Another question on areas - Colonial Acres and question about a website (near, used)

[worried4kids]

Originally Posted by tigergal

White Station has an optional program for high-achieving, gifted students. It also has a regular school (which is on the state's troubled list).

You need to be careful about othe G'town/Memphis house. School locaters aren't always right. If it's in the Memphis city limits, it is not in Germantown schools.

White Station wouldn't work. Neither is classified as "gifted" although wouldn't it be nice if they would have that optional program for kids who need a smaller setting!?!?!?!??! District's are so backwards sometimes. I don't understand about the school thing with the address being Memphis but the school saying it's Germantown. The zip was one off from Germantown, but the address was Memphis. And when I did the school locater it said Germantown High. What's really interesting that when looking for homes online and doing the zone locater, all of the lower priced homes that still looked "nice" had the schools that I've heard are "not so good." Coincidence? I think not. Very wrong. Sorry....I'm venting.

[Pearlbob]

Don't use the school locator, it's obviously wrong. It doesn't matter if the zip is "one off" of Germantown. Germantown has it's own zip codes, it is a separate city. If the zip is a Memphis city zip, you are in a Memphis city school zone, period. There is no "grey area" with that stuff. The zone locator online simply goes by the street names, and a street can cross borders into another city...it has to sort of guess the # address. It might be guessing wrong, maybe the map is wrong, maybe someone entered the info wrong on their end. Go by the zip codes.

[tigergal]

Originally Posted by Pearlbob

Don't use the school locator, it's obviously wrong. It doesn't matter if the zip is "one off" of Germantown. Germantown has it's own zip codes, it is a separate city. If the zip is a Memphis city zip, you are in a Memphis city school zone, period. There is no "grey area" with that stuff. The zone locator online simply goes by the street names, and a street can cross borders into another city...it has to sort of guess the # address. It might be guessing wrong, maybe the map is wrong, maybe someone entered the info wrong on their end. Go by the zip codes.

Zip codes aren't completely reliable either. For instance, the zip code I'm in is in both Memphis and Bartlett city limits.

[UofMGrad92]

Actually, zip codes are not unique to a city, or even a county. Bartlett has 4 zip codes (38133, 38134, 38135, 38002) that each stretch into Memphis, and 38002 covers parts of Bartlett, parts of Cordova (south of Highway 64), parts of Lakeland, and all of Arlington (in fact, it is the zip code for the Arlington post office). I used to have a friend who lived in Atoka (in Tipton County), and his mailing address and zipcode were Millington.

The school locator is actually pretty good, and does break down the streets by street number. If you put in the street number and name, it will probably be accurate. Of course, I would still verify this before I bought a house to avoid any unpleasant suprises..

My guess is the area that is either Germantown or Memphis is actually in the Soutwind area or out towards that southeast border of Memphis and Germantown. So it may be a Memphis address, but not yet annexed so it still uses Germantown schools. Even if that is the case, best to avoid those areas as the question over whether an area will be annexed by Memphis or not (and past history shows eventually it will) seems to at this point have a worse effect than actually being annexed (at least for property values).

Tigergal did it again...I've got to start posting faster.....

[Pearlbob]

Well yes, you type the address # in, but it's still dependent on if the locator grid is correct. I've used those before and sometimes they don't recognize my street name, even though my street has been a part of the city for 100+ years.

If there is any question, I would still contact neighbors to see exactly what the situation is. They will know for sure, more so than a realtor or even a school employee. Plus if there is any commotion about annexation, the neighbors will know that for sure!

[DubbleT]

I know the MCS board of education doesn't give out maps of school district boundaries. They will tell you over the phone what district a particular address is in, or at least they used to. Maybe the Germantown system would be more likely to provide a boundary map to prospective residents?

[Pearlbob]

Which zip code was it that was Memphis city but Germantown schools? I guess I don't see what that would be (although this map is most likely old...)

[worried4kids]

Originally Posted by Pearlbob

Which zip code was it that was Memphis city but Germantown schools? I guess I don't see what that would be (although this map is most likely old...)

You're awesome, thanks for posting that. The zip is 38125. I can see where it sits on that map. The house is absolutely amazing it says "Georgetown Village" It's probably too far anyway. I think I talked my husband into letting me make a trip before his vacation so that I can see areas and then we'll go from there. I have noted those issues with the zone locater. It actually does ask for the which side on some of the streets. But, before we made any final decisions, I'd confirm that my daughter will be in the right school. You did say that Bartlett cannot be annexed right? We DEFINITELY don't want to move into an area that can be.

[UofMGrad92]

Bartlett is it's own city, and areas in the Bartlett city limits cannot be annexed by Memphis. There are areas around Bartlett that are in unincorporated Shelby County. Some of this area is the Memphis annexation reserve, some of it is the Bartlett annexation reserve.

In theory, the Bartlett annexation reserve can't be annexed into Memphis (all of these annexation reserves were part of a negotiated agreement that is binding), but I'm not sure what would happen if Memphis decided to try to grab an area in Bartlett's reserve. Well, I'm sure it would result in lots of lawsuits, but that wouldn't be a good thing for property values either.

The same is true of any other suburban municipalities (except Germantown, which I believe has no more annexation reserve area), and I truly believe if you move into an area that the city hall of that suburb verifies as their annexation reserve you will be fine. Just be careful, because some real estate developers have lied in the the past about the annexation reserve areas (claiming they belong to Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, etc. when they actually belong to Memphis).

FWIW, Memphis moved to annex Southwind and a big hunk of Cordova (the Bridgewater area around Macon and Dexter roads) a couple of years ago. Memphis delayed this, I believe due to the inability to guarantee required city services. While the annexation could be revivied at any time, to my knowledge Memphis hasn't moved forward on these areas in the past two years. I'm sure it will happen one day, but who knows what day (some areas have been proposed and annexed in a year or two, and other areas took 15 years or so to annex due to lawsuits). The bad news is the spectre of being annexed by Memphis has hit property values in those areas pretty badly already.

[UofMGrad92]

Georgetown Village is off S. Germantown Road south of Winchester. This area is...well, not quite Southwind, and not quite Hickory Hill. I think (in general) the west side of S. Germantown has been annexed by Memphis, and the east side is still county but is in the Memphis annexation area and part of the proposed annexation I mentioned above.

It would either be Memphis City Schools, or the Southwind Elementary/Middle/High School district which are county schools. However, as soon as the area is annexed, they will become Memphis City Schools. If you want to avoid Memphis City Schools, avoid this area.