Relocating ASAP (Chattanooga, Red Bank: apartments, to rent, how much)

[puggy2008]

Lots of questions in little time. I am relocating in a couple of weeks as soon as my company tells me I have to go. I have two small children ages 5/6 they will be attending elementary. Really dont understand the magnet school stuff. I wil be working at the University of Chattanooga.I am looking for a nice safe good area for me and my girls. I am a single mom. I will also need a place to live want to rent. I have a small pug. Amy inofrmation anymone has is great. The internet is good but I need to hear from folks who live there. Thank you for your time and your help
Amy

[u4icmusic]

All this information has been posted on here before. Please do a search and all the threads will come up. There are many apartments throughout Chattanooga, and the traffic is light most of the time, so you should have no problems getting downtown to work, or living downtown to begin with. It all depends on how much money you have or want to spend on housing. Lesser amounts will get you in lesser neighborhoods, where higher rents get you a nicer and/or safer location.

[wilsonmom3]

as far as magnet schools go here....there are several schools that are zoned schools (kids in the zoned area go there) + they take some other non-zoned kids and they call them magnet schools. As far as I know, these are mostly gotten into by a lottery system that you sign up for (assuming you are not living in the zoned area). The only one of those type that I myself consider good, just an opinion of course, would be Normal Park museum magnet school. Then, there are a few magnet schools that are different...there are no zoned kids that go there, these being, i believe, csla, csas, and one other that i don't know the name of but is for the performing arts. Csla (k-8) and Csas (k-12) are both good schools, but you get into those on a first come first served basis, which means that you have to wait in a line to turn in your application....this past year the line started 18 days before the application turn in date...and only a handful of people from the line actually got into Csla because they take siblings of former students first and also teachers' kids ....I believe there were a little more "open" spots at CSAS, but still not many. There are only 100 spots open for both schools each year, including the sibling and teachers' kids spaces (60 for CSAS, which is downtown, and 40 for CSLA which is in east brainerd) If you were out there in that line for 18 days and didn't get in this year, (the majority of the line) your name goes on a waiting list for subsequent years. The other truly magnet school, the one for the performing arts, your child must audition for...I don't know a lot about that one. So...basically...don't count on the magnet school thing, it is mostly a long shot unless you get lucky. I am less familiar with the schools/homes in downtown chattanooga, which would be close to UTC....if you are considering living a little further out...good areas to look in that I myself am familiar with are ooltewah, east brainerd, apison, colledgedale. Good elementary schools in those areas would be apison, westview, or snow hill. of course, there are some good private schools too, if you have the money to go that route...I don't, so I can't personally say much about those.

[Jon F Moss]

what kind of place are you looking to rent - apartment, house? price range? these will all factor in along with taking the school into consideration. There are very good public elementary schools so you don't have to get hung up on the magnet school options

[jkmewright]

Puggy, try Red Bank for starters until you decide where you might like to live permanently. Close to downtown (10-15 minutes) and Red Bank Elem is a good school which also has 6am-6pm childcare AND holiday childcare which is a blessing when school is out and you are still at work . There are TONS of apartments in Red Bank on Mountain Creek Road which is also VERY close to the apartments. I know for a fact that at least 2 of the complexes are pet friendly but I cannot remember the names... Sorry. The zip is 37415. Good luck.

[maryelam]

25% of Chattanooga elementary and secondary students attend private schools. The outstanding secular ones are McCallie, Baylor, and Girls' Prep School. There are also a number of good Christian schools.