General Q's - Schools (Knoxville, Maryville: buying a home, buying, school districts)

[SunnySkies100]

We currently live in OH, where the school districts are plentiful - multiple districts per county. As in, if you are buying a home to be in a particular district, you ALWAYS call the School district to verify that your particular home address is, in fact, in their boundaries. This is a little less pf a problem in more rural areas. In addition, you can apply to "open-enroll" in another district -no guarantees, but it apparently gets easier in the higher grades to open enroll. Of course, there are also various private schools. I grew up in MD, where the districts were by county - but certain HS were sought after, so that was where people focused their home buying decisions (based on the ultimate desired HS) not to mention very plentiful private options (DC burbs). I've also lived in GA, WA, OR - but no kids at those times, so I never paid attention to the schools!

We are in the process of sifting through options of places to move, TN being one of these places. As we have a short trip to the area planned for an upcoming weekend, we are trying to gather info!

Oldest is about to fly the nest, and is finishing HS. That has been a mix of private and public (changes due to moves), finishing at a private HS (child's choice). Youngest is finishing 4th grade - all private schools (three different ones due to moves), although child is being homeschooled this year - last private school did not meet even OH state standards for 3rd grade, but it was situational (a very inexperienced teacher combined with an oddly tough/disruptive group of kids resulting in child being quite behind) so I expect the homeschooling to last only through the time when we move to wherever we go, most likely at least through 5th grade.

*** How are the schools set up in TN? My research indicates County school systems. Are there highly desired HS to attend in the Knoxville area? Are kids generally welcoming (especially if a child begins at the beginning of the school year)? Anything in particular to know or understand about schools, kids, events, whatever school related? Private schools - I've looked into a few, but can't get much of a feeling with regards to cost/value/quality, so any comments are welcome. And lastly, homeschool groups - or how popular is homeschooling? I found TennKids homeschool group, and a few various other orgs that looked smaller than TennKids, so any local knowledge welcome. ****


We are familiar with the midwest (although neither of us is a native to the Midwest), where everyone sticks to their own families - which can be large extended families, and we also lived in Cincinnati, infamous for natives having their rolodex filled before even being born - and its hard to break into that circle without marrying into a local family. You just roll with it - attend what you can, try to get your face familiar and it helps. Each kid has had to start a new school part way through the school year - and it makes it tough on the kid, so we would avoid that for this move, most likely.

Thanks in advance!

[theoldnorthstate]

My grandchildren moved to Knoxville and go to Farragut elementary

It has worked well for them, my grandson particularly (and he needed the boost)

People are friendly, kids seem nice. My grandkids have made good friends

[DaveC20853]

Highly desired HS: Bearden, Farragut or Hardin Valley for sure. Curriculum is the same county wide, economics is the major difference. Private school: Webb unless you want to go to a religious based school.

My 2 cents.

[SunnySkies100]

theoldnorthstate,
Thank you for your input!

[Kirksbunny]

We're moving down to Maryville from MI and our oldest graduates from high school next month but youngest will be starting 10th grade. We currently live in a very rural small town. High school has 650 kids. We are choosing Alcoa school district because the size is comparable to current school (county schools in Blount county are huge). I have heard very good things about Alcoa schools. If you are used to smaller schools you may want to check into Alcoa.

[SunnySkies100]

Thanks Kirksbunny, that is good to know. Good Luck to your soon-to-be 10th grader with the new school!