Valpo, in schools (are awesome!)

Are you thinking about making a move to Valpo, and you’re curious about our schools? You’ve heard they're good...but what do we mean by that? And which ones are the best?

In this blog I’m going to break down the different school corporations, where they’re located, and how they rank. And if you do not have school-aged kids, don’t leave me just yet! You’ll want to stick around to the end when I share why this matters for EVERYONE and not just those with young kids at home.

Alright, first things first, Valparaiso actually has 5 different school corporations with a Valpo address. So when you’re searching for a new home online, you’ll want to pay attention to what school district it falls into. The awesome news is that all 5 of them are awesome! In Indiana, we rank schools A-F, just like a typical grading system. All 5 of these schools are rated A by the state, and additionally, they all meet the federal guidelines as well. You can’t go wrong with any of them!

That being said, they do all individually offer something different and unique. This is mostly due to their size, which varies pretty greatly. In terms of size as it compares to sports, the Indiana High School Athletic Association or IHSAA ranks not only the individual school, but also the individual sport, 1A- 6A, with 6A being the biggest athletic conferences and 1A being the smallest.

Let’s start at the smallest schools and work our way to the largest…

Morgan township & washington township

Morgan Township & Washington Township are both a part of the East Porter County School Corporation, along with Kouts which is a town south of Valpo. The name of the corporation gives away the location, and these are both on the east and southeast side of Valpo. These are our smallest schools in town, each having about 60 kids per class or 240 kids in the total high school. As you can imagine, teacher to student ratio is pretty low offering a somewhat private school experience for public school prices (free!). In terms of athletics, these are both pretty much 1A across all sports

boone grove & wheeler (union township)

Next up we have Boone Grove, located on the south side of Valpo, and Wheeler–on the west side of town. Both of these schools are similar in size teacher to student ratio. They both have around 125-150 students per grade, or about 500-600 students in the high school. Boone Grove is a 2A for sports, and Wheeler is a 2A or 3A depending on the specific sport.

Finally, we get to the biggest school corporation...

Valparaiso school corporation

Each individual grade has a little more than 500 kids in in, or just over 2,000 kids in the total school. In terms of athletics, Valpo actually varies pretty greatly with some sports being 3A, others 4A, and the Football team being a 5A program.

elementary & middle schools

Not to confuse you even more, but all of the other corporations that I mentioned previously have 1 singular elementary school and 1 middle school that feed into the high school. The Valparaiso School Corporation is more spread out across the city, plus there are so many more kids. So, we have 9 elementary schools and 2 middle schools (Thomas Jefferson & Benjamin Franklin) that eventually feed into the High School.

Again, each of these elementary schools offers something different and unique, so you’ll want to do some personal research to figure out which one is best for you. Knowing that they’re all really wonderful, the neighborhood that you desire will likely play a part in what school your kids end up in.

And finally, the reason why our Awesome schools matter to EVERYONE…

why the (awesome) schools matter to everyone...

School performance and rankings directly impact home values. Since our schools are so awesome, our home values have shot through the roof and we are outpacing the average national increases throughout the country! So, even if you do not have kids attending Valpo schools, the school’s performance has a direct tie to your equity (your money, honey!). It’s one of the key indicators of a thriving community, and Valpo is definitely thriving!!!!

Now that you’re on the move in Valpo, you may be thinking about getting your home prepped, listed, and sold. Watch out for next month’s blog & video series where I’ll walk you through my top tips on getting your home ready to sell!

If you have questions on buying or selling in Northwest Indiana or Valparaiso specifically, don’t hesitate to reach out!