moving to Ft Gordon (Martinez, Evans: 2010, houses, best schools)

[Evelyn1998]

We're moving to Ft Gordon in December. Any thoughts on living on post vs. off post. We have 2 children in elementary school. This will be short term move. We'll only be there until Aug. 2010.
Thanks!

[Evelyn1998]

Any thoughts?

[devdoz]

Hi, my husband and I PCS'd here this summer. For E7 and above or officers they have some nice new housing on post. For E1-E6 the only new housing is four bedrooms so you'll have to have another kid for that. The older housing does not look very nice but I suppose if you're here for less than a year it wouldn't be too bad. I don't think there's much of a waiting list. We found our house on AHRN.com which is a housing referral site for military families. We live in W. Augusta in a newer subdivision and we enjoy it but most people will tell you Columbia county for the schools.

[Evelyn1998]

Thx for the info. He is E-7, maybe we'll get lucky w/ a new place.

[harrat]

Martinez, Evans, and West Augusta have the best schools on the GA side. On the SC side it would be North Augusta & Aiken.

[Evelyn1998]

Thx. That is important to know coming from Hawaii school system.

[Kit624]

We PCSed here too. We don't have kids yet but beware--I'm a private tutor--the public school systems in GA are not very good and a lot of people on base live there just so they can go to the DoD schools. However, I would personally not live on post and probably send kid to private school (or homeschool). If you live off post you could live in N Augusta (SC), West Augusta (really nice) or Aiken. The houses on post are very small and old, unless you happen to get one of the new ones, and with the BAH you will get you can get a much nicer house or place off post. The electric bill will be high in the summer though so that's another thing to consider.

[Kit624]

If you do live off the best zip code close to base is 30909 or move out to Columbia County. 30907 is also pretty good. STAY AWAY from downtown.

[Evelyn1998]

Originally Posted by Kit624

We PCSed here too. We don't have kids yet but beware--I'm a private tutor--the public school systems in GA are not very good and a lot of people on base live there just so they can go to the DoD schools. However, I would personally not live on post and probably send kid to private school (or homeschool). If you live off post you could live in N Augusta (SC), West Augusta (really nice) or Aiken. The houses on post are very small and old, unless you happen to get one of the new ones, and with the BAH you will get you can get a much nicer house or place off post. The electric bill will be high in the summer though so that's another thing to consider.

More to think about, thanks. We are coming from terrible Hawaii school system. Kids are only going to school 4 days a week b/c the system is broke. I hope we are offered something decent on post for convenience. We're not even supposed to be there 1 year, so that may be a problem trying to find off post rental. I'm thinking it will be easier to get in & out of a house on post, assuming we're offered something decent.

[nortonguy]

Kit624, for somebody who says to have just move here in May. You sure are giving opinions on places like you know them very good. Its only November which means you haven't even been here for 8 months. Where are you getting your info from?

The best schools in the entire metro are downtown. Davidson and AR Johnson are the two best schools in metro Augusta. Davidson is ranked number 1 in GA in terms of SAT scores. C.T Walker is the best elementary/middle school and AR Johnson has 6th-8th.

Hardly anybody who works on Ft. Gordon lives in Aiken. That would be a 45 minute drive to Ft. Gordon one way.