Good schools and a good place to live? (Jacksonville, University: rent, how much) - Florida (FL) - City-Data Forum

alex-denver · 05-04-2010, 04:52 PM

I am moving into the Jacksonville area. I have 4 kids one is off to college so not to worried about her but I still have two in HS and one in 6th grade. I am coming from denver and my kids are attending private schools now. My kids are also big time swimmers so that plays a big role. I have looked at two schools that I think are good. Bolles and Bishop Kenny. Bolles I see cost 18K a year and we were paying 10k so it is a little more than what we did before so not sure if it is worth it? Bishop Kenny looks great..much less then what we paid for before but I want to make sure it is a good school. We came from a strong academic and atheletic school so would like to do the same again. Also public schools are not out of the question as long as they are good. Any info would be good.

Also as far as neighborhoods we have a varied range of price We are looking at 350,000-800,000. My husband will work by the by the 10 & 295..we would like a minimal commute for both school and work...we drive to much in denver! We have looked at the ortega area which seemed nice...any other options that people could recomend? We have done new homes every time we have moved, which we like to do..but also like the idea of an older home in a older established neigborhood. We will move again in 4 years so we want something that can hold its value after 4 years.
Thanks
Denver girl

fsu813 · 05-04-2010, 06:26 PM

San Marco is close to Bolles. Very established. Older homes, but not extremely old, nice homes would be in your price range. Bolles is a great private school, the best of the best of the pricates in Jax. However, we have some equally great public schools too, of the "Magnet" variety.

Oretga is nice as well. Similar neighborhoods, but San Marco will have more younger people, young professionals, and is much more walkbable than Ortega (ie, you can easily walk to things, plenty of sidwalks, plenty near by). Ortega is nice, but it doesn't have the walkability of San Marco. Both border the River. San Marco is considered part of the "urban core" and is a semi-historc district. Ortega is considered part of the "westside".

San Marco:

Ortega:

Another great option to consider would be Avondale. It is in an official historic district, very established, very nice, and is extremely walkable as well. It wopuld be a bit longer drive to those private schools you mentioned, but if you chose a public Magnet school then it would actually be closer. Lost to do close by, and is one half od the Riverside-Avondale historic district...which is quickly become THE place to live & work & play in the city. A mix of families and young adults. This area has a ton of fantastic parks too. Generally, Riverside is more funky and young, whileAvondale is more posh and established...both are fun. The houses in Avondale will be older than San Marco or Ortega, generally, both in your range they will be in great condition. Avondale is also considered part of the "urban core".

Some photos:

I have lots of other info about these areas if you like.

luger9 · 05-04-2010, 06:33 PM

Great pics you provided!

SlickP · 05-04-2010, 06:33 PM

Bolles probably has the best swimming program in Jax, one of the tops in FL. Episcopal is up there also. They both are exclusive private schools. BK is also a good private Catholic School. There are probably at least a dozen K-8 Catholic schools that feed into BK, Bishop Synder and St. Joseph Academy. In General, the better public High Schools are in North St. Johns County, Bartram Trail, Ponte Vedra, Creekside and Nease. Fleming Island is also a very good public school in Clay County. There are plenty of homes available here at very good prices. Also you might consider renting if you are going to move in 3-4 yrs. You could probably rent a nice house in a neighborhood you would probably buy in. It's anybody's guess if the housing market is going to come back in 3-4 yrs so you could make money on the home you purchase...

SlickP · 05-04-2010, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luger9

Great pics you provided!

I second that!

alex-denver · 05-05-2010, 08:37 AM

thanks so much for the info. How much of a drive would it be from San Marcos to either Bolles or BK? Also how hard is it to get into those mangnet schools? I did see that Pax and Stanton (sp) are ranked in the top 10 in the nation but I thought while reading other blogs that you can only get in by lottery is that correct??

fsu813 · 05-05-2010, 01:56 PM

The heart of San Marco to Bollues is about 10-15 minutes max. They are both on San Marco Blvd/Hendfricks Ave/San Jose Blvd (the road changes name a few times in a short distance). BK will be about the same, probably 15 minutes. Bolles is South of San Marco, BK is East.

Magnet schools do usually go by a lottery system. There are exceptions to that though. Just call the Duval County School Board office and they'll give you all the info you need. Personlly, if you are dead set against having your child go to a lower rated highschool (the ratings don't reflect reality, imo) then i'd use a private school as a back up plan to a Magnet school. No sense spending thousands of dollars when you don't have to. I went to Magnet middle & highschools, they both were great. (Darnell-Cookman & Stanton, respectively).

alex-denver · 05-05-2010, 04:39 PM

OK...... well forget the magnet schools..I just called and I found out the if my kids did not take algebra as 8th graders and geometry as 9th graders that they did not meet the criteria! Which they have not, I am not a big advocate on pushing the advance math at an early age and my kiddos are at grade level. From what they told me and what I have read on their websites it seems that you need to be prepared to be either in the IB program or in all AP or Honors. That is not what I am looking for, my kids will take a couple of honors or AP courses but not till Sophomore or Junior year and It will not be in all subjects areas, It will only be in the areas that they are showing a strong sense of the subject matter. I currently teach in a IB school and my kids will not do that rigerous program either. I feel that at this point if I want a strong academic program..for good students, just not some high accelerated gifted child then private school is my only option?

fsu813 · 05-05-2010, 08:26 PM

Here's a spread sheet of Duval County Schools grades for the 2009 scool year:

http://www.duvalschools.org/reseval/..._Sch_Alpha.pdf

Schools grades are really a measurement of the child's academic environment (or lack there of) at home, in my opinion. Crappy students come from great schools, and great students come bad schools every year. As long as the child has academic support at home, then they will do fine. Despite uninformed opinion, no, "good" treachers aren't put in certain schools while "bad" teachers are put into others. Thus it's a reflection on the cild's preparedness, thier willingness to learn, and thier priorities...which all come from good academic support at home.

As you can see, over 2/3rds received an A or B. Duval County received a "B" overall, in fact. However, there is a shortage of higher rated highschools. Plenty of elementary and middle, yet a dearth of high schools.

Stanton, Paxon, Douglas Anderson, Flecther, Mandarin, & Wolfson are all pretty good to great. I'd say that Lee, despite it's D rating last year, is a decent school as well. I have plenty of family friends that went to Lee that did very well. Again, it's more about the individial and thier circumstances than the teachers.

Least that's what i've experienced.

Hope that helps.

Other popular private highschools would be Trinity Chirstian, University Christain, Episcopal, and St. Josephs.

I'm sure there are others.

For the record, i'm generally anti-private schools. =)

donisanasfan · 05-05-2010, 09:01 PM

Have I got a place for you. I am beginning to sound like a broken record here , but you should definitely check out where my family bought a home in Nocatee-Coastal Oaks in particular. Huge water park, 10 minute drive to Bolles, zoned for Nease public High School, which is in the top 100 in the country. Nocatee is a new development that is great for familes. There are bike trails and we have two pools and a fitness center in our gated community in addition to the massive water park facilities and fitness center in the main Nocatee amenities. We are about a 10 minute drive to the beach. Homes here in Coastal Oaks are running from about $400,000 for smaller homes on up to over a million or so for about 5,000 square feet. I used to live in Breckenridge by the way and miss Colorado tremendously.