Williamson County -- Work from home, where to live? (Murfreesboro: apartments, to rent)

[florida_sassy]

Work from home so commute doesn't matter. We have an 11 year old son, so schools do. Need to rent an apartment at first to get to know the area or know that the area is a perfect fit before we marry the community with a home purchase.

Our budget is open when we do buy, but obiviously anyone smart will try to stay under budget with everything they want.


So for now, we are only looking for a great town -- farmers markets, whole foods not far, green space, great schools, parks, safe and maybe beautiful.

Franklin is always the top choice, but is there somewhere else that I don't know about.

I know Spring Hill wins best place to live and is a GREAT place to live, but it seems like there isn't a center of town -- or maybe I missed it.

Anywhere else??

Thanks!

[nashvols]

My personal opinion would be Franklin. While you don't need to commute, Spring Hill is another 10 miles down the highway and much farther from other conveniences in the metro area. There is a Whole Foods in Franklin, as well as a farmer's market.

I think Spring Hill wins best place to live for some people -- but that depends on what you want. My complaint about Spring Hill has to do with a complete lack of foresight and planning -- the road infrastructure is awful. There is a center of town -- on US 31 just north of Saturn Parkway -- but it resembles a village (this because Spring Hill had all of 1,700 residents in 1990 -- it never developed the traditional downtown that you see in Franklin, Murfreesboro, Lebanon, Gallatin, Columbia, etc).

Spring Hill is a village surrounded by nightmarish sprawl. Aside from Saturn Pkwy, and a tiny portion of US 31 (in Maury County), the town doesn't have 4 lane highways or collector roads. There is little room now to expand this infrastructure, and it is going to prove very costly and painful to do so now that the town has more than 30,000 residents. While I think the small town attitude is great for living, it has proved costly in terms of planning.

Franklin is quite a bit more established, and while it has some of the same sprawl and traffic issues, there seems to be a more solid plan in place to handle growth. There is also the charm of the quaint downtown area, as well as a number of city parks. Schools are good as well. There are also more apartment options for you to consider while you get a feel for the area.

[florida_sassy]

Thank you nahsvols. That is my opinion as well. Does anyone have a favorite apt community? Price doesn't matter -- will need a 3 bedroom. Apartments can be fun sometimes, because of the amenities, but the residents who live there can make all the difference in the world!

[bluemarlin08]

Franklin sure would be my choice.

[Vandy-bound]

If you are interested in renting first, I believe Brentwood Landings apartments off of Moore's Lane is zoned for Brentwood High School/Middle School/Scales Elementary? I'd look there first before Franklin, but if they don't meet your needs, Franklin is a great choice. Lots to choose from in the Cool Springs area.

[florida_sassy]

Chose a neighborhood that we loved, but just found out it is zoned for Freedom Middle School. According to GreatSchools there are approximately 43% of the student population on the free lunch program.

Just totally bummed because this house worked for us perfectly and we loved it.

Can anyone shed some light on this???

Also, is Page the best high school or are they in Brentwood or Springhill?

Thank you all!!

[Vandy-bound]

Top rated high school in Williamson County is Brentwood, followed by Ravenwood (both of which are in Brentwood). Franklin High School is well-regarded and has an IB program option (though I believe you can apply for the IB program regardless of what school you would normally be zoned for).

As for Franklin, you will need to consider whether or not you move into the Franklin Special School District. It sounds like the school you were looking for was in the FSSD. Personally, I don't understand why Franklin needs a school district (that is K-8 only) instead of merging with WCS -- it seems like a very unnecessary extra layer of management, especially given that WCS is highly regarded. While I am sure that Page HS and whatever is zoned for in Spring Hill are fine schools, I have never heard anyone say that they are on par with Brentwood, Ravenwood, or Franklin. They may be, but I have never heard it.

[florida_sassy]

Thank you Vandy. The house is in FSSD and I just found out that half of one of the schools are on free lunches. Even though our son is well rounded, we would like to have other families that he could do things with (like go to the movies, laser tag or any other activity a healthy 10 year old asks to do) without having to pay for all his friends because they can't afford to do all those things.

Seriously probably sound shallow, but we have seen this happen in the past and it is just frustrating to pay for everyone just to do something fun!

The school has a high score, so that is good. I'm sure it is a wonderful school.

Thank you for your help. I will check in those areas.

[CountryGirl2b=]

To be honest, yeah, it does . . . sorry! Certainly there are some not expensive or free ways "healthy" kids can entertain themselves. The school has a high score. Gee, those free lunch kids are pretty smart!

[budgiegirl]

Originally Posted by Vandy-bound

As for Franklin, you will need to consider whether or not you move into the Franklin Special School District. It sounds like the school you were looking for was in the FSSD. Personally, I don't understand why Franklin needs a school district (that is K-8 only) instead of merging with WCS -- it seems like a very unnecessary extra layer of management, especially given that WCS is highly regarded. While I am sure that Page HS and whatever is zoned for in Spring Hill are fine schools, I have never heard anyone say that they are on par with Brentwood, Ravenwood, or Franklin. They may be, but I have never heard it.

Just want to say that I interviewed a Page High School student applying to my alma mater (Dartmouth), and I thought he was excellent, he was a national merit finalist. He ended up going to Duke. I did not think he was too shabby, myself.
I also spoke at Page High School because they asked alumni to speak to their top juniors about applying to selective colleges. I found them delightful. And yes, the high school is "out there" a little bit. It's probably not what the original poster is looking for, but I would not diss the high school or the area. I was a little envious of the green space, myself.

As far as FSSD - a lot of people like the arrangement - they operate on closer to a year round calendar - more of a "balanced calendar" which is what Davidson County does. Everybody I know at Poplar Grove loves it. And yes they have some underserved kids there. Those underserved kids actually are fluent in Spanish and English, which is more than I ever achieved in a foreign language. My son has played soccer with them. Again, I find them delightful.

But I don't worry too much about other kids test scores.... I don't even worry about my own kids test scores. There is a lot more to an education than that, IMHO, and a large part of it is the experience. I have had my issues with Williamson County schools, more about curriculum and administration. I have never had any complaints about the good nature and abilities of the kids.