West Bastrop: Schools? Commute to UT? Crime? (Austin, Round Rock: spring break, homes)

[aaysc]

Hi,

Could some kinds souls fill me in on West Bastrop? How are the schools? How is the commute to the UT area? Any crime problems? Areas in general? IE anything to do? I really really appreciate it.

Thanks

aaysc

[austin-steve]

What do you mean by "West Bastrop?". Bastrop is a very small town 30 minutes east of Austin. I didn't know the western half had a distinction of it's own. Do you mean "Bastrop" in general?
Steve

[TCK]

Steve, give your summary of Bastrop please. Checking out
Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park and Bastrop in a week over spring break.

[austin-steve]

What do you want to know about Bastrop and what factors are important to you in a place to live?

[soslo]

Steve - I think the poster brought up "west bastrop" because the reality websites list that as an area. I think they may be referring to the area west of bastrop.

[johnrex62]

West of Bastrop is mainly rural and crime consists of property crime and family violence due to alcohol more than anything else I would expect. Not too much to get in trouble over and not many people to deal with other than family unless you want to drive a few miles to pick a fight. Not many car jackings on the highways due to the lack of reasons to slow down below 70mph. The closer you get to actual town the greater your burglary chances get, but still pretty low.

Depending on specific location, the commute would ususally be via hwy 71, FM969, or hwy 290 and all of those are very light traffic into Austin. Hwy 290 is getting heavier, but that just mean 40 mins instead of 37 mins.

I had an uncle that drove a school bus for Bastrop up until a couple years ago and he never had any problems with the students getting out of hand on the bus (which is a pretty good indicator of general attitude from my experience), but I dont know any specifics about the classrooms. Stray comments I have heard would make me think the schools are pretty typical for a rural school district. My daughter attends Elgin High School and she feels the teachers allow too many distractions in the classroom compared to her experiences in North Carolina and Alabama. She says the teachers in those areas "made" you learn even if you didn't want to. Here the teachers seem to have given up on that fight for the most part. She thinks they dont care if you learn or not, I think they dont get the support they need from administration and parents to force discipline in the classroom anymore.

[Trebek]

I live in Bastrop and love it. The schools are as the previous poster decribes. It has a beautiful historic old town with many antibellum homes.
I don't see any crime, but I do see criminal elements i.e. crack/meth heads from time to time. West Bastrop is the new part of bastrop on the other side of the river from the old part. I can ride my bicycle safely all over town due to the old wide streets.

Roundrock has better schools, but it is largely urban sprawl with nightmareish traffic.

The drive to UT would get old for me 30-40 minutes.

[Austinitegirl]

Originally Posted by aaysc

Hi,

Could some kinds souls fill me in on West Bastrop? How are the schools? How is the commute to the UT area? Any crime problems? Areas in general? IE anything to do? I really really appreciate it.

Thanks

aaysc

I don't know much about Bastrop and I don't live in the area, but my husband is looking for a teaching job in the fall and just turned down a job at Cedar Creek Middle School because he was so concerned about the poor condition of the schools. He said the facilities are fair, but apparently they've had some serious staffing shake ups recently and they have law enforcement officers on site during every school day to control the kids. That really shocked me - I thought Bastrop was this peaceful little rural town - what could those kids possibly have to riot about??