Any great Public Schools & decent home pricing around Nashville? (Franklin: hazard insurance, mortgage)

[scrammy]

I am planning to move to the Nashville area in late June 2007 if not earlier with my 6 year old daughter and 65 year old mother. Since I don't know yet where I will be working but imagine it would be in Nashville or Brentwood I need to decide where is best to settle, a daunting task but I think I'm up to the challenge!!!

I am mainly concerned about the public schools - I want my daughter to be at the very best public schools available. We got lucky here in L.A., she is at a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence, it is the very best public school in our area (it was sheer luck but I can't go backwards now!). But... I also need to be able to afford to buy a home in that area. I am a single parent supporting my daughter and mother as well as our wonderful 112lb dog, so I've set my sights at finding a 3 bedroom 2 bath home for under $200k. We are very active nature lovers and hope to be fairly near hiking trails and camping areas but still I don't want to spend more than 20-30min commuting to work each day. Is this possible? What areas of Nashville should I research? I've heard Oak Hill & Forest Hills are beautiful (Radnor Lake) but I don't know anything about the quality of the public schools or the price of decent homes. Also, I've heard Hendersonville and Goodletsville are nice too and also near a lake (Old Hickory?), but again, how are the prices of homes and schools there?

Any input is greatly appreciated!!! Thanks in advance!

[insanesmooch]

I'm not familiar with Oak Hill, but you can forget that price in Forest Hills. It is a place with million dollar homes. Brentwood also has a lot of high dollar homes. You might try Franklin. It is pricey, but you might could find something there. Plus there are good schools there.

[mollyoday]

I don't know your income level, but if you plan to live in Nashville, the public schools (unless you can get into a magnet school, by lottery choice) aren't very good. The best elementary schools would be Eakin or Julia Green, but housing is expensive (by my standards) in those neighborhoods. Again, don't know your income. I like the parochial schools in Nashville where my son attended for five years. I lived in Nashville for almost 20 years, and I'm moving back as soon as I sell my two houses south of here. The schools in Bellevue (a section of Nash.) are good, and the housing is more moderately priced. Hope this helps.

[scrammy]

We're looking for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, w/ car garage, minimum 1600sqft home with a big backyard, near great schools in the $100-$150k range. Currently we are looking at Kingston Springs and Mt. Juliet - I hear both areas have great schools but I'm leaning towards Kingston Springs because the schools are smaller. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject...

[QueenOf5s]

I have been looking to relocate as well, and while I have no kids, I am a school teacher so the school system has been a big factor for me. I just got back from visiting Nashville and suburbs. I had a realtor helping me out, and they introduced me to Hermitage. Now i spent only three days there, but I can tell you I felt very safe and it is a very nice, clean, flourishing suburb that is only about 20 minutes from downtown nashville and it's growing and appreciating very quickly! my price range is a bit less than yours, I'm capped at 160K, also looking for a 3/2 with garage, and I was shown plenty of nice homes in this range in Hermitage. Good luck!

[scrammy]

Originally Posted by QueenOf5s

I have been looking to relocate as well, and while I have no kids, I am a school teacher so the school system has been a big factor for me. I just got back from visiting Nashville and suburbs. I had a realtor helping me out, and they introduced me to Hermitage. Now i spent only three days there, but I can tell you I felt very safe and it is a very nice, clean, flourishing suburb that is only about 20 minutes from downtown nashville and it's growing and appreciating very quickly! my price range is a bit less than yours, I'm capped at 160K, also looking for a 3/2 with garage, and I was shown plenty of nice homes in this range in Hermitage. Good luck!

Actually, my daughter's godfather is a mortgage loan broker so he just ran the numbers for me, when you factor in mortgage insurance, hazard insurance, and taxes to the mortgage payment that drops my budget to $150k or below. I've learned that I'll have to go stated income on my loan because I'll be relocating without a job so I'll get clobbered with fees. If I can line up employment before I make the moved that will help alot. I've heard just making the move will drop my income about 20%, do you believe that this is true?

Do you know at what school you will be teaching yet? We have a friend that has lived in Hermitage for about a year and a half, she seems to like it but I haven't heard her rave about it, I'll have to pump her for more info today. When do you plan to make the leap? Where are you leaping from? This is a huge step for my daughter, my mom, and I so I'm investigating every angle, I don't want my daughter or my mom to ever feel that I took them away from a place they love to somewhere "less than" but something has to give somewhere, I just can't afford to stay here anymore (we currently live in the west san fernando valley area of Los Angeles County) .

Originally Posted by mollyoday

I don't know your income level, but if you plan to live in Nashville, the public schools (unless you can get into a magnet school, by lottery choice) aren't very good. The best elementary schools would be Eakin or Julia Green, but housing is expensive (by my standards) in those neighborhoods. Again, don't know your income. I like the parochial schools in Nashville where my son attended for five years. I lived in Nashville for almost 20 years, and I'm moving back as soon as I sell my two houses south of here. The schools in Bellevue (a section of Nash.) are good, and the housing is more moderately priced. Hope this helps.

I'm actually more worried about the middle and high schools, all the elementary schools seem to test well but it is extremely difficult to get a feel for the climate of the school by just reading test scores. Do you know anything about Kingston Springs and Mt. Juliet?

[Kevin " BOZ " Bosmans]

Spring Hill is a Great Place to Live, it's about 25 miles south of Nashville, Homes are still very affordable, and the town is up and coming. You can go to Williamson County and Maury County Websites to check on the schools. Moderator cut: no advertising, please read the rules

[LauraC]

HIGH PRIORITY LIST UNDER NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

If you want information on how individual Tennessee schools perform on standardized testing, start with this link. It will tell you the underperforming schools by county under No Child Left Behind for the last two years. Click on the link 2006 - 2007 High Priority Schools List or 2005 - 2006 High Priority Schools List.

http://www.state.tn.us/education/nclb/ayp/
-------------

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

If you want to see specific report cards (Tennessee standardized tests) and other info about the individual schools and individual school districts go to this page:

http://www.k-12.state.tn.us/rptcrd06/ (broken link)

Where it says View System Report Card (second search box) select the school district from a drop down menu. Note: Some schools have their own district within a county (example: Oak Ridge is in Anderson County but has its own school district so you would select Oak Ridge from the drop down menu if those schools are what you are interested in, not Anderson County. I suppose that if you don't know if a town/city has its own school district look for that first on the drop down menu and then look for the county).

The first page you will see is Part I System Profile. Hit the Next link near that title and you will see Part II Student Academic Achievement. That information is about the school district.

INDIVIDUAL SCHOOLS WITHIN A SCHOOL DISTRICT

Go back to the page that says Part I: System Profile (by hitting the back arrow button) and scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page. In the box where it says View School Report Card select the specific school, from the drop down menu, for which you seek information. The same information you saw for the school district, you will be able to view for the individual schools in that school district. That includes grades for individual school subjects.

The first page you will see is Part I System Profile. Hit the Next link near that title and you will see Part II Student Academic Achievement. That information is about the individual school.

[scrammy]

Originally Posted by LauraC

HIGH PRIORITY LIST UNDER NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

If you want information on how individual Tennessee schools perform on standardized testing, start with this link. It will tell you the underperforming schools by county under No Child Left Behind for the last two years. Click on the link 2006 - 2007 High Priority Schools List or 2005 - 2006 High Priority Schools List.

http://www.state.tn.us/education/nclb/ayp/
-------------

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

If you want to see specific report cards (Tennessee standardized tests) and other info about the individual schools and individual school districts go to this page:

http://www.k-12.state.tn.us/rptcrd06/ (broken link)

Where it says View System Report Card (second search box) select the school district from a drop down menu. Note: Some schools have their own district within a county (example: Oak Ridge is in Anderson County but has its own school district so you would select Oak Ridge from the drop down menu if those schools are what you are interested in, not Anderson County. I suppose that if you don't know if a town/city has its own school district look for that first on the drop down menu and then look for the county).

The first page you will see is Part I System Profile. Hit the Next link near that title and you will see Part II Student Academic Achievement. That information is about the school district.

INDIVIDUAL SCHOOLS WITHIN A SCHOOL DISTRICT

Go back to the page that says Part I: System Profile (by hitting the back arrow button) and scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page. In the box where it says View School Report Card select the specific school, from the drop down menu, for which you seek information. The same information you saw for the school district, you will be able to view for the individual schools in that school district. That includes grades for individual school subjects.

The first page you will see is Part I System Profile. Hit the Next link near that title and you will see Part II Student Academic Achievement. That information is about the individual school.

Wow, this is great information! I just went through and printed out the report cards for all the high schools in the areas where we are considering buying and it helped me rule out a few. THANK YOU! Do you know if there any parent forums where I can get a sense of the school community?

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by scrammy

Wow, this is great information! I just went through and printed out the report cards for all the high schools in the areas where we are considering buying and it helped me rule out a few. THANK YOU! Do you know if there any parent forums where I can get a sense of the school community?

No, I don't have kids. I just like to do research and this question about schools gets asked a lot on these boards. I'm guessing some people with kids can steer you to a website with a school forum for the community in which you are interested. My guess is that kind of thing (school forum) is done on a local or school district level, rather than state level.

You might want to also find and subscribe to or visit the local newspaper website regularly. I know I get the weekly Oak Ridge Observer and there are always a lot of stories on the schools (kid achievement, teacher achievement, kid sports, kid events) in it.