I don't know where you moved from so I don't know what you expect from Arden. We moved from a much bigger city, so the choices you have in Arden from Elementary are 2 public schools and I believe 1 or 2 private. We chose the Arden district since we researched: Great Schools give it a 9/10 versus Avery's Creek with a 6 or 7, everybody we talked said that Glen Arden is an excellent school, it is one of the top 10 of the "whole state of NC", and a lot of great comments.... it is just reputation.
It is not a bad school, but it is not that great either. My children were in a private school for all the previous years, a small school with 200 students....Glen Arden has over 700, if you want to generalize "nobody knows nobody"...believe me it must be hard for staff and teachers to recognize 720 faces with names... in a way I don't blame them...teachers will know their students of course but that's it. ....
The school has great test scores and Annual Progress reports .... but what they don't "report", is that students can correct their grades.. at least all my children are given that choice... I have been blessed enough to have A+ students. Humbly I tell you last year my 2 other children got the Highest Academic Award at the private school that they attended and the grades reflected exactly what they scored.
I firmly believe the curriculum of Glen Arden is more advanced that the private school where they were , which is a good thing. May be that's why my children have scored a few (about 9) among both of them of 75-83 grades... well they have corrected them and being able to have a higher B that added to all the other "true" A'S make their average still an A...
So, all those high test scores at Glen Arden Elementary really they do not reflect at all the real scores... they are "corrected". I rather have a school that honestly shows its real numbers so if problems need to be solved they can be taken care of, rather that have a school that has everybody fooled with their "made up" grades.
Schooldigger.com does not give a place on the top ten to Glen Arden Elementary...it gives it place 131! Yes, people is fooled again with that reputation of the top 10. Surprisingly the same web site gives Hendersonville Elementary a magnet school within 15 miles from here the place #4.
I don't know where people got the:"It is one of the top 10 schools.." It is not.
Out of the 3 teachers that I got to meet this year, I consider 2 of them: great professionals meaning that they love to teach and they know how to do it. One of them also sees the children as individuals and shows care, kindness and affection to them. So I do consider her a good teacher. The other one thinks that a teacher should be just a person who teaches and shows very little or none affection for the children (unfortunately she is a K teacher which is sad). The other teacher according to my child "doesn't know anything". She is very bland, not a lot of emotions coming out of her. SHe is kind with parents. I will give her a 6/10.
Now regarding the car line of this school. If your children are car riders.. expect to devote anything from 25-70 minutes to pick up your child. I have never seen such an obsolete system of a car line it is terrible. I won't explain it to you but it is a disaster.
P.E. instruction: bad 2/10
Music teacher and chorus: bad 2/10
Extra curriculum activities: almost none 4/10
Academic curriculum: very good 8/10
The best thing this school had: had a name and a last name: Jacob Cohen the Gifted Specialist teacher he retired in Dec.
Hopefully you find my opinion usefull