My husband's family is from there (some live in Nacogdoches, others live in surrounding areas like Woden, Timpson, etc.). I can try to answer any questions you may have.

I have basic questions, like when does school usually start? What are the better districts and schools? Do they have year round school? My dd will be starting kindergarten in the fall so we want to make sure we move to a good area with good schools.

My in-laws live there! Its a cute little college town with some nice antique botique stores. (Check out house of Traditions) Its very green there, lots of trees.

 

Nac is awesome, I loved it there.  I lived there for awhile after I graduated from college.  It's a very homey small town-feel kind of place.  Nacogdoches ISD is very good.  I believe it's Fredonia that has education students from the college come in and work with the kids on a regular basis, and that's pretty neat.  It'll be rather obvious when you drive through it, but the north side of town is "better" than the south side.  I personally would choose Nac ISD over Lufkin or any of the smaller districts outside of town.  Granted, Nac isn't a glowing metropolis with a million and two things to do, but it's a town with a great deal of character and it's close enough to Tyler and Houston that you can get away if you ever need to. 

Restaurants to check out are Union Cafe and Auntie Pasta's.  Also Szechuan's has very cheap, delicious Chinese food.  If you need recommendations for good apartments/townhomes or a salon I can dig up my old info.  I always liked the stuff off of University.  Go antique shopping and get ice cream downtown.  Check out the fine arts/drama schedules at SFA for stuff to do.  Nac has a (small, small, small) mall in case you're ever in a bind and need something basic.  If you're outdoorsy, check out Lake Tonkawa or make a weekend trip up to Jefferson, TX to go antique shopping and camp on Lake O' The Pines.  Check out the Fredonia Hotel for a romantic night away.  Fredonia's bar, Nine Flags, is a nice and pretty chill environment compared to the other bars in a college town.  Check out SFA's azalea garden in the spring.

We hope to retire there and after typing all that out, it's made me nostalgic!!

 Hope that helps!  Let me know if you need anything!

Just wanted to say hi.  Fancy seeing you here :-)

Typically Texas schools start in LATE August and go through late May.  I am not sure of many if any districts that are year round down here (but I could be wrong). 

Whenever you get there please feel free to come on down to Houston for a gtg.  The Houston girls are pretty active and A LOT of us are also friends IRL.

Mrs.JulesH-S:

Just wanted to say hi.  Fancy seeing you here :-)

Typically Texas schools start in LATE August and go through late May.  I am not sure of many if any districts that are year round down here (but I could be wrong). 

Whenever you get there please feel free to come on down to Houston for a gtg.  The Houston girls are pretty active and A LOT of us are also friends IRL.

Hi! I didn't realize you live in Houston! I actually have family friends that live in Houston so I'm sure I'll be there often! I also have an XSIL that lives in Tyler so I'll be there a lot too I'm sure.

I'm hoping really late August, like the 30th, just because my sister is getting married here on the 28th and I don't want Briana to have to miss any school in her first week or so!

cnstarz- Do you know anything about the Central Heights district? FI seems to think this is where we want to be but I have no idea. And it sounds a lot like the town I live in here, the south side is worse than the north side and has a bad rap. I'll definitely be asking for some recs on salons and docs and stuff. I need to get a new general practice doc, a new OB/GYN, a new eye doc, and a new pediatrician for dd.

I'm mildly overwhelmed with all that goes with moving 1000 miles away, but I'm pretty excited. I've heard nothing but good things about Naco so I'm hoping we will be happy there.

Central Heights is great- I forgot about them!  I'll try to look up my old info.  I had a doctor I really liked there.

I haven't heard about any major changes to the school calendars so they will probably be pretty similar to the current calendar. I'd check the districts you might be in to see what you can expect. Districts won't have their 10-11 calendars for a while. We started Aug 24th this school year, as did all of my Texas teacher friends in other districts.

cnstarz:

Central Heights is great- I forgot about them!  I'll try to look up my old info.  I had a doctor I really liked there.

Thank you! I really appreciate it! I've never left my hometown so moving to a new town, let alone a new state that is 2 states away is very new to me!

If you post a list of specific questions here I'll take them with me Thanksgiving weekend.  My in-laws live there so we'll be there for the Thanksgiving holiday.  I can get several perspectives, depending on who is there for the holiday.

How old are your kid(s)?  We have family there with kids ranging from Age 2 to high school so I can ask different family members about all the levels.

Do you want me to ask about neighborhoods?  I have to be sensitive in asking those questions because some of DH's family have homes in the $600k+ range (some include acreage in that) and others are in trailors, so what is "safe" or an area to "stay away from" could be something they aren't super willing to talk about because they wouldn't want to offend the poor side of the family.  If you know of a price range that you are looking in I can ask, "So... if you could choose any area of nac where homes are between X and Y dollars and the schools are the best based on that, where would you live?"  That will make the question a bit safer.  You can PM me if you prefer to share that quietly.

I'll check back as late as Tuesday for a list of questions.  I can already hook you up with some physician referrals and a vet too if you have pets, ha!

michellebelle:

If you post a list of specific questions here I'll take them with me Thanksgiving weekend.  My in-laws live there so we'll be there for the Thanksgiving holiday.  I can get several perspectives, depending on who is there for the holiday.

How old are your kid(s)?  We have family there with kids ranging from Age 2 to high school so I can ask different family members about all the levels.

Do you want me to ask about neighborhoods?  I have to be sensitive in asking those questions because some of DH's family have homes in the $600k+ range (some include acreage in that) and others are in trailors, so what is "safe" or an area to "stay away from" could be something they aren't super willing to talk about because they wouldn't want to offend the poor side of the family.  If you know of a price range that you are looking in I can ask, "So... if you could choose any area of nac where homes are between X and Y dollars and the schools are the best based on that, where would you live?"  That will make the question a bit safer.  You can PM me if you prefer to share that quietly.

I'll check back as late as Tuesday for a list of questions.  I can already hook you up with some physician referrals and a vet too if you have pets, ha!

Right now, we just have the one in my sig, and she is 4 1/2 so she will start kindergarten in the fall. And we have 3 furbabies...2 dogs and a cat that we will need a vet for once we get there.

As far as price range, we are looking at nothing more than $200k for now. We would prefer acreage for the dogs since they are labs, but it's not completely necessary.

Really, any help we can get would be great. Neither of us knows anything about the town, except for what FI has found out from his future employer.

Thank you so much for your help!

Ok I'll see what I can find out.  If you think of anything else, just page me here by Tuesday. :)