Best grade schools/high schools in Huntsville area. (Decatur, Madison: homes, best schools)

[Willie51]

We are relocating to Huntsville from St. Louis. We have lots of school choices with excellent public, private, Christian, and Catholic schools in abundance. Our children attend a Catholic grade school and would have attended a college prep school for high school. We belong to a very active Catholic parish. Where would be the best area for us to look for homes and what are the best schools in the area?

[LCTMadison]

There are several excellent choices for private and public schools in our area. Some of the more popular:

Madison area schools:

St. Johns/Catholic High School (private)
Madison Academy (private)
Madison City Schools (7 elem., 2 middles, and Bob Jones High until new HS opens next year)

HSV:

Randolph (private, very competitive for entry)
Grissom High (feeds from the SE HSV elementary schools)
HSV High (feeds from the E HSV elementary schools as well as the Hampton Cove schools)
Columbia High (area's only international baccalaureate, feeds from the west/sw HSV elementary schools)

Check out GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community to get more info on all the area schools.

[AJBarney]

Well, if you refer to Hsv and not Madison, I am partial to the SE part of Hsv. Both Grissom and Huntsville HS are highly regarded. Im not familiar with Madison schools so I cant comment.

My daughter went to Grissom and we had a great experience. We lived in the Willowbrook subdivision, which is a nice, older/established area close to Grissom.

My FIL is Catholic and has attended Holy Spirit in SE Huntsville for decades - they operate a school but I dont know the particulars. Good Shepherd is another Catholic church in SE Hsv as well.

Good luck on your move

[ckj2011]

Front page of the Huntsville Times this morning quoted a school board member stating that her child would have 45 kids in his government AP class at Grissom High School this year. Because the state of Alabama is requiring more students for each teaching position funded, it is going to impact the size of classrooms, especially in specialty areas.

I would strongly urge you to consider this when looking for a home and considering private/public schools in Huntsville.

[atrixwolfe]

A possible reason for 45 students in grissom's gov AP class is it is usually taught by one of the schools favorite teachers who always takes a team or two to state competition. My daughter took both of her Gov AP class and loved her. Through her 4 years at Grissom, she had for very full and very space classes, but she did very well. I was very happy with my childs SE Huntsville education. She also had a good number of friends, as did I, who attended good Sheppard Catholic.

Lastly I will say that Grissom did a very good job preparing for college, including help in getting kids accepted to good colleges around the country. By helping them prepare for SATs & application essay writing and teacher references.

[BobWallace]

Originally Posted by Willie51

Our children attend a Catholic grade school and would have attended a college prep school for high school. We belong to a very active Catholic parish. Where would be the best area for us to look for homes and what are the best schools in the area?

If you were planning on a prep school in St. Louis, then you may want to look at Randolph School here.

Holy Spirit and St. John's are probably the best Catholic K-8 schools.

There is one local Catholic high school, Pope John Paul II. It was formerly called Catholic High, and most of us still call it that due to the somewhat unwieldy new name.

Randolph and Holy Spirit are located in SE Huntsville, so most students live nearby (although Randolph has students from all over, including as far away as Decatur, Guntersville, and Scottsboro).

St. John's and PJPII are most convenient to Madison.

(But really if you are going the private school route, any of these are pretty accessible from the whole area.)

[TC2coolmom]

I would not recommend hvs city schools to anyone. My sons went and they were literally three years behind in what they teach. We moved to Madison City for the best schools in the state. I can say both my sons are in AP classes and they love there teachers and schools. Bob Jones does have a christian club. I have friends that have children in the Catholic private school in Madison and they are very happy with it. It is a buetiful campus and they have sports and plenty of after school activities. Good luck.

[ConfusedinMadison]

Didn't HSV Schools lay off quite a few teachers last year due to financial woes.

Madison City Schools actually budgeted and subsidized State funds to keep teachers on pay roll.

[hey teach]

Neither H'ville High nor Grissom High achieved AYP last school year. This is an indicator of problems somewhere. Could be because of SPED or ELL, but regardless they did not make it.

There is also a smaller Catholic school, named Holy Family. It has not been mentioned.

[BobWallace]

Originally Posted by ConfusedinMadison

Didn't HSV Schools lay off quite a few teachers last year due to financial woes.

Madison City Schools actually budgeted and subsidized State funds to keep teachers on pay roll.

Madison has 13 fewer teachers than last year, not necessarily something to gloat about.

Larger class sizes, fewer teachers and staff to meet Huntsville, Madison students on first day of school | al.com