Grissom vs Bob Jones (Huntsville, Madison: private schools, college, design)

[ionlife]

That's a huge spread in ages! They must all keep you hopping for sure. I have a degree in Education but worked in Radio for years (it's like teaching Kindergarteners in a way LOL) and then with the Edison Project through Whittle Enterprises. That was Private management of public school dollars. S-T ratio is very important as well. But with my rising 9th grader, it's all about the drama department! She could do the math/science stuff as she has her dad's physic's brain and easily excels in it, but she's a Diva at heart.

I figured you had a background in education by your knowledgeable posts.

My husband's in Hville till this afternoon and he said just seeing the kids riding their bikes to and from places like their local school if in the neighborhood was so great. Mine's been out of her own base school since 3rd grade and we've been transporting her ever since. I am looking forward to our new life in Huntsville. I know we'll have a fabulous time when we get settled again.

Take care and best of luck to you as well.

[jwisconsin]

We will be bringing our kids to Huntsville in April to tour the schools. It will be interesting to see their reactions and hear their comments. Since we feel Grissom and BJ are close in the classes they offer it will be the kids decision. I would also like to have them tryout for their fall sports and get them enrolled in summer programs. Does anyone have recomendations, they are interested in volleyball,scoccer,basketball and football.

[Southeastern]

There are many choices for soccer in "metro" Huntsville.

Spring is the school soccer season, so fall is the major season for club\travel\rec teams.

For club:

Kicks Futbol Club
Kicks Futbol CLub - Huntsville Alabama

Huntsville Soccer Club
HSC - Home

Valley Futbol Club
Valley Futbol Club

United Soccer Club
United Soccer Club - Huntsville, Alabama

Lady Freedom 97
Lady Freedom 97 (http://eteamz.active.com/LadyFreedom97 - broken link)


And then Rec teams:

AYSO Huntsville
AYSO - Region 160 Home

AYSO Monrovia
AYSO Region 894 (http://www.ayso894.org/ext2/ - broken link)

AYSO Madison
AYSO Region 498, Madison, AL (http://www.madisonrecreation.org/AYSO - broken link)


For the other sports, try these sites:

Madison, Alabama Recreation

http://eteamz.active.com/mprasports

City of Huntsville, Alabama *** Huntsville *** Alabama ***

[Charles]

Good news for BJHS:

Bob Jones High athletic program called state's best- al.com

[marysally]

I read an interesting article in recent Hsv Times about the award winning Art program at Bob Jones. I know a couple of kids who went through it and they both received nice scholarships because of their art work.

[quiltkat]

Here's what we did: we narrowed our choices down to Bob Jones, Grissom and Huntsville because they are all great schools and we figured we could find a suitable house in any one of those areas, then we let our daughter (a rising 10th grader) decide. She ended up meeting three really nice kids from Huntsville HS, so that cinched it for her. The fact that the HHS marching band had just come back from a trip to Ireland helped too! By allowing her to choose the school, we feel that it gave her a little bit of control over a situation she has no control over. We are making our 2nd move in 2 years, so she was not happy about having to start all over again.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by quiltkat

Here's what we did: we narrowed our choices down to Bob Jones, Grissom and Huntsville because they are all great schools and we figured we could find a suitable house in any one of those areas, then we let our daughter (a rising 10th grader) decide. She ended up meeting three really nice kids from Huntsville HS, so that cinched it for her. The fact that the HHS marching band had just come back from a trip to Ireland helped too! By allowing her to choose the school, we feel that it gave her a little bit of control over a situation she has no control over. We are making our 2nd move in 2 years, so she was not happy about having to start all over again.

We sort of did the same thing. Our kids are too young but we could go either way, there are nice homes in all three HS zones.

There are some nice images and videos here plus below some nice photos of some of the other HHS teams:

Huntsville High School Band

Huntsville High School Sports Page

Huntsville High Lady Panthers

(images not protected by copyright)










http://www.hhspantherswimanddive.com/images/team_1107.jpg (broken link)












http://www.hhspantherwrestling.com/team.jpg (broken link)

[Charles]

This is incredible:

Madison County Record : News Briefs (http://www.madisoncountyrecord.com/articles/2008/06/27/news_briefs/nb1.txt - broken link)

Bob Jones High School students received $26M worth of scholarships while the entire set of students from the seven high schools in Huntsville City School district received $34M

[ionlife]

Originally Posted by Charles

This is incredible:

Madison County Record : News Briefs (http://www.madisoncountyrecord.com/articles/2008/06/27/news_briefs/nb1.txt - broken link)

Bob Jones High School students received $26M worth of scholarships while the entire set of students from the seven high schools in Huntsville City School district received $34M

I think that BJHS is the largest HS in the entire state of AL (someone told me that last time I was there). It is a nationally ranked school. The test scores are not much lower than Grissom's sores (someone said they were on this forum--but I checked it). Grissom had over 20 National Merit Scholars (very impressive). I love trotting out these stats whenever some snob in Fairfax County says, oh your child will sail through the schools down south. Nothing could be further from the truth.

My husband met the principal from BJHS last summer while they were on break. He was very nice. Super accommodating.

[gsp4ever]

Charles-Bob Jones has a dedicated College Counseling office with a designated College adviser. This is in addition to the regular guidance office. Sheila Roberts has been a college advisor for many years and spends a lot of her time focusing on families and special events/projects for the students. She also has a team of parent volunteers who help with the efforts. This is why Bob Jones sees quite a bit of success in this area.

Grissom was the only city school that even had a designated college counselor and my understanding is that she has now retired. I have heard that they have promoted someone from within to fill those shoes. College counseling is a specific field and not just anyone can step into that role and be successful. (Ms. Roberts at Bob Jones came from another system where she did the same thing) BTW, no other school in the Huntsville system has a dedicated college counseling office or advisor. Interesting, isn't it?

BTW--Sparkman High School has a dedicated college advising office with a dedicated counselor as well. No one seems to write much about Sparkman on this forum but it is a perfectly respectable school. No other Madison County school has a dedicated college advising office or counselor other than Sparkman. You can't find out a whole lot about their counseling office on their website because they use the Naviance sytem and it is password protected. This is a system that a lot of top private schools use for their college advising offices.