What can you tell me about Jackson? (Cape Girardeau, St. Paul: house, middle school)

[anr_black]

We may be relocating to the Cape Girardeau area. I read the threads about Cape, but I haven't found anything on Jackson. If you live there, could you tell me what you like/don't like about it? How are the schools and local services? We have two small kids, so we're looking for a family friendly place to live, and we'd like to spend between $225-275K for a house. Can you recommend anywhere? Thanks.

[semomom]

We have lived in Cape for almost 2 years. When we were house hunting we were told by several people that if you move to Jackson and your kids want to play sports.... you might as well forget it. If you don't carry the 'name' then your kids don't stand a chance.
There schools are over-crowded and the property taxes are very high.
From what we have seen it's who you are and what amount of money you make for the Jackson folks.

We have been happy with Cape and the public schools here. We've experienced the middle school and the jr. high. I then worked at the high school.

Hope this helps.

[anr_black]

Hmm, that doesn't sound good! It looks like it's an older town with a lot of newer development--I wondered if there would be a clash with the older "locals" and the newer families moving in. Is this what you're referring to? I guess we need to do a lot of searching if/when we decide to move. Thanks for the input!

[moosesmom]

I would definitely agree that your experience in jackson depends on who you know or who you are. I went to Jackson schools my whole life, and it was painfully obvious that if you weren't so-and-so, you didn't matter. I'm not sure Cape is much better. If I was going to send my child to any school, I would send them to a private, parochial school. Maybe Trinity Lutheran, St. Vincent (cathoilic), St. Paul lutheran, etc. Also, there are two parochial high schools, Notre Dame and Saxony Lutheran which provide good Christian education. Hope this helps!