Safety and Kids In Huntsville, McMullen Cove, and Hampton Cove

[lindy112]

Are you specifically asking about the Hampton Cove neighborhood or just that area of town? You'll notice that it's used interchangeably a lot here. Hampton Cove the neighborhood will have quite a few outdated homes (think wallpaper and brass) but most of them have lots of sq footage and some of them have good golf course/mountain views. You can also live in neighborhoods that aren't in Hampton Cove proper but have access to Hampton House membership (i.e., Twelve Stones).


McMullen Cove has much newer houses but will be a slightly longer drive into Huntsville and Huntsville High (which, obviously, won't affect you for a long time!). Also, its HOA dues are higher than Hampton Cove.

[NOVAfamilymoving]

Hello! We are also a family with 2 small children, not yet in schools. We just closed this week on a house in Hampton Cove proper, in the neighborhood behind the HC elementary school and middle school.

Great area, beautiful houses, the fishing lake, Hampton house for pool / tennis and golf course near by. And can walk kids to school for 8 years and playgrounds. Not sure where you are getting any concern about safety in HC but that's nuts. It looks like pleasantville and is as safe as you will ever find. For good or bad school is almost all upper income with like 1 percent reduced lunch and 90 plus percent white. And with no apartments or people who would be just milling about that didn't live there, I don't think you need to worry.

Schools there have a great reputation too. And we have mountain views as well. Can't go wrong over there. Best of luck

[Mawoods]

We used to live in McMullen Cove and loved it! Felt very safe and loved the hiking trails and views. My favorite area by far of any that we have lived in over the years. Hated leaving! We had a Barry Phillips house - not sure if he is still building there or not. We liked being close to the north AL mountains and the lake.

[TravelFamily6]

We are in SE Huntsville, have no problems with crime at all (although we do lock up and do not leave anything out), and we are within walking distance to a park and Aldridge Creek Greenway (a little over 4 miles of paved walk/run/bike path). Our neighborhood is mixed retired/working and I've found that the retired/stay-at-home neighbors really watch out for the neighborhood.

[zenjenn]

I'm going to have to disagree with the assertion that the schools are "excellent". The schools are safe and get good ratings more attributable to the area's demographics (income and education level) and a strong PTA than the quality of education itself. The schools themselves are adequate at best. If your kids are average or mildly gifted, they will probably be fine, though there is a bit of a roulette factor with teachers and admins, especially the way they are randomly moving around personnel in the district these days. When my own child was at Hampton Cove elementary she had a 1st Grade teacher that had glaring misspelling and punctuation in every single written communication I ever saw her produce, be it to students or parents, up to and including spelling errors on her bulletin boards. I'm not exaggerating. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Oh and she was named District Elementary Teacher of the Year a few years later. How on Earth that happened, I can't explain.

Almost every person I know with a student that has either special needs, learning disabilities, and/or are extremely/profoundly gifted, has had an uphill battle with HCS. Many who are able to do so have pulled them out to homeschool either temporarily or permanently because they find it easier to meet their student's needs at home.

Folks I know in Madison are much more satisfied with the school system on average, I think.

[needtosellmyhome]

Originally Posted by zenjenn

I'm going to have to disagree with the assertion that the schools are "excellent". The schools are safe and get good ratings more attributable to the area's demographics (income and education level) and a strong PTA than the quality of education itself. The schools themselves are adequate at best. If your kids are average or mildly gifted, they will probably be fine, though there is a bit of a roulette factor with teachers and admins, especially the way they are randomly moving around personnel in the district these days. When my own child was at Hampton Cove elementary she had a 1st Grade teacher that had glaring misspelling and punctuation in every single written communication I ever saw her produce, be it to students or parents, up to and including spelling errors on her bulletin boards. I'm not exaggerating. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Oh and she was named District Elementary Teacher of the Year a few years later. How on Earth that happened, I can't explain.

Almost every person I know with a student that has either special needs, learning disabilities, and/or are extremely/profoundly gifted, has had an uphill battle with HCS. Many who are able to do so have pulled them out to homeschool either temporarily or permanently because they find it easier to meet their student's needs at home.

Folks I know in Madison are much more satisfied with the school system on average, I think.

I have always felt that it would not the be the smartest move to base a school decision solely on the ratings alone. GreatSchools lists Hampton Cove Elementary's rating as a 9 out of 10. It also lists the "School leader" as Dr. Fillis McGhee and she was fired from her position as principal of Hampton Cove Elementary several years ago. They need to update that. Hampton Cove Elementary School - Owens Cross Roads, Alabama - AL - School overview

[zenjenn]

Yup. I even take that even further and find a school a little *suspect* if it's a 9 or a 10. There are schools out there in such hot pursuit of a perfect public image that obtaining or maintaining that image becomes a higher priority than doing what's best for students.

Not that the highest ratings are *necessarily* bad - just suspect. Some schools (especially larger and well-funded schools serving a highly educated demographic) can pursue those great ratings without compromising anything on the backend. But if a school is in a position where it has to juggle priorities (and many if not most schools are) the pursuit of checking off all the boxes to impress the public and earn high ratings can sometimes mean that resources are being spread very thinly or even pushing young students to *perform* excessively for the benefit of adults concerned about their property values.

Ok, that bit about the property values sounds cynical - I'm sure a lot of people making decisions are rationalizing it as being best for the students because they believe a somewhat arbitrary school rating actually reflects what is best for the students. But a school that is TRULY excellent, I think, is run by savvier people than that.

As an example when my daughter attended HCES, a scant 10 minutes of recess a day was scheduled for kids - all the way down to Kindergarten. Because, 'rigor'.

Maybe some administrators in pursuit of their 9 or 10 rating or their blue ribbon status or whatever sincerely believes that's what it takes to make an excellent school, but there's no one well-respected in the field of early childhood education or child development who thinks 10 minutes of free play a day is in the best interest of elementary children.

Or similarly (back to being cynical) HCS throwing electronics at every student in the district K-12 in one swoop is not something childhood development experts would agree is best for students... but it sure made a shiny story for the media!

[DvlsAdvc8]

While I am also an advocate of more free play, I can also say that the prevailing reputations of our local public schools correlate very well with educational achievement data I've been privy to. I'm a software developer who specializes in data warehousing and business intelligence. One of my projects has been tracking and reporting assessment, achievement and outcome data for ALSDE accountability, and I will say without any reservation that the data show Hampton Cove Elementary, Hampton Cove Middle and Goldsmith-Schiffman Elementary are "excellent" public schools. The students there are among the highest performing in north Alabama, and continue to be a high performing population through middle and high school (incomplete data for GSE). As far as performance metrics go, there aren't substantially better public schools in our region.

No Madison public elementary school had better numbers. Among elementary schools, Jones Valley, Hampton Cove and Goldsmith-Schiffman Elementary were the top performers in Huntsville. The best in Madison were Columbia, Rainbow and Heritage. The Madison system as a whole performed better than the Huntsville system as a whole, but the best elementary schools in Huntsville generally had better numbers than the best in Madison. I don't recall all the stats and no longer have access to them, but I do remember math proficiency... Hampton Cove Elementary and Goldsmith-Schiffman for example, were rare schools above 90% proficient in math (60% exceeding). Madison's best was Columbia at about 85% proficient (50% exceeding). I would humbly suggest that cynicism has gotten the better of you ZenJenn. Of course, much of this comes down to demographics, but when comparing an entire school... it is what it is.

One can argue the merits of homeschooling vs public school; one can object to recess, electronics, or specific teachers; but the assessment and achievement data clearly argues that the Hampton Cove area has excellent public schools. It's students are among the most proficient across reading, math and science.

[TurkeyRuben]

I hosted an open house for a house for sale in McMullen Cove Sunday -- as for it being a gated community, Friday night, I drove up to the gate, in shorts and a t-shirt, in a nice car. I told the guard that I was hosting an open house on Sunday and needed to drop off some items at XXX McMullen Lane. I showed no i.d. The nice man opened the gate for me, and told me the house would be on the left hand side. Now granted, it was Spring of Tour homes time, and there was a lot of open house activity going on, but I've had a harder time gaining access to the Ledges when I had a personalized invitation and i.d. in hand.

That said, as has been mentioned above, all the areas you mentioned have a reputation of being safe and "good areas." Yeah, sometimes cars that are left un-locked or have cup holders full of change are broken into. That happens all over the city but it isn't epidemic. Practice common sense. Lock your doors. Don't leave valuables in plain sight. If you have security lights, use them. The biggest problem for Hampton Cove, McMullen Cove, Madison, and most of SE Huntsville is finding an honest service contractor who isn't going to jack up the price because you live in a "chic" neighborhood. The 2nd biggest problem is getting a flood of yard sale buyers to community yard sales, because the perception is the mentioned areas have "good stuff."

One last comment - at the open house this past Sunday, I had affixed a couple of balloons to the open house sign. I glanced outside while I was still setting up inside, and two kids in a golf cart were making off with my balloons. Just my opinion, but that is a great example of the type of crime that is common to the area in question.