Upscale Baton Rouge neighborhoods?

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by CTUCKER

Also.... no offense to BR Man, I just read his post.... Woodgate is in ST Jude, not St. Aloy. Kenilworth is also in St. Jude. But, I think that St. Jude is a great school also. All of the Catholic schools that are in the Highland Rd Parishes are very well regarded.... St. Aloysious, St. Jude and St. George....

Thanks, Colette

No offense taken, because the parish line is fuzzy. As to Kenilworth, I hear differing versions as to which parish it's in. Some say it's all St Jude, some say Kenilworth Pkwy (which bisects the neighborhood) is the dividing line, and some say it's in Aloyisus. Either way, it wouldn't hurt to check with each respective school.

One thing to consider about St Jude is that it's a relatively new school crammed onto a small plot of land near Bayou Fountain/Gardere. St Aloyisus' campus is larger (meaning more room for expansion if needed) and is in a popular neighborhood. St George's campus is right by a 6 lane traffic mess known as Siegen Lane. Good luck getting on that street when you're leaving the school.

[CTUCKER]

You are right BR Man.... St Jude is a very small school and there is no room for expansion. Some people have spoken of that property on the other side of Highland, but I suppose they would have to literally build a bridge over Highland Rd. I can't picture that. The school being small is a plus for some people. I do know families that have children in all three of those schools and are all happy with them. Also, some people go to church and school outside of their physical parish. Just get a letter from the priest..... So, there could be some poeple going to a school that is not "in" their parish. parish lines are a little fuzzy and it's a good idea to check. There is a website I believe where you can check by address....

I don't think that there is a "bad" Catholic school in BR. IF so, I've never heard anything about it. I doubt that you could go wrong with any of the Catholic schools.... And, there is the LSU lab school to think about if living closer to LSU.... may be difficult to get into though....

[katherine2007]

Thank you for all of your replies. We moved here a week ago and I have loved visited all of the areas mentioned above.

How difficult is it to gain acceptance into a Catholic school outside of your boundaries? Do schools have issues with keeping kids who move outside their boundaries? I would love to find a home within our parish boundaries, but would hate to walk away from a dream home just because it's a few blocks away. We hope to move within our parish boundaries but so far there haven't been any homes which we are overly interested in.

We visited a park at University Club this weekend and a mom there said St Jude was so popular that they turned away members of their parish. I can't imagine buying a home to find out that our children couldn't get into the parish schools. Do people then place their kids in other private schools until an opening arises? My kids are resilient, but I feel guilty about moving them so often!

Sorry for all the questions, this is just very confusing for me!
Katherine

[CTUCKER]

Katherine,

Are both of your children school age? Or do you still have one little one? Once you have one in, the younger ones will get in with no problem. An "older sibling" gets you in... but if both of them are school age, that is more difficult.

University Club is actually in St. George parish. But we do have a lot of St. Jude families that live there. If I were you, I would apply to both St. George and St. Jude if moving somewhere that were conveneint to those schools. And if you move on the other side of Highland (closer to LSU), you can apply to both St. Jude and St. Aloyisious. You will increase your odds of getting into one of the schools.... Have you registered with one of the churches?

We actually live in St. George Parish but are parishoners at St Jude and my little boy goes to St. Jude. I sent him to Christian Life Academy for pre-k because I did not get him into St. Jude that year. But we got into St. Jude the next year. We had just moved to Baton Rouge and were not "established" parishoners that year..... e-mail me if you need an explanation on that

I know this is stressful. It is unfortunate that the school situation makes it difficult for people moving in to Baton Rouge.

Colette

[bulldog1018]

We moved here from Atlanta post-Katrina. My husband too is an Executive Officer of a company. We found that the Highland Road area and around the LSU area are great areas to raise our family. We have six children. However, I've heard that the Dunham School and the Episcopal Schools have numerous drug problems, mostly due to the class of children there (meaning, kids have money to spend on drugs) Sometime back I spoke did speak to an Episcopal Administrator, she did tell me that they "had" problems, but they are resolving them now. My advice, if you are in any way concerned about this is to call the Drug Substance Abuse Council here to find out which schools they are at the most implementing "random" drug testing.

My suggestions of a school NOT to even investigate is Runnels. As we came from a prestigious prep school, we thought maybe, even though Runnels fit close to our criteria, that it would be comparable to our former school, even though it was small in numbers....NOT!!!! The teacher have complete control over the curriculum and the parents are treated like second class citizens by the Runnels family and by the staff. You never want to question their teaching ability, if so you are slapped in the face. Moderator cut: edit Our customer experience has been horrible, especially in the High School. They have no real organized sports, the soccer team has to practically "beg" for money and it is discouraging to the students. Moderator cut: edit
The best school we've found, and we've never attended a public school is UHigh. They actually "teach" here and have "real" teachers. The main concentration is higher education. We are Ivy Leaguers and strive for higher educational standards. I've also heard Baton Rouge High is awesome. You can also go online and Google, National Private School Rankings and National Public School Rankings and see how the different schools rank in the area. UHigh ranked 568 in Public Schools and is one of only two (2) schools in Louisiana to offer the International Baccalaureate Program (the other school is Benjamin Moore High School in New Orleans and it had a ranking of #19, I believe in the Nation). Just make sure you do some investigating and don't do what we did with Runnels and take the word of just a few people. They have a great exit of teachers and students every year at Runnels. There is a reason for this! Someone told me the Jr class lost over 10 students (there are only about 89 in the entire Jr. class--that is pretty significant considering these students only have two more years of high school...they wanted to move to other schools like UHigh and East Baton Rouge High School...)

Moderator cut: edit Although the market is okay in Baton Rouge, there are still some very nice homes that have been on the market for over a year. It is a buyers market here too.

[southland]

One of my favorite upscale neighborhoods is pretty much anything off of Highland Road btw Kenilworth and LSU....but I am biased. I bleed purple and gold.


Catholic of Baton Rouge and St. Joseph's are great schools. Redemptorist is okay, but some of the neighborhoods up there are sketchy. There are a dozen great small Catholic elementary schools.

I can assure you that any drug problem in Catholic or Episcopal is being taken care of....Parents are too involved in those schools to let the administration ignore the problem.

There is nice new upscale developments all along Highland Road and into Ascension Parish. If you don't mind the commute, False River and St. Francisville are nice too. There are good K-12 Catholic Schools in Port Allen and New Roads.

Country Club of Louisiana is a favorite for me, too.

[nubianbrotha]

WORK IN BR , LIVE IN BR. stop promoting disconnected subdivsions.

[mzb]

Some good schools ar
LSU lab
Episcopal
Dunham

[Rosinante]

Originally Posted by CindyM

Any chance that's St. Aloysius? What is it with those mothers who refuse to use the new queuing lane that was constructed a couple years ago? It's so irritating for those of us who live in Southdowns, not to mention dangerous. Just last week an ambulance had trouble getting through because of the inconsiderate drivers who block the street.

Sorry if that's not the school you were talking about.

Cindy, my heart goes out to you. I moved to B.R. 29 years ago and I have to say that the way they drive around here is far worse than my experiences while living in Boston, Memphis or Washington, D.C. In fact, the drivers here are the most inconsiderate I've ever experience anywhere — I even felt safer on the streets of Paris than I do here.

As for the original intent of this thread, I have to say that it would be difficult for me to recommend any particular neighborhood in the Parish (I live just off Highland Road in Oak Hills). If forced to choose, I might start looking down around Prairieville.