Moving to Vicksburg, MS area (Jackson, Greenville: best neighborhood, transplants, lease)

[coffeesipper]

I'll be moving to the Vicksburg, MS area in a few months and I'm looking for the best neighborhood and highschool in the area. I am willing to make a 30 minute or so commute toward Jackson, MS or Natchez, LA. I want to find the best location for a family with good neighborhoods and great schools. So where is this "utopia"!?

[wwmove]

Sorry i don't know anything about vicksburg but i know the area in jackson around the mall is better than the opposite area near the university.

[~Pajama mama~]

Originally Posted by coffeesipper

I'll be moving to the Vicksburg, MS area in a few months and I'm looking for the best neighborhood and highschool in the area. I am willing to make a 30 minute or so commute toward Jackson, MS or Natchez, LA. I want to find the best location for a family with good neighborhoods and great schools. So where is this "utopia"!?

For schools in Vicksburg..I think your going to have to consider private . St. Aloysius or Porters Chapel. Otherwise, check out Clinton. I would guess around a 30 min drive towards Jackson. Good public schools neighborhoods can be found there. Good luck with your move!

[brickpatio]

Vicksburg has an interesting historic district along Drummond Street and Chambers Street south of downtown. Tons of character and very diverse. There are also nice newer neighborhoods west of I-20 past the Vicksburg country club in the vicinity of Indiana Avenue, Porters Chapel Rd and Lee Rd. This area has many trees and hills. The other main area with newer homes is northeast of town, north of I-20 and east of Hwy 61 along Oak Ridge Rd. There are newer suburban homes including homes on huge lots. There are homes dotted throughout this area north of I-20 going east from town. Regarding schools, you can go with Vicksburg Catholic. Or according to schooldigger.com the highest rated elementary schools are Bovina and Bowmar Avenue. Clinton has higher rated public schools. Both equally diverse in terms of race and ethnicity. For truly top rated schools, near Ivy League level, that would be St Andrews in Ridgeland an hour away or Madison Central in Madison for public schools with lots of national merit scholars.

[GrandviewGloria]

One HUGE hindrance to Mississippi's viability in attracting young transplants is the virtual lack of safe public schools (yes, kids are in actual danger of physical harm in those little Day Prisons). Forget academic achievement. You'd be lucky, in most public schools on that side of the state, to have your youngster emerge without Brain Damage or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Brick Patio's analysis is pretty good, here.

Here's a sample of what can happen in a Mississippi preschool. Things escalate as the little darlings get older. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Uo0hLyIt8

People who can afford it send their kids to private schools. Others home-school. Others move to places with populations capable of producing good school environments (in other words, better kids make better schools). Generally, that means they move to Montana, Vermont, North Dakota.... (further accelerating the Brain Drain). Or, they move to the few communities left in-state with decent schools.

Plenty of young Delta farmers have themselves sterilized, before little schemers have a chance to get knocked-up and trap them into marriage. They know that with the unsure future of farming, they can't risk being on-the-hook for twelve-plus years of private school tuition. I'm sure that's a surprise bonus for the architects of the 'Great Society': a way of killing-off the Best & Brightest they hadn't anticipated. Score one for the Frankfurt School!

People wonder why so many Mississippi towns like Greenville have just 'dried-up and died'. Well, it takes all the money most parents (and grandparents) can scrape up, to keep kids in private schools. There's no money left over, for dining-out, splurging on clothes, Cosmetic Dentistry, buying wedding presents...grad presents... all the things middle class people used to just assume as normal parts of life. The boutiques go first... followed by the restaurants... followed by the architects and decorators... followed by...

I know one Delta grande-dame (whose entire family has moved out-of-state), who has to order paste wax for her floors, because there is nowhere left in Greenville to buy that very basic product. The hardware stores died. She sent out a little 'canoe', in the 60s: that ship finally came in as a supertanker. She's gotten a second residence. But the chic decorator's shops which abounded in Greenville (and around the Delta) have long gone. Most people have no money for refinements once commonplace in what used to be "Greenwich Connecticut in the Swamps" (Clarksdale was "A little Paris"). There's nowhere in Greenville, now, for buying nice things. All the money goes to private schools. When maiden aunts and bachelor uncles used to die, it was time for a new Cadillac, a good vacation, a better tea service, Wedgwood for 16, having 'Lina' in to redo the house... now, the proceeds from such estates go toward paying off mountains of debt accrued educating the children. Rare windfalls from farming merely end up paying off a bit of debt.

There are some fabulous houses in Vicksburg, going for pittances. If you can afford 6ft 'iron' fences (a popular item, in Mississippi, and thus cheaper than you'd think), to keep the children safe while playing in the yard, and if you can afford private schools (or have a spouse who can home-school), then you will do well in Vicksburg.

The alternative is to move to a community with good public schools, and to commute to work. This will take quite a toll on you. Don't even consider this, without upgrading to a heavy vehicle with absolutely top safety ratings. Mississippi ranks high on lists of bad places to be on the road (for precisely the same reasons it has bad public schools), and so someone who drives a lot is wise to assume that a serious accident is more a surety than an eventuality. Your kids deserve better than to be orphans, or to have a daddy with brain damage. Oh, and be sure to get at least a million Dollars in Uninsured Motorist's Coverage. I have friends who've wished they'd done so.

Commuting to Vicksburg, from someplace with acceptable public schools, will run you about sixty Dollars a day. Assuming 200 workdays, that's twelve thousand Dollars a year. The cost to your well-being is more subjective. But saving two hours of driving per day means an hour you could spend at the gym (maybe the home gym you set up on the third floor of that fab Victorian going for next-to-nothing?), and an hour you could spend tutoring the kids.

It's a complex equation, but I'm confident you'll solve the problem. There are great things in Mississippi, for those smart enough to find them. Good luck!

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

The above is more bloviating from an ex-Mississippian who's a Gore Vidal wannabe!

[donziejo]

Clinton is about 39 miles from Vicksburg. Their school system is one of the best. They have built new schools (opening this year) and have an excellent reputation. As far as driving.... well, I lived in California and Salt Lake City, and the traffic there was/is very congested. I 20 from Vicksburg to Clinton is a piece of cake. Just remember when you see someone that is entering the interstate to move over to the next lane. For some reason folks don't yield here.

I've been here for over a year and I'm happy with my move. The West is a great place and all, but it is crowded. I like the rural feel of Mississippi. I love the schools in Clinton so much that I teach here

[JacksonPanther]

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

One HUGE hindrance to Mississippi's viability in attracting young transplants is the virtual lack of safe public schools (yes, kids are in actual danger of physical harm in those little Day Prisons). Forget academic achievement. You'd be lucky, in most public schools on that side of the state, to have your youngster emerge without Brain Damage or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Brick Patio's analysis is pretty good, here.

People who can afford it send their kids to private schools. Others home-school.

People wonder why so many Mississippi towns like Greenville have just 'dried-up and died'. Well, it takes all the money most parents (and grandparents) can scrape up, to keep kids in private schools.

and if you can afford private schools (or have a spouse who can home-school), then you will do well in Vicksburg.

I can't believe I'm responding to a GG post, but here goes...

I have no sympathy for people who complain about not having the money for private schools. If everyone who scrimped and saved to send their kid to a private school instead banded together and sent their kid to the local public school, said school would be a gem, wouldn't it?

If everyone who lives in Eastover sent their kid to Casey instead of scrimping for JA, then they would control Casey and could make it into whatever kind of shining beacon public school they wanted. I guarantee yo that the majority of kids at Casey now are bused in and don't live in the area. The Eastover community could take over that school if they wanted to.

But no, instead of actually trying to do something positive, they take the easy way out and send their kids to private school. For them to end up a Miss State or Ole Miss. Wow, great investment.

[coffeesipper]

I appreciate all of the comments and suggestions. I have been looking fervently for a home to lease but there are not may available. We are not sure of our length of say but I would like either an old historic home and/or one with some acreage. We already homeschool our younger 3 children so it looks like we will continue in lieu of the quality of schools in the area...so now it's just finding a home for lease with the above criteria. Any suggestions?

[EdgeCity]

Originally Posted by ~Pajama mama~

For schools in Vicksburg..I think your going to have to consider private . St. Aloysius or Porters Chapel. Otherwise, check out Clinton. I would guess around a 30 min drive towards Jackson. Good public schools neighborhoods can be found there. Good luck with your move!

I fully agree with Donziejo and PJ Mama.

I grew up in Clinton, and my dad commuted to Vicksburg for years (our family originally lived in Vicksburg but later moved to Clinton, primarily for the schools I think).

I started in Clinton public schools in 4th grade and graduated from CHS. I think PJ Mama is correct, a 30-35 minute commute can be expected. I recall other families who had parents working in Vicksburg and who lived in Clinton for the schools. Many years later, the Clinton schools are still well-regarded, and the community also offers a lot more amenities for families than Vburg does, and by living in Clinton you're closer to the cultural, shopping and recreational opportunities of Jackson. You could choose a neighborhood near I-20 which will minimize the commute from Clinton. Despite GrandviewGloria's rather hyperbolic assessment, I-20 is hardly a hazardous drive, and with an intelligent purchase of a commuter vehicle that gets great gas mileage, commuting and sending kids to Clinton public schools seems a lot more logical than spending big bucks on the private schools that Vicksburg offers.