Looking for good schools (Huntsville, Decatur: houses, middle schools, live)

[Kerah1958]

My family and I are moving to the Huntsville area this summer. I have a son going into the 9th grade. I looked into the Randolph private school and that's way too expensive for us. The Madison Academy is more affordable, but I'm also interested in the Huntsville public schools. Huntsville has many High Schools. I would love some feedback on which ones are the best.

[friday13]

There are three school systems in Hsv area (reasonable commute to RSA).

1.Hsv City Schools
2.Madison City Schools
3.Madison County

Use greatschools.org (plug these districts to see the school list) or schooldigger.com to have a visual of the test scores (rating, ranking (in the state) respectively)

Hsv city schools has 2 top performing HS: Grissom and Hsv High (also crowded, Grissom has portables outside). Others not only perform poorly, but are under capacity. With the budget constraints, people reasonably expect something will be done (consolidating, rezoning) ..or NOT
Also in Hsv City there is an IB program at New Century Demo (located at Columbia High)

Madison City currently has one HS , and a good one (also crowded), another one is scheduled to open (I think 2012, but don't quote me on that-they just secured the money)

Madison County has Buckhorn, and Sparkman.

I would suggest schooldigger to see the performance for the past 5 yrs or so.

Edit-not sure if you are aware, but here, you go to the school in your school zone (which have gotten redrawn quite often in Madison City, to accommodate the elem. and middle school student population growth, sure thing it will happen again for the new HS)

[BobWallace]

Close in to the center of Huntsville, the best high schools are Grissom, Bob Jones, and Huntsville.

There are other good schools further out from the center of Huntsville. People live as far away as Guntersville, Arab, Decatur, Athens, and even Tennessee and commute to Huntsville.

Bob Jones only has 10th-12th grades, so your son would be in one of the Madison City middle schools for 9th grade if you move to Madison.

[LCTMadison]

The 9th graders are physically at the middle school campuses in Madison, but they are considered Bob Jones students, and participate in high school athletics and activities.
I have heard once the new high school is opened, the high schools will go to traditional 9-12 grades.

To be honest, I really like the "jr high" concept, with kids going to a junior high campus their 7th, 8th, and 9th grade years.

GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community is a great resource. Of course, most people will limit their house hunting searches to particular school zones, and end up choosing based on other factors like location, houses, ect. I would also suggest, if you will be visiting the area again before you physically move, scheduling visits at each of the schools you are interested in. They are all very welcoming and will gladly meet with you to answer any questions you may have about their school.

Good luck!!

[Charles]

This might help to visualize things (be aware that co-located schools will have the ratings superimposed so may be a good idea to search for elementary OR middle OR high schools, not two at once, especially elementary and middle)

Here is a great tool to see Greatschools school ratings on a google map interface. (you may have to change the zip in the URL to recenter the map)

School Search Widget - GreatSchools

[Kerah1958]

Thanks Charles

[friday13]

GreatSchools has finally updated for 2008-2009 school year.