Best place for families between Brookhaven and Madison (Jackson, Clinton: houses, neighborhoods)

[Mrscllc]

My husband and I are considering a relocation to MS. He'll be working in the southern part of the state up to Jackson. We don't want to be further than Brookhaven from Jackson for the days he works in the city. Is there somewhere I should avoid looking?

We have 5 children 10 and under. We home school currently, but would like somewhere with a decent school system if we ever needed it. We are looking for acreage or large lot neighborhoods, so rural is fine. We need it to be safe for the kids to play outside. A good park or library system is a plus. There are a couple places we have liked the look of in Terry, and a few in Brandon.... any info on these areas?

[GrandviewGloria]

The only place that fits your criteria is Madison. Brookhaven is a LOVELY community, full of LOVELY people. I can't stress that enough. But private schools would be a must.

There are many people of substance in South Mississippi, who home-school their children. It isn't just an "ignorant Holy-rolllers thing" at all. Many of these people are too smart for Mississippi schools - even most private ones, and have better value systems than what they see in the private schools (the Football Sickness, for one thing, and the bullying culture, and culture of conformist substance abuse, that goes with the sports obsession).

But Madison's the only place where you'll have EXCELLENT public schools as a viable fallback-option. Don't overlook some of the older homes inside Madison - ones on large '50s & '60s lots. That part of town is flat, and the lots are square (and the soil does not move - a huge plus, in a region plagued with Yazoo Clay). Dealing with hilly terrain, and bizarre trapezoidal lots, is a real pain, IMHO.

And Madison offers the best of everything. The town is a miracle (thanks to Mayor Mary), and you'd have to travel hundreds of miles, to find a community which comes close to what it offers (and then, you'd not find it to be anywhere near as affordable as is Madison).

[Mrscllc]

Thank you Gloria! We aren't planning to use the school system, but my son has some language disorders we are working through and are keeping the schools in class therapy as an alternative source of help if we get to where we need it. We just want to be somewhere decent in case we decide that is a better route for him.

I love the area around Brookhaven, but have only been there once. It's nice to know there's a homeschooling community to get plugged into. Any opinion or areas like Crystal Springs or Mendenhall a bit to the East?

[brickpatio]

I agree that Brookhaven is amazingly beautiful, an ideal small town in many ways.

Another option might be nearby Wesson. It's tiny but charming and its key asset is the local community college, which may offer some of the special resources you mentioned (perhaps). This is an area is hills and lush hardwood forests and very pretty.

I believe the highest ranked school in these areas is West Lincoln, which is in the rural area immediately outside of Brookhaven.

Over in Simpson County, Mendenhall is tiny but like Wesson is an area of quite beautiful hilly, wooded terrain. Also, you didn't mention the town of Florence. They have well ranked public schools, it's very safe, and it's recently a growing area with new subdivisions beginning to pop up. Florence is essentially a small suburb but to me it still has a small town country feel in the best sense. I believe it ranks as among the safest towns in Mississippi.

Also, interestingly the Simpson Central schools, in Simpson County roughly ten miles south of Florence, have ranked fairly well in recent years. This is a beautiful rural area that is the home of the clear-water Strong River and locally famous Strong River Camp for children.

Between Florence and Terry, I prefer Florence because Terry is just down the interstate from South Jackson, which is not the nicest part of town (although neighboring Byram is nice and the land around Terry certainly is nice).

Brandon of course is much larger than these others and is a very good area all-around. There are many places all around Brandon to live on picturesque, wooded acreage and also have access to special school resources and the usual resources of nicer suburbs.

And as Gloria says, Madison is by far the nicest of all - very well planned, attractive, and on the way up.

[viverlibre]

Better listen to GG, move to Madison. Even if you home school, you always want the option of Public Schools just in case. Also, with a special needs child, you will find much better services in the immediate metro area. My rankings of Places to live in central MS, 1. Madison/Gluckstadt, 2. Flowood/ 3. Brandon.

[viverlibre]

Also there are some active home school groups in Rankin and Madison Counities, I doubt there are active groups in smaller towns, just not enough population or money.

[Mississippi Alabama Line]

Originally Posted by Mrscllc

My husband and I are considering a relocation to MS. He'll be working in the southern part of the state up to Jackson. We don't want to be further than Brookhaven from Jackson for the days he works in the city. Is there somewhere I should avoid looking?

We have 5 children 10 and under. We home school currently, but would like somewhere with a decent school system if we ever needed it. We are looking for acreage or large lot neighborhoods, so rural is fine. We need it to be safe for the kids to play outside. A good park or library system is a plus. There are a couple places we have liked the look of in Terry, and a few in Brandon.... any info on these areas?

I think Brandon gives you what you are looking for. If I ever moved back to Jackson it would be either Brandon or Madison, depending on where in the city you'd be working. In your case it seems you want to stay south, so Brandon's your ticket.

[stella13]

I live in Fondren area of Jackson and my future in-laws live near Mt. Olive, so I'm up and down 49 pretty often. I'm not familiar with the schools in these areas, so my comments are only about what I think about living in the areas mentioned.

Places to avoid - west and south Jackson (so pretty much anything between I-55 and I-220 north of I-20, which makes a nice easy to see area on google maps) I'd stay away from Terry for the same reason brickpatio said - it's just down the interstate from South Jackson.

I hear good things about Byram as well, although I haven't ever been.
Florence seems safe to me, it has a nice compromise of being close to Jackson but being country-like as well.
Brandon seems safe, is larger and has a lot to offer.
Madison is large and has a lot of resources available, but it may be too far out of your way given your husband is working south of Jackson.
Mendenhall is pretty small. Like another poster said, I don't know that you'd find a very large home-schooling community there or easy access to resources.

I'm not sure why, it may be related to the school system, but no one mentioned Pearl or Clinton. I think Pearl is ok as far as a place to live, it's a bit more run down looking than Brandon. Between the 2, I'd pick Brandon, but just throwing it out as another possibility. Clinton is nice as well.

[Mrscllc]

Thank you all for the information! It took a while but we finally nailed down some details about the coming move. The job will be out of Clinton, and in an effort to avoid driving through Jackson on a daily commute we had to rule out Mendenhall, and Brandon. Most of our search has been from Yazoo City, which is a little north of ideal conmute, Raymond, Byram, outlying Terry areas and Crystal Springs. Thank you for the info on Terry, we did a drive up there and decided the areas west of 55 but still considered Terry are both picturesque and provide acreage lots with nice houses.

[madison2013]

Why would anyone want to live in Yazoo????