Can someone explain this Williamson County school rezoning stuff to me? (Franklin: to rent, condos)

[HastingsJD]

Well, I've read enough posts and looked at some suggested links so I get the general gist of what's going on, but trying to get a grip on what this all really means.

Does this rezoning stuff happen every few years based on the growth of Williamson County?

My husband and our son are planning to relocate to Nashville in the next few years (well 2) from California. My husband is a native of TN and went to law school in Nashville. I was in law school in California at the time, but still spent lots of time in Nashville visiting him and loved it. California is a great place, but not for us anymore. (too far from family, too expensive (especially when our biggest expense = school loan debt), yadda yadda yadda.)

Anyway, our son will be entering kindergarten about a year after our planned move. Our plan is to rent for a year and then buy before he starts kindergarten so he could get settled into a school and meet kids he would likley matriculate through middle school and high school with (as my husband and I did growing up.) Should we just count on the fact that if we buy a home it could eventually be rezoned for a different elementary, middle or high school though?

We were thinking of buying at the top of our budget if we could get our "forever" house, but after reading about this we're thinking we shouldn't count on being able to send him to any particular school. No idea if this would even matter (don't know much about the individual schools) but it sure seems to have some people riled up (From the articles I've read online.) Are there areas that are not likely to get rezoned?

Any thoughts?

[BirdieBelle]

No, it is not typical. This rezoning is long overdue and is the result of past administrations being clueless about the rate of growth we had from 1990-2004.
By the time you move here, the MAJOR rezoning will be completed. The plan they are considering should work for about 5 years. The next major step will be a new "Nolensville" high school in the northeast part of the county. They are including that in the current plans.
We lived in Franklin for 10 years and now have lived in Brentwood for 10 years. We planned to have our kids grow up in a forever house, and have lived in three houses since. Our wants and needs changed, and I caution against putting that kind of pressure on yourself when it comes to a house. What works for toddlers and small kids won't always work with teens etc. Your plan to rent sounds smart.
Having said that, your biggest risk for rezoning at any time would be on the outskirts of areas of new growth, and along the borders of feeder zones. ONCE THEY PASS A PLAN, these should be pretty obvious on the new zoning maps.
If you are in established areas near the schools of your choice, you should be pretty safe. But as the school district website says, there are no guarantees.
If you ever wonder about zoning for a particular area, ask the school district, not a realtor.

[HastingsJD]

Thanks for the quick response. So in five more years they'll be doing another phase although it'll primarily deal with the Nolensville area? But of couse as you said...no guarantees. If a child is already enrolled in an elementary school are they able to finish out elementary school in that school? Or do they make them move mid-stream (ie someone is in 3rd grade when their area is rezoned) to a new elementary school? The former scenario seems to make more sense but who knows...

We need to get a map and figure out where we're interested in looking. Right now practically everything in Williamson County looks good to me! (We've had our fill of CA and are anxious to move on. Sigh....)

Good thoughts on the "forever" house idea. I was thinking that in the back of my mind too, but it's so tempting to look for a place and just settle in (moving is such a hassle). I guess it's the allure of actually being able to consider a forever house - here in California our budget limited us to condos. Next move up would be a townhouse. We wouldn't have a single-family house for at least another 10 years (if we stayed where we live now.) Well, thankfully we have some time to think about it since we're not going anywhere for two more years!

Thanks again for the info!

[BirdieBelle]

My pleasure. I'm just putting off cooking dinner!

They have rezoned elementary kids, some more than once. They usually grandfather kids who are on the verge of moving up to the next school, such as 5th-graders or juniors in high school. But it should not be that bad after this major rezoning.

[septimus]

Hopefully they will fix the rezoning *right* this time. The 5 year horizon includes a Nolensville High School and another High School out on the west side of Franklin (probably 7 years out). There also needs to be another middle school or two in the next 5-10 years.

I would normally say buy as close as possible to the school you want to be zoned for... but there are kids living less than 1 mile from a school that will be zoned to a school the opposite direction and further away. Depening on growth patterns, I could see my house being zoned not for the school that is literally a 5 minute walk from my house. The county estimates 0.8 elementary students per housing unit for planning purposes. When my area is one it will have 2500 houses and only 1 elementary school

Hopefully the county is starting to learn from the mess at Liberty/McCay's Mill that they need to work with the city planning dept so when a huge subdivision is approved there is land for a school close by.

[HastingsJD]

Thanks for the thoughts Septimus. So hard to even know what zones to target. There seems to be quite a bit of varying information on which are the "best" schools in Williamson County (at least on this forum!). At the elementary level, I generally think that most of the schools in a well-respected district like Williamson County are going to be good. How well my children will do in school will depend on how involved I get and reinforce what they are taught at school. But then I keep reading about Lipscomb, Edmondson, etc and start to think, but I do want my children to go to the *best* of the best. Ugh - I'm exhausting myself :-)

What happened with Liberty/McCay's Mill? I'm assuming they built all kinds of homes and didn't have the room in the local schools to hold everyone?

[YallWantHam]

In my opinion the Brentwood schools are the best. Income and school performance are pretty well correlated, and Brentwood has the highest income in the county. You can look at test scores and Brentwood does better than other Williamson Co schools. People are obviously going to disagree with this but that's just my opinion

[HastingsJD]

The income-school performance link seems to be the standard in most places. I know here in CA (Los Angeles area) the best public schools are some of the wealthiest areas. Of course there's always good magnet school or charter school etc in less desirable areas, but again the income-school performance link is pretty strong everywhere.

So these are the schools in Brentwood correct?

Elementary: Crockett, Edmondson, Grassland, Kenrose, Lipscomb, Scales and Sunset.
Middle: Sunset, Brentwood and Woodland.
High School: Brentwood and Ravenwood.

They'd all be considered good schools in your opinion? In terms of the Elementary Schools would you be willing to send your kids to any of them? (not sure if you have kids - but if you did!)

Thanks.

[ExIslander]

I would just be careful about not confusing selection bias for superior teaching, particularly when we're discussing the same district, and schools that are more alike than different. It may be true that Ravenwood may post higher scores on aggregate than, say, Franklin, but in all probability, the kid who comes out of Ravenwood with a 1400 SAT would come out of Franklin with a 1400 SAT. He just has a little more company at Ravenwood.

[BirdieBelle]

My kids have all gone to Lipscomb. We have friends from all the other B'wood elementaries. They all have their own slightly different cultures depending on student population, leadership, etc.
Curriculum is mostly a site-based decision right now. Some schools have spelling lists to memorize while at Lipscomb they are teaching more phonics blends, for example. Dr. Looney is trying to do more to standardize the curriculum a little, but this may matter more at the secondary level.
I think one thing to think about with all schools is that many of the kids come from families where both parents have college degrees and there is an expectation of success. The school itself may not be that stellar because the students are already at an advantage over other kids.
I'm not saying that is the case here, but it is why some of the area schools have lower value-added scores. It's easy to say you have a great school when most of your students have been read to since birth or went to accredited preschools etc.
In my experience, Lipscomb has been a very safe, caring place for my kids. In ten years we have never had one single issue with bullying or anything like that. My kids have done well and were offered help with any academic challenges they may have faced.