zachary (Baton Rouge, Clinton, Livingston: to rent, house, school districts)

[abradl04]

My husband moved to baton rouge 3 weeks ago from michigan for work. we live in michigan and he is a roofer/building contractor. He got a job in 2days here and is staying with my brother and his family. We want to find a home in zachary we have 3 kids 17 15 8 the 17 is going to stay back in michigan and finish his senior year with my mom. I am an lpn and see lots of opportunities for myself, so I am getting my license endorsed for the state of louisiana. We are a christian family and I want to keep my kids active in friends and family things. Is the school district in zachary as good as it sounds? Were should we look to rent a house? It seems like the price to rent is very high. Here you pay around 850.00 to 900.00 for a 3 bdr with a garage and I live within 5 min of the beach. My husband is house hunting today and I hope he is able to find something, are plans are to get there by january, hopefully I can get my license by then. Any recommendations or comments would be greatly appreciated, as I am nervous about my 15 year old daughter. She is a very good girl and well liked by people, but it is still hard. Thanks

[darylwi]

Zachary does have one of the best public school districts in the state. Having said that, I wouldn't put too much into that in comparison to nation wide because all of Louisiana's public school districts are ranked third tier or lower when compared to the nation. But within this state, it's the best.
Zachary is fairly small, conservative and has a close sense of community. You shouldn't find trouble up there. Rent should be less in Zachary than in BTR but it will probably still be higher than most of Michigan right now. Zachary is still considered metro BTR so it will be influended by BTR prices. Not to mention, a lot of people keep moving there.
Also, there will be plenty of things that your kids will be able to do in Baton Rouge without getting into trouble. Having said that, they shouldn't have much if any business in north Baton Rouge. Take the expressway and fly right over that to downtown and south BR.

Don't worry, there are many more good people here than bad people, but it's always the bad ones that stand out.

[laleh]

i too am interested in zachary. how are the public schools there in comparison to the private school episcopal?

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by laleh

i too am interested in zachary. how are the public schools there in comparison to the private school episcopal?

A lot cheaper

[darylwi]

Originally Posted by BRMan

A lot cheaper

Ditto that statement.

[buildings_and_bridges]

I couldn't wait to get out of Zachary. That day couldn't come soon enough. I don't think the schools are nearly as great as people make them out to be. Part of the reason they perform better than even, St. Tammany Parish, for example, is because they have so many fewer schools there that they fewer people to deal with in general. That's part of the benefit of breaking away from EBRP and just having your little community to worry about. But it messes with the numbers/does not represent the districts fairly. From talking to different people who've attended these schools, I'm under the impression that St. Tammany Parish schools are better, but I can't verify that since I never attended any. Are the Zachary schools better than some of the public schools in BR? Well, yes. That's not really a shining endorsement, and even less so in my opinion because I find Zachary to be a pretty unbearable place. I've heard that the Livingston Parish schools, even, are better places to be. In general, my classmates who came in from other places (were not native to Zachary/Slaughter) had a difficult time fitting in.

If you're at all concerned with separation of church and state, know that there is no such thing in Zachary.

No doubt there are some great people there, but since great people can be found anywhere, I don't think that's very compelling.

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by buildings_and_bridges

I couldn't wait to get out of Zachary. That day couldn't come soon enough. I don't think the schools are nearly as great as people make them out to be. Part of the reason they perform better than even, St. Tammany Parish, for example, is because they have so many fewer schools there that they fewer people to deal with in general. That's part of the benefit of breaking away from EBRP and just having your little community to worry about. But it messes with the numbers/does not represent the districts fairly. From talking to different people who've attended these schools, I'm under the impression that St. Tammany Parish schools are better, but I can't verify that since I never attended any. Are the Zachary schools better than some of the public schools in BR? Well, yes. That's not really a shining endorsement, and even less so in my opinion because I find Zachary to be a pretty unbearable place. I've heard that the Livingston Parish schools, even, are better places to be. In general, my classmates who came in from other places (were not native to Zachary/Slaughter) had a difficult time fitting in.

If you're at all concerned with separation of church and state, know that there is no such thing in Zachary.

No doubt there are some great people there, but since great people can be found anywhere, I don't think that's very compelling.

Zachary's biggest challenge is getting adequate retail, since the trip down I-110/I-10/Plank/Airline is kind of tedious. But when you consider that living in Livingston or Ascension involves hoping that another tractor trailer didn't get in a wreck with a Suburban, Zachary/St Francisville (and even Slaughter/Clinton) have a lot of future potential.

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by BRMan

A lot cheaper

Let me clarify my wisecrack - Episcopal is a very expensive private school (I want to say it's even more expensive than Dunham), so it's not like 99% of us would want to shell out the $$,$$$ required to send a child/children there.

[darylwi]

Originally Posted by buildings_and_bridges

If you're at all concerned with separation of church and state, know that there is no such thing in Zachary.

I think that would be true with pretty much the entire metro area. Rural and suburban Louisiana are very conservative. Hopefully the city itself continues to open up while the locals move off into the suburbs.

[buildings_and_bridges]

Originally Posted by BRMan

Zachary's biggest challenge is getting adequate retail, since the trip down I-110/I-10/Plank/Airline is kind of tedious. But when you consider that living in Livingston or Ascension involves hoping that another tractor trailer didn't get in a wreck with a Suburban, Zachary/St Francisville (and even Slaughter/Clinton) have a lot of future potential.

Yeah, as far as traffic goes, navigating the Zachary area is a lot more pleasant.