School advice - not sure I even know the questions to ask (Chattanooga: condos, townhomes)

[rxlynn]

I would very much appreciate any input the forum has on the following school dilemma:

My husband and I both grew up in Chattanooga and are contemplating moving back. However, I am having a hard time figuring out where might be a good place for us to live with the following constraints on school and house - obviously we want to be in a good school district.
1) We don't want to live on Signal Mt. because we don't want to drive up and down every day for work.
2) We need to be in a district that will be good from elementary up to high school - by the time we move my older child will be in middle school. From what I read, that seems to exclude Hixson and perhaps East Ridge and Red Bank.
3) Our price range would be $350-400K, although it seems to me that there is an awful lot of housing in Chattanooga that far exceeds that.
4) I am leery of the Ooltewah/East Brainerd area because of traffic and crowding - exactly what we want to avoid. We could stay in Atlanta if we wanted that.
5) We have no interest in private school - again, if we wanted to do that we could just stay where we are.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

[pioti]

With all the places you do not want to live does not leave much. The reason people chose Signal, East Brainard etc is for the schools. I chose East Brainerd and find the "traffic" and "overcrowding" to be a joke after living in a big city and dealing with traffic. My average commute is 20 minutes to hixon and 30 minutes if traffic backs up on East Brainard Rd.

The price range for houses also leaves you quite a few choices unless you want to live on the lake or buy a McMansion. I had a lot of similar concerns and parameters that you express and ended up in the Westview Elementary catchement area which will also follow up into the new middle/high school to open next year. I do find OMS to be overcrowded presently (I have 7th grader) but hope that will be partially alleviated with the new school.

If you search previous threads there is a lot of information on the schools and neighborhoods by people more knowledgeable than me. Chattanooga is not Atlanta (both good and bad) but quite acceptable. Good place to raise a family. Good Luck

[Jon F Moss]

when will the kid(s) be in elementary, jr high, and high school? The current state of the schools will more than likely change down the road. Hixson Middle will be moving into a new facility which may very well bring it back to its former glory. (at least that's what I'm hoping)

lots of variables for sure

[financelife]

We chose East Brainerd for the schools. A new High School is being built for the district (if not already finished), and the Ooltewah High principal will be taking charge there. Westview Elementary was tied with at least 3 other schools for top spot, and a large portion of the asian and indian community have located in E Brianerd, which should signal something to you about the future of the district. I'm not being racist or stereotyping. Do some research and you will find "horror" stories of school districts that were overrun with asians and got too academically difficult for some people to keep up. Of course, those were larger populated areas such as LA and Silicon Valley, etc. So, it shouldn't have a drastic effect, but a positive effect nonetheless.

[marinabroker]

Immediately when I read your post I thought Ooltewah. Then I read further to see your objections. I live in the area and really there is not true traffic as you know it. I came here from N.J. originally and this is cake compared to there. I also travel to Atlanta and Marietta frequently and believe me this is nothing like any of those places. Let me know if you want more specific information.

[pioti]

Just a correction- The new Principal of east Hamilton Middle/High school is Pam Dantzler who was the principal at Ooltewah Middle School- not High School. The new school web site is Welcome to East Hamilton Middle/High School
Looking Forward to it opening up fall of 2009.

[rxlynn]

Originally Posted by TriDad

when will the kid(s) be in elementary, jr high, and high school? The current state of the schools will more than likely change down the road. Hixson Middle will be moving into a new facility which may very well bring it back to its former glory. (at least that's what I'm hoping)

lots of variables for sure

Our plan at this point is to move in early summer 2010, and the school year that starts in fall 2010 one child would be starting 6th grade and the other 3rd grade. I just feel a lot of pressure to get this decision right the first time, because our current house was bought in anticipation of being in a top-rated school district even though we had no children at the time. We are now 10 years down the road, and the elementary school has gone from 70% to 28% white in that time period--so I've learned some lessons about not assuming too much about what might or might not happen several years down the road.

[financelife]

Originally Posted by rxlynn

Our plan at this point is to move in early summer 2010, and the school year that starts in fall 2010 one child would be starting 6th grade and the other 3rd grade. I just feel a lot of pressure to get this decision right the first time, because our current house was bought in anticipation of being in a top-rated school district even though we had no children at the time. We are now 10 years down the road, and the elementary school has gone from 70% to 28% white in that time period--so I've learned some lessons about not assuming too much about what might or might not happen several years down the road.

Was the white flight from an urban area or a suburb?

I don't see this happening in East Brainerd area (kind of a suburb). I moved to Chattanooga 2 yrs ago and studied the demographics of all the zip codes. I personally don't mind diversity because it will give your kid exposure to how the future is going to be.

What I don't tolerate is poor performance by parents, educators, and students themselves, and this is usually related to socioeconomic vs strictly race (asians don't tend to adhere to this however).

The problems in Chattanooga public schools seems to be restricted to areas near downtown. You can't just look at home values. Downtown boasts condos and townhomes that cost around $1million and there were homes being flipped to sell at $200K+. So, in this instance, home values do not relate to good school district.

East Brainerd is unlike that, and if you visited you would instantly realize this truth. Chattanooga is not experiencing any significant gentrification and even if it were, it would be many years before the effects would be felt in the downtown public schools. East Brainerd schools should be fine in your time frame. I have a 1 yr old, so things could drastically change in my situation.

[MountainAire]

Sequatchie County Schools in Dunlap

[rxlynn]

Originally Posted by financelife

Was the white flight from an urban area or a suburb?

I don't see this happening in East Brainerd area (kind of a suburb). I moved to Chattanooga 2 yrs ago and studied the demographics of all the zip codes. I personally don't mind diversity because it will give your kid exposure to how the future is going to be.

What I don't tolerate is poor performance by parents, educators, and students themselves, and this is usually related to socioeconomic vs strictly race (asians don't tend to adhere to this however).

The problems in Chattanooga public schools seems to be restricted to areas near downtown. You can't just look at home values. Downtown boasts condos and townhomes that cost around $1million and there were homes being flipped to sell at $200K+. So, in this instance, home values do not relate to good school district.

East Brainerd is unlike that, and if you visited you would instantly realize this truth. Chattanooga is not experiencing any significant gentrification and even if it were, it would be many years before the effects would be felt in the downtown public schools. East Brainerd schools should be fine in your time frame. I have a 1 yr old, so things could drastically change in my situation.

Suburb - and you pretty much hit the nail on the head. We have a lot of multi-family housing in our district, so there has been a lot of socioeconomic change. We will be in Chattanooga over Tgiving, so hopefully we can take a couple of hours and drive around East Brainerd and Ooltewah some.