Tell me about Ventura County California

In My Humble Opinion
1

Anyone out there from the Ventura County area in California? I was contacted out of the blue by someone who had seen a year old resume of mine while I was unemployed, and one thing led to another. I’ve recently returned from the job interview, and as the days have gone by, it’s starting to look very strongly like I’m going to get an offer. The recruiter has been in contact with me to let me know it might not be a bad idea to start investing in moving boxes. :stuck_out_tongue:

Depending on how strong the offer is, my family has decided to make the leap from the midwest to the banks of sunny California. We have some concerns though, and I’m hoping there are some fellow dopers out there who live in or know about the area. We have a 12 year old boy who will be in 7th grade during the time of the move, and our biggest concern at the moment is the school systems.

So, if you know about Ventura county, please speak up! I’m interested in your opinions on the following topics:

  1. Best cities to live in - the job is in Thousand Oaks, but from the exploring I did, most of the cities in Ventura county are close enough to commute to and from without issue. Is one area better than another to live in?

  2. Public school systems - Again, is one better than the other? The school district is one of our primary deciding factors on where we’d end up living. I tried navigating the Ventura County school district web sites, and it was a nightmare to find any good information that would help me make decisions on locations.

  3. Public transportation/school transportation - I didn’t notice any bus routes during my time there, but I had limited availablility and knowledge to really look into this without getting myself thoroughly lost. :slight_smile: Does the school system offer transportation of students, or do they have to use public transportation, if there even is any? Where I live currently, the smaller towns have bus systems to transport students to and from school, but the metro areas (Madison) has the kids on public busses to most of the major middle and high schools.

  4. Anything else that you think a Wisconsin girl aught to know about Ventura county!

Thanks in advance.

2

Several Dopers have asked that question. See here for more details. Good luck!

3

Thank you. :slight_smile: that had a lot of good information in it. Bad on me for typoing my search prior to posting. :slight_smile:

But I still didn’t seem much about the elementary and middle schools, which is our biggest concern. If anyone has any information in that regard, I’d appreciate it!

Just got a call from the recruiter, and the tenative unoffical offer numbers are numbers I can deal with. It’s looking more and more like a move is inevitable.

4

Search for “Ventura” and “Thousand Oaks.” There are several threads, and I think one of them talked about schools. It really depends on the neighborhood, of course. There is quite the gamut in Ventura County.