So Jan 07--I will be in Great Lakes. Dh will be a RDC. I am getting excited but also scared. Any help would be helpful---ie I have three children who will be going to school there. Also My oldest dd does cheer and wants to know of a great gym. I don't know if we are living in housing or not--we are trying to find the best options for that.

Thank you very much!!!!

good luck with the move
we tried our hardest to not go there :giggle
But now being here it couldn't be much worse lol

I know we really didn't want to go there either--but nothing else out there--we are trying to get our boys out of this area (bad for Asthmatics) cross our fingers Chicago--helps them

Congrats on the orders!!! John just graduated from RDC school June 15. We live in town. There is plenty of housing available and being an RDC you get put on the top of the list. But, I don't like the schools that are availbale for housing. The only one I like is the one that comes with the housing in Glenview. But all the housing there is 2 bedrooms and it is a good distance away from base. We live in Lake Villa right out side of Gurnee so Breanna will go to Woodland school district 50. We are looking for another house though cause we don't like this house. We are looking at paying 1300-1500 for rent. Probably 1500. John is an E-6 so we get 1527 up here. If we can't stay in this school district these are the schools I would put Breanna in:

Libertyville-All schools
Hainesville-All schools
Grayslake-All schools
Round Lake/Round Lake Beach-Only Avon Elementary
Vernon Hills-All schools
Mundelein-All schools

I'm still researching other areas but at the moment those are the only schools. Kenosha and Pleasant Prairie, Wi. have some good schools, too, but it takes a bit to get there and being an RDC your hubby's hours will be really long alot of times.

Breanna takes ballet and the place she goes to also has gymnastics, tramp and tumble, and cheerleading. She goes to Ultimate Gymnastics and Dance. I'm not sure what it costs for their other classes but for Breanna's ballet class it cost $155 for 10 weeks.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

We have been here 4 years. It's not the best duty station we have had but he got chief out of it like he wanted. We live in housing. My main piece of advice is DO NOT let your kids attend school in Great Lakes or North Chicago. I have had nothing but major problems with the district and school this year. I had to hire a lawyer. I am not the only parent who feels that way. All schools is this district are bad. The areas in the above post are good. I also have alot of friends who rent in Wisconsin and love it. It's not a long commute and the have good schools. We are moving in Aug sometime to Va. If for some reason we can't move until after school starts I have got a permissive transfer for my kids to go someplace else but it's still in the district. My goal is to get out before school starts. Other than that I have had no major issues with living here. Good Luck!

yay!!! can't wait till you get here :woohoo

I like this area. The housing will be all new soon. They have been burning some of the old houses down this weekend. (fireman training maybe?) I really really liked my sons school (A.J. Katzenmeier) and his teacher. I had heard the schools were bad here but not my sons school. I've found a lot to do here and have really been enjoying our time. Johns hates the command here. He hates having so many different people telling him what to do. I hope you find it enjoyable to live here.

Thank you so much. I really am trying to be happy about this move. I can't wait to get to meet all of you.

Hey Rhonda you can be happy cause it isn't Corpus :roflmao

It is a great thing he got RDC because if he went to TSC, I'd do everything in your power to get orders changed. Alot of people move to Fort Sheridan which depending on what way you go is only 6-10 miles from the base one way. They won't move you into housing here though because they have closed the list off due to demolition. They have good schools down here as long as you don't have kids in Kindergarten (they only go 2 1/2 hours a day).

Hey Rhonda you can be happy cause it isn't Corpus :roflmao
SO are you saying you hate your locatation LOL!!!!! I have never been done to Corpus, we have been to Lackland AFB and the areas there. I went to Sheppard AFB for A school and hate it there. :lol

Lackland isn't that bad lol at least there are things to do :yes
When I visited Chicago I didn't mind it but I didn't "live" there.
all of the places we have been stationed I wouldn't mind visiting but living other than SD is a different story :teehee
So yeah don't ever choose Corpus :roflmao

We bought a house and lived in Zion when we were there. It's a nice community just a bit north of the base. We would have loved to have been in Gurnee or Libertyville (or Lake Forest) but we couldn't afford to buy in any of those areas at the time.

I have been researching all morning:nutts --URGHHH :hairout :hairout part I hate about moving--But we are going to not be there until next May--since I am moving to NE first. I also need to know about college-I need to cont. using my GI BIll and one last thing--cars and registing them. Thank you again;) :wink

Lackland isn't that bad lol at least there are things to do :yes
When I visited Chicago I didn't mind it but I didn't "live" there.
all of the places we have been stationed I wouldn't mind visiting but living other than SD is a different story :teehee
So yeah don't ever choose Corpus :roflmao

Were are you moving to next or did you just get to Corpus.

Congrats on the orders. If you have any question feel free to PM me :) We live in Forrestal. But I do know ALOT of people who buy houses offbase and make $ that way.

http://www.greatschools.net (http://www.greatschools.net)

I love this site for looking at schools. This is where I get my info. You can use Gurnee, Grayslake, Waukegan (I wouldn't use Waukegan schools though), etc. to get an idea of the schools up here.

Also if you go the Family Support site it shows you the housing up here and what schools there are for the housing. Again, I wouldn't send my kids there but that is just me. I'm sure there are people that like the schools.

You could also look into the Charter schools up here. The Charter schools will come up with the other schools on the site I gave you.

You should be able to look up colleges, too. I'll look into that for you and if you can't then I'll see about some site for colleges for you.

http://www.univsource.com/il.htm

Here's a website that has some colleges. Some are pretty far away but it gives you an idea of what is up here.

For housing you can try rent.com. I look at this site alot. I put in Gurnee, Graylake, Mundelein, Palatine, Round Lake Beach, etc. I'm not sure how far away from base you want to live.

You could also try http://www.seniorhousingnet.com/seniors/ (http://www.seniorhousingnet.com/seniors/) I know it says seniors but there is a thing up top that says apartments and rentals. It is a good page so we have it on our favs. page.

Oh, I don't know if you get your kids into alot of activites but I take Breanna to the Lindenhurst Park District. They have alot of class for kids to take. They may have cheer, too.

I can't warn you enough. Beware of the schools. My kids went to South. I do agree AJK is one of the better ones. I know alot of people who also live in Zion and love it.

Congrats and good luck! You will do great! :yes Is this the first choice for orders?

Congrats and good luck! You will do great! :yes Is this the first choice for orders?


no this was a career helper and a way for us to get out of here. We first tried for orders back to Va, we had medical notes, efm and all that stuff. So we decided to go to Chicago. :goodvibes

I can say it a great career move. It helped us alot.

That is so cool!!!!!! I will be there on July 18th. How exciting.

congrats & good luck!

I would have to agree with Traci. It is a great carrer move. I know that, that it was the major apeal for us. That and the management of our last housing area is the management here. The only really bad thing that I have heard about this place is the schools. I don't have kids so I am not sure on the details of what is wrong but if you have children I would possibly post a thread aobut the schools.