Welcome Latoya! Rochester is full of good areas.

I would start with a couple of schools in mind first and then you can base your housing search out from there. There are some elementary schools that are in neighborhoods close enough to downtown to walk.

I happen to live near Washington Elementary and I can walk to my job at Mayo (or take the bus... we have a great bus system and Mayo employees get a free city bus pass as part of employment.)

Go to Google Maps and search 'elementary schools Rochester MN'.

You can browse the school pages here: http://www.rochester.k12.mn.us/ (click select a school at the top)

There are so many web sites with rental information, so I can't begin to recommend one of those, but if you want to see which bus routes run in a specific neighborhood, go to http://www.rochesterbus.com

Good luck with your move and welcome to Rochester!