open enrollment at school? (Knoxville, Maryville: how much, houses, neighborhoods)

[Goofyyno]

Hi,
I am thinking about move to your area, looking at a job in the Sevierville area. My boys 11 & 15 are doing great in their honors program at one of the best schools in Phoenix. Where I do believe “the cream rises to the top”, my wife is not so laid back. sooo....
My first question is how hard is it to open enroll in a school outside your district? Say for instance we find a house in the South Doyle district, but I want my son to go to Bearden or Farragut for high school, can I do this? How hard is it?

If I have to I can buy in one of those districts and have an hour commute to work each day (I’m a city boy so long drives don’t bother me much, as long as I’m moving). I would imagine the bad traffic would be driving into Knoxville in the morning, so I would be going opposite of traffic. (unless of course the Dollywood traffic on I-40>66 was bad- but maybe I could cut across 168>441??)

thanks for the help.

[creeksitter]

Maryville has highly rated schools.

South Doyle has a lot of economic diversity and that affects the test scores. I know well to do kids who attended school at S/D and went on to great futures, but it depends on the kid. And the parents, of course.

[Goofyyno]

Thanks,
I've seen some good stuff on Maryville schools (and Alcoa HS).

[Beretta]

Originally Posted by Goofyyno

Thanks,
I've seen some good stuff on Maryville schools (and Alcoa HS).

Again, I have to promote Maryville

[SewTru]

I've never thought open enrollment would be easy in Knox county. I graduated from FHS in the 70's, have only heard of 3 instances of out of district in the last 40 years. One went to Farragut and lived in Loudon County, moving there his Jr or Sr year from Chicago, I think. The other two used their grandparents address which were in the Farragut district.

Though there are of course good people all over Knox county, I would personally never consider raising children in the South Doyle district. Never. A good friend is from the area, and when her son thought he might have to attend South Doyle, they both went to the open house for Freshmen. The principal actually spent the entire time explaining that South Doyle is "every bit as good as Farragut" because South Doyle has a great football team. I think he even had the kids do some football cheers. Nothing about scholastic programs was discussed. Nothing. They both left, terrified he would have to attend South Doyle.

Fortunately he literally won the lottery for a place at the STEM academy. Your youngest may be interested, I'm not sure what the opportunity would be for your oldest. Entry is via lottery only. I know of no one that has pulled strings to get in. My nephew graduated from there in May. His was the first graduating class that had attended all four years since it's opening. My friend's son is now a Jr. It's called the L&N STEM Academy - occupying the old L&N train station smack in the middle of downtown Knoxville. This past year they even let students in from surrounding counties. You should check out their website.

As for the commute to Sevierville...

"Jewish" and "Maryville" are two words I've never heard in the same conversation before reading your posts. I dated a guy from Maryville in 1990 and he explained to me how the locals considered Catholics to be heathens and kind of "foreign". I know things have changed with the influx of new industry there...but I'm not sure how much. Also, if you're a native of Arizona how are you on snow and ice? The direct routes to Sevierville are hilly, windy 2 lanes and we don't really clean the roads around here. We just wait for it to melt.

Farragut to Sevierville should be no more than a 1-1/2 hour commute if you leave at 6:30 and need to be there by 8:00. Farragut to downtown Knoxville is one hour - leaving at 7:00.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the property taxes in Farragut are half of what they are in Knoxville proper as you will only ever have to pay County taxes in Farragut. There are no city taxes. Realtors in this area are notorious for telling people that the tax rates in Farragut are higher as they have a hard time moving houses in the other areas at times.

[Barking Spider]

I have to say that I disagree with a few things posted here.

"Farragut to downtown Knoxville is one hour - leaving at 7:00." I can get to downtown Knoxville from the part of Karns nearest Pellissippi Parkway in about 25 minutes at 8:00 am.

"Another thing to keep in mind is that the property taxes in Farragut are half of what they are in Knoxville proper as you will only ever have to pay County taxes in Farragut. There are no city taxes." There is a huge area of Knox County where there are only County taxes. Only areas in the City of Knoxville boundaries are "double taxed". However, the double taxes take care of fire coverage and well and trash and yard waste pick up. In the County, you will have to pay for your own trash pick up (or you can take it to centers for free), and subscribe to Rural Metro for fire coverage.

"Realtors in this area are notorious for telling people that the tax rates in Farragut are higher as they have a hard time moving houses in the other areas at times." I think this is somewhere between an exaggeration and a falsehood, IMHO.

[Goofyyno]

A very insightful post.
I love the snow reference because you a right about most desert drivers (you should see the havoc caused by the few times we get even a light rain). Luckily, I survived driving in Chicago winters with a rear wheel drive car on bald tires as a student, I should do better with my Toyota FJ with new hardy tires.

I'm leaning against Maryville, not because it dosen't seen like a great town, but it seems like more of the places we will be going on a regular basis are closer to the Sequoyah area. We are considering if the homework load in the IB program is worth it or if we are better in the Bearden High school district. I keep thinking Farragut is closer to Knoxville proper then it is.

[Goofyyno]

Okay, now I'm in trouble.
I meant the insightful post comment for Sewtru, which is not to say that Barking spider's post was not insightful, as it was.

I think there is a significant difference between 1 1/2 hour drive and a 1 hour drive. (also dependant on if the cars are moving or not).

Take you own trash to a center You are talking to a city boy here. I assume gas, electric, internet, cable, phone, trash, water, etc are included in buying the house. (and paying the bills to those companies of course). what do I need to look out for?

[Likesim]

We moved to Farragut last year from San Diego, and I can address some of your questions. We pay our gas bill to the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB); electric to Lenoir City Utilities Board (LCUB); and water the the First Utility District (FUB). Confusing? After a few months, you begin to remember which is which. We had two choices for a company to handle internet,tv, and phone. This is the first place I've ever lived that does NOT have AT&T service. However, TDS has done a good job for us with internet and phone service. We don't watch tv, so I can't comment on that. For trash, you do have to pay for trash service. Tennessee Trash is about $40 every three months. You can choose Waste Management also.
Now about the snow and ice. I"m from the Chicago area, and driving in east Tennessee during snow is nothing like driving in Chicago. I"m not sure how many snow plows Knox County owns, but it can't be many. Roads are not cleared off, people stay home, and everything closes down until the snow melts. Seriously, my kids lost two weeks of school in February because of ice and snow. The roads are two-lane, curvy roads once you get off the main streets, even in Farragut. I would not want to be driving to Sevierville on back roads during the winter.
As for Farragut, it's diverse in the sense that a lot of people are from other places originally (we have neighbors from Louisiana, Ohio, and Iran, to name a few), but there's no denying it's very homogenous in ethnicity and religion. One reason we picked Farragut was because of the availability of Christian grade and high schools close by, for example.
We love it here, but we are not commuting anywhere. I agree with other posters that you should come here and scope out the neighborhoods that interest you and drive the drive to Sevierville at different times of day. I know the traffic in Phoenix is fierce, so maybe the commute here won't bother you. Only you can decide that. Hope this helps.

[hiknapster]

And to clarify, snow storms around here usually consist of 1 to MAYBE 5 inches, on average. We often get somewhere between 3 and 5 inches a SEASON. But yes, schools shut down for a very long time over that small amount of snow and for the reasons stated above.

Coming from Phoenix, this might seem like a lot of snow for you, in any event. But I did want to point out that you will not be seeing 50, 70, 110 inches a season, like other areas of the country.