Connecting moms in Polk County, Fla.

Moving to Polk County - advice

hello everybody,
There is the possibility of our family moving to Polk Country (Davenport area), I have two small girls (6 and 4), so I'm doing research on what family life in Polk Country area is all about. I am from the South Florida area, so I'm familiar with Florida, but not Polk County.
At the moment we are looking at the Providence area (Davenport), and for schools I was looking at the Davenport School of the Arts.
Any advice, recommendations?
Thanks,
Michelle

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Comment by Shelby614 on February 18, 2011 at 10:30am: I recently moved from Jacksonville fl, and looked at Davenport. My daughter is currently in a performing arts school and I was very taken by Davenport SOTA. After spending quite a bit of time venturing around Davenport, we decided it wasn't active enough for our family. There were no close stores or restaraunts, though the neighborhoods were nice. I have a teenage son as well, so active surroundings are important to us. We toured the school, which is supposed to be relocating but the current school is very old, rusted toilets and sinks, cold, dank environment. The charachter was great, but the transition for my daughter from a modern state of the art school to davenport, didn't work for us. So we applied to Rochelle SOTA and are hoping to make it in there next year.

Comment by NativeLKLDMom on December 22, 2010 at 1:17am: Hi Michelle,

Just some food for thought, because Davenport School of the Arts is a magnet school, you can expect there will be a waiting list sometimes, several years long. So be sure you check out the other schools in the area as your children will likely have to attend the schools your residence is zoned for until their number comes up for the magnet school. This area is called four corners as the four counties meet in the area. You might also want to check the other counties when doing your research. Lake, Orange, Osceola and Polk. I don't have the link but you can find the school's grades online along with their recent FCAT test scores to help in your evaluation.

That is a nice area and is really experiencing a growth boom right now so I expect school boundaries, amenities, public parks, etc will be changing a lot in the coming years.

Good luck!!