Michigan, My three kids go to Dr. Mark Thomas, he goes by Dr. Mark. He is at M15 and I75 (pretty close to you)
He is great with the kids even my 14 year old daughter likes him. There are about 4 doctors out of their office, we like them all. Their number is ###-###-####
I live in Lake Orion which has great schools, I have also lived in the Rochester which I like very much, and I believe they have a great school system.
My sister has gotten me to go to her church Kensington, I really like it, I know they have a Sunday service at Rochester Adams high school. It is a very popular church in the area. It's popular with young, old and even the teens.
Good luck with your search for your new life.

Welcome back to Michigan! Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with Rochester schools, but I see you were born in Novi, and Novi has an awesome school system. Many people do live here and commute to Auburn Hills for work (my hubby has!). There are several great contemporary-service churches in the area as well. But as far as checking out school systems, try using this website:

http://www.schoolmatters.com/

It's MUCH better than GreatSchools.com which appears to rely on people's feedback as opposed to "just the facts, ma'am."

Good luck!

E.:
i go to kensington community church. if you like rick warren, you will love it. the main campus in in troy, on square lake and john r roads and there are campuses in birmingham, rochester hills, and clinton township. good luck with everything. i work in rochester hills. the school system is very good. good luck with everything.

Hi E.!
Welcome back to Michigan!

I live in Waterford, right on the border of White Lake. I've grown up here my entire life. I'm married (15 yrs) and we have 3 boys. My oldest is in Middle school (6th grade) and then we have twin boys who are 2 yrs old. My DH also travels a lot for work. Where is your husband working in Auburn Hills?

Huron Valley Schools - I can't say that much about because I don't have kids attending them. I have friends with kids in the H.S. (Walled Lake Northern) and Middle School there in White Lake. I have not heard bad things about the schools in Huron Valley, Walled Lake, or Rochester Hills. Traditionally, Rochester Hills was a much more expensive area to live in - housing there for a 4 bedroom house would run you in the $350k range or better. Taxes are higher for property taxes. With the housing market what it is now, I would think you could get a decent price on a house, but keep in mind that your property taxes will still be higher. Have you checked into Clarkston? Clarkston is also a nice area, good schools, and an easy commute down I-75 to Auburn Hills. Although I'm partial to Waterford and the sub we live in. We love it here.

Even though we live in Waterford, we sent our oldest to a Catholic school for kindergarten and then changed to our local public elementary school, so I did a lot of research back then. Here are some of the things I checked into:

Basically, all Michigan schools have to teach a basic core curriculum each grade. You should be able to find the curriculum at the library for each grade for the school district you are researching.

You can also find the MEAP scores online at the school district's web sites and should also be able to find it somewhere on the State of MI Education site.

Find out the staff to student ratio in the grades of your children in the school districts you are comparing. Rochester Schools in the past have always been very full and I have heard parents complain that the school (esp. H.S.) is over- crowded.

Find out if the district has "school of choice" and/or "school selection".

For High Schoolers, find out if there are classes offered at one H.S. vs. another and if your child wanted to take a class that wasn't offered at their own H.S., could they be bussed to the other school for the class?

I would check into what the last millage was that was proposed, what was it for, and did it pass? Are there any upcoming millages? My husband and I always vote in favor of our school millages to make our schools better - I wouldn't want to live in an area that wasn't passing school millages when they are needed and make sense.

What additional programs do they have at the elementary level and middle school level? For example, our elementary schools have a program called 'readers and leaders' to help kids in 1st grade on up who need extra help with learning to read. In Middle school, we have several groups that are after-school study groups where the kids can stay after school with teachers for extra help with homework, etc. and then be bussed to certain locations close to their homes.

Find out what the average teacher salary is, the average length of time that a teacher teaches with the district, and how many of the teachers have advanced degrees (Master Degrees, etc.) If you can't get this info from the school district web site, you should be able to call the HR dept. of the school district and get these questions answered.

As for Churches....my DH has been to Saddleback in CA when he was there for business a few times. We attend a church in Northville, MI called Northridge Church. The web site is www.northridgechurch.com They are a non demoniational church and follow a similar format to Saddleback. It is about a 30 min. drive for us, but we really like the church. One of the pastors there actually worked for either John Maxwell or Rick Warren (I forget)--- he is a guest pastor for us. Anyway, they have 4 services, 2 on Saturdays and 2 on Sundays. We usually go on Sat. evening as it's a little less crowded. Let me know if you would like to go and we'll meet you there and show you around. :-) They have great programs for the kids too.

Pediatric Dentist - We've not had to use one (yet), but all my friends in my twins mom club highly recommend a pediatric dentist that is in Commerce on Haggerty Rd at Pontiac Trail. Dr. Golnick is his name. You can also do a search at http://www.aapd.org/finddentist/search.asp

Hope this helps. Feel free to email me --- I'm an avid scrapbooker and I love to make new friends. :-)

K.
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Hi, I moved to Auburn Hills last year, and I think the area is great. I think Rochester Hills is better than A.H., but our house happens to be there. Would you be in Rochester Schools, or Avondale Schools? Both seem to be good schools. I have been happy with Avondale so far for my kids, 6th, 3rd, and 1st grade. As far as churches go, we attend Rochester Hills Baptist. It is quite conservative, a little more than I was used to, but I like it so far. Hope this helps.
J.

E.,

The best way for your girls to be able to handle middle-school is to be involved in a really good youth group. Our church just happens to have a wonderful childrens and youth program. We have Starting Line (4th and 5th grades), Crossroads (6th - 8th) and Impact (9th - 12th). Our Children's Ministry program begins at age 4 and goes through the 5th grade. My husband and I have been attending for 8 years and our kids love it, which was a big attraction for us. I have three children who are in 7th, 4th and 2nd grades. The first two are boys.

We are a really good mix of contemporary with a splash of traditional every now and then. While we were looking for a church we decided to try ours on October 1st, 2000 and we just never left. My husband and I have been involved with Children's Ministry and have taught for over 6 years.

So please feel free to give Grace Church of White Lake a try. It use to be Grace Countryside but we just recently changed the name. It is located on the corner of Bogie Lake Road and M-59. Though you are looking to move, until you do, please bring your family and come and check us out.

We have two services which meet at 9:45am and 11:15am on Sundays. The youth groups from Starting Line through the Impact meet during the 11:15 service only. We have small groups that meet during the week that are an excellent way to meet people in our church.

We would love to have you and hope to see you on Sunday. Tom Lewellen is the senior pastor and started the church about 25 years ago. We also have a campus in Commerce Township and Waterford. We have a unique experience as we are one church in three locations.

Just ask for Rick or M. Marshall and we would be happy to show you around.

M. M

Lake Orion would be a quick commute to Auburn Hills. My sister lives there and loves it and I never hear her complain about the school district.

E.,

I grew up in Rochester Hills and currently live in Lake Orion. Both are wonderful areas, and although my kids are not in the school district yet, my neighbors seem to really like the LO district. As far as churches go, we attend Kensington (non-denominational)in Rochester Hills and they are also starting a Lake Orion campus in January which will meet at Lake Orion High School.

Welcome to the area! I'm sure your kids will do great wherever they end up!

E. I could recommend our family dentist, Dr. Jill Seguin. She is out of Milford. She does the entire family and has been treating my kids since they were little (I have 4 of them 16,15,10 and 10). She is very good with children who aren't crazy about the dentist as my niece even likes her (she is 15, they switched a couple of years ago). Dr. Seguin does have headphones, ipods to wear while being treated. She does follow up calls to make sure things are going ok after treatments like exstractions and major fillings.
We go to the Highland United Methodist Church in Highland and they do a fairly contemporary church service with their own band.
If you really prefer non-denominational there is Cornerstone Church on the corner of Clyde and Hickory Ridge. They are a growing church and do a great kids bible study on Wed. My twins have been going to this with a school friend for about a month and they love it.
Can't help with the Rochester comparison at all.
I grew up out here in Highland and my husband out in Milford. My kids have attended or attending all levels of school in the district. We have been happy with the elementary (the twins' school), the middle school (both older girls past) and both high schools (yes I said both, one is in a special ed program at Lakeland). Luckily we haven't had an issue with bullies with our kids.
I know that a friend moved from Waterford because the schools out there wheren't what they were looking for for their children.
Hope this helps.