Nashville Public School Strategy K-12: Realistic? (Franklin, Brentwood: for sale, how much, houses)

[tophat56]

I will be the first to admit that this is quite premature since we do not have children yet, but my husband and I would like to buy a house soon and really don't want to move again--so we'd love to buy in an area that would set our kids up for attending great public schools. (And we hope to have our 1st in about 2 years.)

Here's what we are thinking: live in East Nashville (we love the area, coming from Brooklyn) and try to get our kids into Glendale or Lockeland. These schools both look great and it seems like we should have a geographic advantage in getting into Lockeland.

Then try for a magnet middle school--Meigs, Head, or Rose Park in order to hopefully feed into MLK or Hume-Fogg.

My question is, what is the likelihood that we will win the lottery for these middle schools if we live outside the geographic area? 1 out of 100? 1 out of 2? I know it is too early to tell, but has the trend been longer and longer waiting lists or are things getting better?

I looked into living in the Head or Rose Park geographic area, but it doesn't seem like there are great elementary school options in the Head area (Cockrill/Park/Cumberland) and there's a pretty tiny overlap of Rose Park & Julia Green/Percy Priest. I've been keeping an eye on the area for about a year and haven't really seen many houses for sale there.

Am I being completely silly thinking about this so early? It just seems like MLK & Hume-Fogg have been undisputed best schools for probably 10+ years, so I wonder how much it will really change.

I will also say that Brentwood and Franklin aren't really options for us.

Thank you so much!

[BirdieBelle]

Originally Posted by tophat56

Here's what we are thinking: live in East Nashville (we love the area, coming from Brooklyn) and try to get our kids into Glendale or Lockeland. These schools both look great and it seems like we should have a geographic advantage in getting into Lockeland.

Then try for a magnet middle school--Meigs, Head, or Rose Park in order to hopefully feed into MLK or Hume-Fogg.

The words in red are the problem.

For a seamless transition from K-12 like this, I'd say your chances are a million to one.

They don't call it a "lottery" anymore. They've rebranded it the "fall schools selection process." But it's still random, and they still have waiting lists for certain schools.

You aren't being completely silly for thinking about this now, but you just don't know what life will bring. Having kids changes everything about your thinking, and you might find that moving again just is not that big of a deal.

I would think mid-term. Buy a house with GREAT resale potential, which will include school zone. Live there like it's home. Enjoy it. Then after you have kids, see how you feel.

[tophat56]

Thanks for the advice, Wmsn. Do most folks agree that East Nashville has great resale potential, especially if you are in the Lockeland zone? It's our impression that the neighborhood is very up and coming and will only grow from here!

[CountryGirl2b=]

Hard to know looking 5 or 10 years into the future?