LDS Freedom Forum

It looks highly possible that we will be transfered to SLC due to work. Could you all help me? I need a semi rural area thats still with in a decent distance to town(south of SLC I think would be best, maybe Spanish Fork?) of , able to have chickens a plus, safe, good schools(dose Utah do charter schools or would we need to put the kids in a private school? right now they are in an amazing charter school that is run by a principal that it awake to our aweful situation. I just can't handle home schooling and refuse to put my kids back into public schools) Any advice on the best places to live, even a realtor to find a rental ( we want to rent, to chicken to buy right now) we have less than a month before the move. ecuse the horriblepost, just to sleepy to care about grammar or spelling

I have heard good things about this school. http://maeserprep.org/old_site/

I'm not sure the best "rural" place around SLC, but, most of the city's around SLC are good places to live, given my few travels through there.

Why are you worried about "public schools" in Utah? I mean, go to a Walmart in say Orem and compare the people in it to a Walmart in Las Vegas, and it's like night and day in the "quality" of people, the "goodness" of the people etc., thus the schools couldn't be that bad. If you live in a nice area you'll get likely 80% of the students and teachers being LDS, thus, it's basically one of the best places you could have your kids in public school. I mean, if you're so dang afraid of public schools even in Mormonville, I think you have some personal issues guy.

I spent 6 years of my youth growing up in Mesquite NV, which is a mostly LDS community, and with the Church and going to public school and so many good people, it was like the best place I've ever lived, the place I succeeded the most, and the place I was the most happiest (other than the people I was living with). Mormon community's are already often "structured" like a Private school etc. "Excellence" and quality tend to be strongly encouraged and a part of the system. Thus, I see no need at all for your kids to go to a private school in any of the nice areas of Utah when Public School will be about as good as any private school anywhere else.

Hands down Tooele County. (Pronounced two-WILL-uh) Either in Tooele, Grantsville or Erda. There is and awesome charter school in Erda, Excelsior Acadamy. I live in Tooele and it is Utah's best kept secret IMO. It takes me 1/2 an hour to get to work, the same time it takes my friends who live in South Jordan/Riverton to fight Bangerter Hwy. There is basically never a traffic jam on 1-80 and the speed limit is 75. Homes are priced generally lower than SLC. There are tons of young families in my area. Its like going back in time 20 years all the kids play in the streets and everyone we know loves it out here.

Sandy Critchlow is a popular realator/property manager out here.

leeuniverse wrote: Why are you worried about "public schools" in Utah? I mean, go to a Walmart in say Orem and compare the people in it to a Walmart in Las Vegas, and it's like night and day in the "quality" of people, the "goodness" of the people etc., thus the schools couldn't be that bad. If you live in a nice area you'll get likely 80% of the students and teachers being LDS, thus, it's basically one of the best places you could have your kids in public school. I mean, if you're so dang afraid of public schools even in Mormonville, I think you have some personal issues guy.

I spent 6 years of my youth growing up in Mesquite NV, which is a mostly LDS community, and with the Church and going to public school and so many good people, it was like the best place I've ever lived, the place I succeeded the most, and the place I was the most happiest (other than the people I was living with). Mormon community's are already often "structured" like a Private school etc. "Excellence" and quality tend to be strongly encouraged and a part of the system. Thus, I see no need at all for your kids to go to a private school in any of the nice areas of Utah when Public School will be about as good as any private school anywhere else.

This is a pretty presumptuous post! I was a military brat and got a sampling of a LOT of schools. Guess where I got the most sexual harassment? Yep! Utah! And guess which kids did most of it? Yep! The same ones I saw at seminary. I can't speak for the elementary schools around here, but from what I've seen in my area they seem to be good. With that said, I've also heard some horrifying things at the playground coming out of the mouths of sixth graders. Demographic does play a role in the school, but the public school system is just not capable of the kind of guidance some kids need. Satan works magic among all types of people, LDS or not. He has much more room to do it in most public schools than he does in most private schools and even most charter schools from my personal experience and observation. I'll let Boyd K. Packer do his own commentary:

“In many places it is literally not safe physically for youngsters to go to school. And in many schools and its becoming almost generally true it is spiritually unsafe to attend public schools. Look back over the history of education to the turn of the century and the beginning of the educational philosophies pragmatism and humanism were the early ones, and they branched out into a number of other philosophies which have led us now into a circumstance where our schools are producing the problems that we face.”

So even aside from the behavior issues that result from a lower teacher to student ratio, there is also the content issue of the curriculum and more importantly what's left out of it. And then there are the performance statistics.

I'm not saying people can't be perfectly fine in a good public school with lots of parental involvement... I think they can, but because someone seeks a better educational opportunity for their child is not a good reason to assume they have "personal issues."

Because I'm feeling feisty this morning I will also add here that walking up and down the halls of junior high and high school in Utah - I was groped DAILY. I was approached by boys at school who would tell me exactly what their friends wanted to do to me sexually. So yes, I have personal issues. Anyone who experienced what I did and sent their children into the same rat hole would, I think, be in more need of psychological evaluation.

Maybe this will open your eye to some reasons why I do not want my children in public school, http://www.eyedocgreg.com/homeschool/ I will look into Tooele and others.

There is a new private school that is based on various home-schooling philosophies (Like early church schools, TJED, and others).
A Mentor works with the parents and student to define an individual course of study for each youth that is rooted and viewed through the lens of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their website is relatively new (looks like it's still in development), but they have a lot of information about how they approach education. I think their philosophy is pretty intriguing and worth looking into:

http://shepherdacademy.org/

All the best on your relocation! That's exciting!

Mapleton is nice.

SmallFarm wrote:Mapleton is nice.

It sure is! I lived there off and on with my
"adopted" family right on Main Street while I
was going to BYU and afterward when I got
my first job in SLC at Beneficial Life in the
mid-1970's. I was a member of the Mapleton
1st ward in 1994-95 when I went on my
mission to Russia.

I sure wouldn't want to make that long
commute to SLC anymore with the price
of gasoline and traffic what it is now. And
then there's the air pollution...yuck!

If I were looking for a place near SLC where
I could have chickens I think I'd take a look
at Toole county, too.

Best Regards,
Sharon in Mississippi

How funny, ChelC!

Both my then non-LDS husband & I substitute taught Jr. High & High School in two different school districts in Salt Lake Valley. WOW!!!

Substitute teachers always get the raw end of the stick, but I was pretty feisty in those days and didn't fall for too many tricks. The kids were simply AWFUL. (I was slammed up against a classroom wall by one young fellow who didn't want to sit down in class and certainly did not want to be told to do so, either.)

In talking with other substitutes who had moved 'out from Babylon to ZION' I had my own opinions confirmed. One experienced teacher hoping for a permanent job told me that in all her years of teaching in Detroit inner city she had NEVER dealt with the outrageous behaviors she was encountering in the Salt Lake Valley public schools.

One evening after a particularly rough day at some high school substituting for a PE teacher my husband asked me,

"Isn't Seminary a religious institution?"

"Yes," I answered, "Why do you ask?"

"There were two boys in PE that would not stop fighting. I had to break them apart several times before they quit. When I finally put an end to it, the one who really didn't want to let it go yelled at the other, "It's not over! I'll kick your a__ at Seminary!""

Our sons had their clothes ripped off in the halls and on the playground, their notebooks thrown down the halls and destroyed, their heads banged against lockers, and older kids harassing and threatening them on the way home.

My mother taught school. She observed that children who are 'repressed' at home 'act out' at school. She said she would far rather teach students whose parents allowed their children to express themselves more openly at home because they were much more willing to settle down and learn at school.

NamasteMama wrote:It looks highly possible that we will be transfered to SLC due to work. Could you all help me? I need a semi rural area thats still with in a decent distance to town(south of SLC I think would be best, maybe Spanish Fork?) of , able to have chickens a plus, safe, good schools(dose Utah do charter schools or would we need to put the kids in a private school? right now they are in an amazing charter school that is run by a principal that it awake to our aweful situation. I just can't handle home schooling and refuse to put my kids back into public schools) Any advice on the best places to live, even a realtor to find a rental ( we want to rent, to chicken to buy right now) we have less than a month before the move. ecuse the horriblepost, just to sleepy to care about grammar or spelling

I live in Lehi and love it there (it's about 30 miles south of downtown Salt Lake). It's a relatively small town that has grown over the years, primarily due to Micron announcing their plant construction there in 1996. It's halfway between Orem/Provo and Salt Lake. There are plenty of gas stations, places to eat out, grocery shop, etc., there's a Wal Mart and Target close by AND it also has the small town, farm feel. My in-laws raise chickens and farm animals and we live in the south part of town where it is safe to go out at any time of the day without worrying about anything. If you're looking at south Utah County though (as opposed to north), I'd consider Spanish Fork for sure or maybe even Payson/Santaquin a little further to the south... both are small to medium sized rural areas that are perfect for you and your needs. Anyway... that's my two cents.

I'll put in a plug for Herriman.

Feel free to PM me and I'll tell you all the why's. I'm sure each community (including Herriman) has its issues, but I've been impressed with both our Stake and the city's approach to "preparedness." My kids are enjoying the schools (I still can't talk my wife into home schooling yet), but I think there are some good charter/private schools around as well if you want some other options.

Col. Flagg wrote:I live in Lehi and love it there (it's about 30 miles south of downtown Salt Lake).

Anybody live in or know anything about Logan?

I do, what do you want to know?

Rob wrote:

Col. Flagg wrote:I live in Lehi and love it there (it's about 30 miles south of downtown Salt Lake).

Anybody live in or know anything about Logan?

I live in Cache Valley. I've also commuted to Salt Lake from here for almost 2 yrs (still do a few times/month). As nice as Cache Valley is, it isn't worth the commute. Find a job closer

We'd live in Cache Valley if it weren't such a commute. We came close to buying a house in Wellsville once. It's beautiful there, though my Dad swears when he was a kid in North Logan all the hoodlums came from Wellsville...

I'll put a plug in for West Point. We love it here. Just make sure you move far enough North that you don't catch the smell from what we lovingly refer to as the "Poop Factory" (sewage treatment plant). We're growing but we still have tractors and onion trucks rumbling through here all the time. The people here are great. My parents live in Syracuse and like it too, but it's definitely more crowded (but probably more civilized, lol). We like living where none of our neighbors bat an eyelash when we take a rifle out to the coop to shoot some rats. We aren't quite backward enough to cook the rats for supper...

ChelC wrote:We'd live in Cache Valley if it weren't such a commute. We came close to buying a house in Wellsville once. It's beautiful there, though my Dad swears when he was a kid in North Logan all the hoodlums came from Wellsville...

Welsville hasn't changed much
My wife and I had a 2+ acre lot in a subdivision in the mouth of Sardine canyon (Wellsville canyon for you sensitive Wellsville people) but decided to sell it when my wife committed to 3 yrs as YW's president. I'm glad we sold it, we like where we're at, plus I don't want my kids growing up as "hoodlums".

JerL wrote:

Rob wrote:Anybody live in or know anything about Logan?

I do, what do you want to know?

That is a very good question. I'll give that a think. For openers, what are your impressions/observations of it? We currently live in north Texas and are considering our options. I love northern Utah and feel a strong pull to move there.

Mapleton is nice, but it is not for the thrifty or financially challenged. And either it or Spanish would be a solid hour commute to downtown Salt Lake.

There are a couple of pretty rural areas jsut south of point of the mountain, the names are not coming to me. Mostly fairly new homes, probably a bit on the pricey side, but enough vacancy you could probably find some rentals.

And I have heard there is a LDS splinter group there. Goggled it - Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs. Lehi and American Fork have some decently semi-rural areas.

I would highly suggest Grantsville in the Tooele Valley. Tooele itself is know for its partying and rampant drug use among the teens. Grantsville has its problems also but not near as bad. There is also a charter school within about 6 miles in Erda. Chickens are fine in most neighborhoods, but roosters are not tolerated in the more dense neighborhoods. Horses are fine as long as you have a large enough lot. The people are very friendly, the town is very involved with events such as 4th of July, 24th of July, Rodeos, Old folks socials etc. We are about 45 minutes from the Salt Lake Temple and about 30 from the airport.
The kids roam around freely through the neighborhoods without fear and the neighbors are old fashioned conservative cowboy for the most part.

JerL wrote:

Rob wrote:Anybody live in or know anything about Logan?

I do, what do you want to know?

That is a very good question. I'll give that a think. For openers, what are your impressions/observations of it? We currently live in north Texas and are considering our options. I love northern Utah and feel a strong pull to move there.

I grew up in Cache Valley and have enjoyed my time here. I have considered moving to other areas for career options, but I feel impressed to stay here. I feel that this will be a safe place to be after the initial cleansing. For now the crime rate is low. I have never felt worried about thefts, robberies, etc. I never lock the door to my car(although I don't leave any thing in sight to steal either). U.S.U. brings quite the liberal bias to some of the residents here. I also feel like most here are not aware and not interested in what is going on. There are some of the best people I have ever met here and some of the worst. I do feel it is a special place.
Here are two local news sources. I'm not sure how representative they are of the valley though, but they are a window of what happens here.
http://www.cachevalleydaily.com/
http://news.hjnews.com/

I live in Kearns, as my profile indicates, and I recommend it as a great place to live.

Specifically, I live in the western corner of Kearns, west of 5600 West and south of 5400 South. I work in downtown Salt Lake, and it takes me about 25 minutes to commute each way. However, take into account that I rarely commute during rush hour - during the typical rush hour it usually takes an additional 10 minutes each way.

In spite of the efforts of Democrat county bureaucrats, Kearns Township remains an unincorporated section of Salt Lake County. West and north of Kearns is West Valley City. South of Kearns is West Jordan. East of Kearns is Taylorsville.

JerL wrote:I grew up in Cache Valley and have enjoyed my time here. I have considered moving to other areas for career options, but I feel impressed to stay here. I feel that this will be a safe place to be after the initial cleansing. For now the crime rate is low. I have never felt worried about thefts, robberies, etc. I never lock the door to my car(although I don't leave any thing in sight to steal either). U.S.U. brings quite the liberal bias to some of the residents here. I also feel like most here are not aware and not interested in what is going on. There are some of the best people I have ever met here and some of the worst. I do feel it is a special place.
Here are two local news sources. I'm not sure how representative they are of the valley though, but they are a window of what happens here.
http://www.cachevalleydaily.com/
http://news.hjnews.com/

Cache Valley really is a nice, safe place (just don't live in the Nazi run city of Logan) plus my home town is pretty darn famous....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G78qFhWYosM

Where to go depends a lot on where in the SL valley your job is. I recommend finding a place that is no more than 20-25 minute commute from your work, because any commute can easily double in bad traffic or bad weather. Especially if you have to go around Point of the Mountain; southbound traffic during rush hour is horrendous (by Utah standards anyway).
We live in an older (1980's) neighborhood in South Jordan and love it. Our city has about 50K residents, so it's one of the smaller cities in the valley. The city leaders really focus on family and community togetherness. We have an exceptional ward here- high activity rate, high member ratio, plus, more importantly, kind and caring, and down-to-earth. The Oquirrh Mountain Temple is three minutes away (if you count parking!), Jordan River 15 minutes, Draper and Mount Timpanogos are within 30 minutes. Right now you can only have chickens and other farm animals if you have more than 1/2 acre, but the city is in the process of changing that. I'm just not sure what to yet. We looked at Toole and Grantsville when we moved here (from Cache Valley), but decided against it, partly because of health concerns (it's close to the chemical depot @ Dugway Proving Ground), partly because we have family in Utah Valley and wanted to be closer. South Jordan has one charter school, Early Light Academy, and there are a couple more within a few more miles, Hawthorn Academy in West Jordan, and North Star Academy in Bluffdale. There are also several great homeschooling groups to link into. Another bonus of this city is that it's as far as you CAN be from any known faultlines, and my stake boundaries roughly follow a patch of what's generously called "gravelly loam", which is less prone to shaking than most soils in the valley here. (Nice way of saying that there's about as much rock as soil...) Half to 2/3 of the city is also on soils and in areas less susceptible to earthquake damage. Check out the maps at the Utah Geological Survey to see earthquake scenario shakemaps, liquefaction maps, floodlevel maps, etc; it's good to see possible hazards before choosing an area, as well.

mattctr wrote:There is a new private school that is based on various home-schooling philosophies (Like early church schools, TJED, and others).
A Mentor works with the parents and student to define an individual course of study for each youth that is rooted and viewed through the lens of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their website is relatively new (looks like it's still in development), but they have a lot of information about how they approach education. I think their philosophy is pretty intriguing and worth looking into:

http://shepherdacademy.org/

All the best on your relocation! That's exciting!

Where is Shepherd Academy? I don't even see its address on their website, and other searches are turning up empty.