Advice For Moving Family to Oxford (Jackson, Tupelo: spring break, daycares, house)

[BigAl22]

Hello everyone,
I am considering a job offer at Ole Miss, but I have some questions about moving my family there.

My first question is, we'll need a daycare for a very young baby, about 3 months. I've tried google and Angie's List, and I can't seem to find any daycares that take babies that young. Any recommendations?

Also, my husband works in trucking and transport. Are there any transport jobs in North Mississippi, around the Oxford area. We've been looking into Tupelo, Batesville, and New Albany (for the purpose of him finding work). Any thoughts?

Any insight is much appreciated.

Many thanks!

[sammyreynolds1977]

Tupelo and Batesville will probably be his best options in that area. If he can't find anything there, the only place I can think of will be Memphis.

[Listener2307]

Ashley Furniture in Ecru and based out of Wisconsin, has a very large in house transport system. They were on a hiring binge a few months ago and I know them to be a very good employer for the transportation industry.

And the car haulers serving Toyota (Blue Spring) have been actively growing for the past few years. Don't know the name of the outfits serving them, though.

[brickpatio]

Olive Branch is a strong distribution and manufacturing area. That's about an hour from Oxford. Toyota is not far and GE Aviation is nearby along with several other industries in Batesville as already mentioned. Tupelo has a solid employment market but DeSoto County is not much further and even stronger.

[BigAl22]

Great! Thanks so much for the reassurance.

Anything about childcare facilities for the very young? I called around yesterday, but I found many numbers to be disconnected. Others didn't answer their phones, but it's spring break, so maybe that's the reason?

[mydogisyella]

Hi,

I live in Oxford.

For daycare I would check with the local churches. First Baptist Church Child Care Center takes children starting at 8 weeks. It is close to the Square, meaning it's also not far from campus. A friend of mine has a now 2 year old and I believe she took him to First Baptist sometime around 3 months. I don't have children, but I think First Baptist would be a good place. I provided a link (not sure if it works) below to a list of schools and daycare provided by Ole Miss HR. If that link doesn't work, google "daycare Oxford, MS" and it should come up.

Oxford-University United Methodist Church (just a block away from First Baptist) also has a daycare, but not sure about age. That would at least get you here.

I attended Ole Miss and when I was in school I nanny'ed for a local couple. I answered a job posting they made on campus. That sounds naive but I had references, they did a background check on me, etc. Once you get in and settled, I would imagine that you could find a similar arrangement if a nanny set up interested you.

I am a little suspicious of places that didn't answer. Even though it was Spring Break there were still plenty of people in town so I would think the daycares would still be operating. Unless it was connected to a public school, I can't imagine them also being closed.

http://www.olemiss.edu/hr/_files/ben...ls_daycare.pdf

As for jobs for your husband, as others mentioned, Tupelo, Batesville and Olive Branch will have lots of opportunities. Batesville Casket Company sticks out in my mind just because I've seen a lot of their trucks. Olive Branch and Memphis both have a lot of distribution centers, most notably FedEx. International Paper and AutoZone are also big employers. In Oxford proper, the Olin Corporation is supposed to be beefing up it's plant in Oxford. Not sure if it includes shipping, but would be worth a look.

I just looked at the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal newspaper and there 9 jobs listed for drivers. The paper covers primarily north'ish and northeast Mississippi area (which is more or less Oxford included).

My old job involved working with a lot of industrial facilities so I can think of some other corporations that I know are active. They may not be hiring now, but I would also look into Nucor Corporation (nucor.com). It is a steel company with facilities near Jackson, one in Memphis and one just a bit over the border into Arkansas. I mention them because it's a well run company and if the company makes money there is a nice profit sharing program.

Hope that helps. If you think of anything else feel free to send me a direct message.