Moving to Johnson City this summer (houses, school district, zoned)

[queenladybug817]

With regard to the University School at ETSU, be aware that you have to put your name in for the lottery to have a chance in January-February time range. So the new students that start this upcoming year would have already been selected. You can try for slots though by registering for the lottery in Jan 2015 for starting in July 2015 though.

Also, another thing to note with University School is that it is a year-round school calendar.

[TN.RidgerunninGal]

You are so right - queenladybug817, I had forgotten about being year round. I was just highlighting the schools.

[bst77]

Originally Posted by jchometeam

The difference in the quality of schools within the city of Johnson City is very minimal, especially compared to the difference in quality from city vs. county. As politically incorrect as this is going to sound, what small difference does exist depends (in my opinion) on the SES and other differences between North and South. If you put the same student in each of those schools, I believe they would perform equally well. But the students (and parental involvement) are not the same. I would feel very comfortable putting my child into any of the JC schools.

Agreed; I pretty much said the exact same: )

Originally Posted by jchometeam

Yes, compare rental and home prices to Florida and we are cheap. But compare rental prices with home buying prices and rentals are expensive...or compare both rental and home prices to the average income and I happen to agree with Emigrations- they are a bit higher than I would expect. JC home prices, for example, are higher than Knoxville and other larger metro areas with better job availability.

Interesting... I didn't realize the prices were all that high... But I take you word for it - if you're a real estate agent, you would know better than I. Again, I was just saying "depends on what you are comparing it to; the term 'high' is relative".

[FIREFLYD]

TN.RidgerunninGal I would greatly appreciate your opinions about the high schools in and around JC. I am looking to relocate with 2 high school students. Being they only have a couple years left to connect and succeed in the school system and set down roots, I won't have the luxury of checking out different areas to land due to the time factor. They both are good students but not overly competitive in academics, so a well rounded school community would be best.

[queenladybug817]

We had a change in things for my oldest. He moved here for his Senior year instead of living with his dad as we had originally planned. He's going to Science Hill and really likes it. Granted, he's also doing dual enrollment at ETSU, so he has an even more chaotic schedule than most.

The counselor has been fantastic in his transition, making sure we got all the stuff in time for dual enrollment and registration. Transferring just before senior year was a little scary and we were concerned about graduation requirements. He worked with us to make sure my son met all the required classes and made sure to suggest online classes for the couple of classes he didn't need at his old school, but TN required.

All in all, we have been very pleased with his teachers and the rest of the staff. I'm looking forward to the rest of my kids being at Science Hill starting next year.

Oh and the dual enrollment option with ETSU is fabulous! My son will graduate HS with 14 college credit hours this year.

[TN.RidgerunninGal]

Dear FIREFLYD:
Science Hill is a very good school academically and excels in most sport program, however, it is very large (over 1500 students) and therefore can be very overwhelming to some students. A lot depends of your kids own personality and how they handle adversity. Science Hill is racially diverse and though they have not had any open problems, I know from teachers I know. that there is an under current of racial tension. Science Hill students are very competitive and if your kids are not, you may want to rethink their school. The two Washington County High Schools are both good in comparison. Both are smaller, less competitive and less oriented toward "who you are and what you're wearing" attitude. Hope you understand what I mean. Our daughter left Science Hill 1/2 thru her soph. year because she hated it, we transferred her to Daniel Boone, She excelled there, graduated with honors and was very happy. Daniel Boone HS is in the Gray area and David Crockett is in the Jonesborough area. Both schools are very sound academically, Crockett is less sports savy than Boone. Boone tends to be socioeconomically a little above Crockett as Crockett tends to have more kids raised on farms. Hope this helps a little. Good luck to you.

[toprudder]

TN.RidgerunninGal, I found your post to be very informative. I was not the Original Poster, but was interested because I am trying to relocate to the area next year. So, to get some objective (?) ratings, I went to Realtor.com and looked at some of the houses listed there. The site has a tab for the schools nearby to a particular listed house. The public schools are then rated on a scale of 1 - 10 with 10 being the best. I gathered a lot of data, but where my plan went wrong was in thinking because a house has a JC address that its schools are city schools. Wrong! A house can have a JC address but, it appears that the schools listed for it may be county schools or even a mixture of city and county schools. I also looked at Jonesborough houses and think the public schools listed with them are probably county schools. So, my follow up question is, "Which schools are City schools, and which are the county schools?" Is there any easy way for someone who has visited the area several times, but is still an outsider, to figure this out?

[kamoshika]

Originally Posted by toprudder

So, my follow up question is, "Which schools are City schools, and which are the county schools?" Is there any easy way for someone who has visited the area several times, but is still an outsider, to figure this out?

Johnson City Schools - Schools

Washington County School District - Schools List

[TN.RidgerunninGal]

Thank you kamoshika- that is what I love about the forum, generally, people are very nice and helpful.

[toprudder]

Thanks kamoshika, that cleared that up. Great URLs.