Outsider Perspective on Mount Juliet, Franklin

[Mustlovemountains]

Originally Posted by artemis

There are Catholic churches here, but not like the Chicago Diocese. There are a few mosques in Nashville.

Yes, absolutely true. The Catholic church is quite small here. More non-denominational churches, Baptist, Church of Christ, Presby than anything. Much more "conservative" traditions of Christianity than in the northern regions of US where, Catholic and Lutheran churches are heavy.

[numberfive]

Originally Posted by gooz71

Any outsider information on Brentwood? We are most likely moving there in June!

Sorry, we only had time for Mount Juliet, Franklin, and a short drive through downtown Nashville. We're not familiar with the area, but were surprised to see the ~30 or so homeless in what looked like a business district. We didn't see homeless people anywhere else.

And to be honest, Brentwood fell off our radar a bit because of the much higher cost compared to the neighboring cities. As Mustlovemountains pointed out, the six figure cost difference is a hard pill to swallow.

[numberfive]

Originally Posted by Mustlovemountains

I noticed that too. We ended up picking Mt. Juliet because it seemed like a quieter more wholesome area. The $500,000 market for a home is so much better in Mt. Juliet. We couldnt fully process why we were paying 100k more for a home in Franklin when the schools are basically on par with each other and Mt. Juliet has a much better commuting option. You also just can't beat all the outdoor and water activities at Priest Lake and Old Hickory.

Mt. Juliet does have its growing pains! It seems like a new store gets built in Providence every week or some other development is taking off, which has made traffic worse. Golden Bear Gateway should make it easier through.

How are you measuring the school quality? This is a big struggle for us, since the highschools seem to score about 5% better in Franklin vs Mount Juliet. I'm just not sure how you quantify it otherwise, they both appear to be excellent school districts.

[Drake744]

Originally Posted by numberfive

How are you measuring the school quality? This is a big struggle for us, since the highschools seem to score about 5% better in Franklin vs Mount Juliet. I'm just not sure how you quantify it otherwise, they both appear to be excellent school districts.

Well, even though MJ is nice as a whole, a lot of the more "desirable" or newer areas of town are zoned for the Wilson Central High School district, which tends to score a little lower than Mt. Juliet High districts. (If I'm not mistaken. Even if it's true it doesn't necessarily make it bad)

[Mustlovemountains]

Originally Posted by Drake744

Well, even though MJ is nice as a whole, a lot of the more "desirable" or newer areas of town are zoned for the Wilson Central High School district, which tends to score a little lower than Mt. Juliet High districts. (If I'm not mistaken. Even if it's true it doesn't necessarily make it bad)

You are correct. Mt. Juliet HS is better than Wilson Central but Mt. Juliet is getting a brand new high school which will shift the Providence kids to Mt.Juliet HS in about two years. I was also never under the impression that Wilson Central has ever been an undersireable school.

[Mustlovemountains]

Originally Posted by numberfive

How are you measuring the school quality? This is a big struggle for us, since the highschools seem to score about 5% better in Franklin vs Mount Juliet. I'm just not sure how you quantify it otherwise, they both appear to be excellent school districts.

I guess I was comparing it to Franklin SSD & Williamson Co. Districts as a whole. I wasn't comparing it solely on last year's high school ACT scores. IMHO the Mt. Juliet area schools are slightly better than the Franklin SSD and slightly worse than Williamson County Schools as a whole. All three have great schools though. The real estate taxes for Franklin will be higher if you live in SSD though, another head scratcher that just didn't make sense to us when moving to Nashville.

I found greatschools.com to be very helpful. Again, all three districts are great, I just couldn't get over how much more expensive Franklin was when they are both very comparable. Am I paying for the privilege of looking in windows of things I can afford downtown? Haha

On a different topic, does anybody know why gas and really anything is so high in Franklin? Is this money going to schools?

[brentwoodgirl]

Originally Posted by numberfive

How are you measuring the school quality? This is a big struggle for us, since the highschools seem to score about 5% better in Franklin vs Mount Juliet. I'm just not sure how you quantify it otherwise, they both appear to be excellent school districts.

You can compare schools on the TN Report Card page. There is a comparison tab that lets you choose the district and then individual schools. And it has several metrics that you can pick: achievement, ACT scores, etc.

It's on the bottom of this page:

https://www.tn.gov/education/topic/report-card

[Mustlovemountains]

Originally Posted by brentwoodgirl

You can compare schools on the TN Report Card page. There is a comparison tab that lets you choose the district and then individual schools. And it has several metrics that you can pick: achievement, ACT scores, etc.

It's on the bottom of this page:

https://www.tn.gov/education/topic/report-card

Nice link! It looks like Franklin schools have a higher ACT but Mt. Juliet has a higher graduation rate. Everything else pretty much looks the same.

[S4F]

[quote=On a different topic, does anybody know why gas and really anything is so high in Franklin? Is this money going to schools?[/QUOTE]

I believe you've already figured that out. It's just one of the "perks" for living in the high rent district. Mt. Juliet used to have some of the lower fuel prices around, but they seem to have bumped those up the last year or so as well.

[numberfive]

Originally Posted by S4F

I believe you've already figured that out. It's just one of the "perks" for living in the high rent district. Mt. Juliet used to have some of the lower fuel prices around, but they seem to have bumped those up the last year or so as well.

I was surprised to see that too. Mount Juliet was $1.89/gal, and Franklin was $2.29/gal the same day. Zoinks, Scoob!