moving to baton rouge (Denham Springs, Walker: sales, house, neighborhoods)

[reas]

We are planning to move to baton rouge in summer 2008 from houma.My husband's job will be in Denham Springs off florida blvd.Although we have visited baton rouge couple of times ,and know what to expect ,we are still confused about schools and housing.
I have heard that private schools are the way to go.Is it hard to get into it if we are non catholic ? we have 5 year old and 9 year old. what are the other options? i will be applying for magnet schools ,but i understand that they are very hard to get into.
My husband doesn't mind 20 to 30 minutes drive to work.Would living in Prairieville and commuting make sense, since the public schools are good?

Any suggestions is appreciated.
thank you.

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by reas

We are planning to move to baton rouge in summer 2008 from houma.My husband's job will be in Denham Springs off florida blvd.Although we have visited baton rouge couple of times ,and know what to expect ,we are still confused about schools and housing.
I have heard that private schools are the way to go.Is it hard to get into it if we are non catholic ? we have 5 year old and 9 year old. what are the other options? i will be applying for magnet schools ,but i understand that they are very hard to get into.
My husband doesn't mind 20 to 30 minutes drive to work.Would living in Prairieville and commuting make sense, since the public schools are good?

Any suggestions is appreciated.
thank you.

If you're working in Denham, there are plenty of subdivisions throughout Livingston Parish to choose from. And the Livingston Parish schools have a good reputation. Plus, there's supposed to be developing a retail center off the new Juban Road interchange off I-12 to take care of your shopping needs.

What you've heard about private schools applies to (what's left of) the East Baton Rouge Parish school system. Yes, they have some good magnet programs, but the schools are poorly maintained, despite a one cent sales tax hike in 1998 that they guilt tripped us into passing.

Bottom line: if you're working in Livingston Parish, why not live there as well ?

[reas]

we haven't heard good things about denham springs.we are asians and prefer to live in a diverse neighborhood which might be the case in east baton rouge parish.
i have never visited denham springs ,so i am not sure what to expect.

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by reas

we haven't heard good things about denham springs.we are asians and prefer to live in a diverse neighborhood which might be the case in east baton rouge parish.
i have never visited denham springs ,so i am not sure what to expect.

Livingston Parish used to be a primarily rural, 95% white parish. It's still 90+% white, but you have Baton Rouge suburbanites who've moved into areas outside of Denham Springs, Walker, and Watson. In other words, the western half of the parish. The eastern half is more suspicious of outsiders.

Having said that, if you want to live in Baton Rouge, I've noticed Asians tend to prefer neighborhoods in a corridor between Highland and Perkins - my theory is that that area is fairly convenient to LSU and the petrochemical plants. Kenilworth seems to be one of those popular multicultural neighborhoods (Bobby Jindal grew up there, in fact), but there are others along that corridor I think you would like.

[DianeC]

I don't think you will have much issue in moving to the Parish, but as the PP stated stay to the western side to get a bit more diversity. With the amount of people that migrated to BR from NOLA I would say that you will still get the intermingling & less of the old southern boy atmosphere. I have a few teacher friends that worked in EBRP schools public & private. All of them wanted to work in Livingston Parish schools. My advise would be if you don't want to live in LP try living on the eastern side of EBR Parish. There were some decent places to live if memory serves me.


Good luck!

[reas]

what are the schools we should apply to, private and public in ebr parish? is Prairieville too far away to commute to denham springs?taking into consideration the traffic, how long should the commute take? would it be similar if we live in the highland- perkins area?

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by reas

what are the schools we should apply to, private and public in ebr parish? is Prairieville too far away to commute to denham springs?taking into consideration the traffic, how long should the commute take? would it be similar if we live in the highland- perkins area?

Public: BR Magnet High, LSU University Lab School
Private: Christian Life, Dunham, Episcpoal, Trinity Episcopal, Parkview Baptist
Catholic: St George, Most Blessed Sacrament, St Jude - I'm assuming you'd look into the southern fringe of EBR.

The Prairieville to Denham commute would be nasty because for the first "leg" you'd be sharing I-10 with those commuting from Prairieville to downtown. Depending on where in Prairieville you live, I could easily see it a 30-45 minute journey.

If you live near Highland/Perkins, you'd probably take about 5-10 minutes off the commute, but you're still fighting I-10.

[darylwi]

If you choose Prairieville, check into the back part towards the river, then maybe you can consider using LA 42 & LA 16 to get to Denham as opposed to I-10 or Airline. It would save you more time.
Otherwise if I worked in Denham, I'd probably live in Livingston Parish or the eastern part of EBR. At least you'll be riding against rush hour traffic. If there is such a thing.

[reas]

what are the good subdivisions on the eastern part of EBR? we are looking for a house in the $400-$500 range in a safe ,kid friendly,diverse neighborhood?

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by reas

what are the good subdivisions on the eastern part of EBR? we are looking for a house in the $400-$500 range in a safe ,kid friendly,diverse neighborhood?

Here are some worth looking into in the eastern part of EBR Parish:

White Oak Landing
The Lake at White Oak
Lake Sherwood Acres (has bad traffic around it, though)
Centurion Place
Santa Maria