Finding a Madison suburb to live with kids (Mount Horeb, New Glarus: home, high school)

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

As a partial product of the Stoughton Schools, I have to wonder what negative things you've heard? I think the schools are quite good there, actually!

Well the basis of comparison is typically other Madison-area school districts (and Madison schools themselves) which are generally regarded as among the best public school districts in the state. I really don't know how Stoughton schools stack up against those schools or how adequate they are in their own right, though I'm pretty confident they're not churning out functionally illiterate stoops. As always, greatschools.net and schoolmatters.com are probably the best online resources when in doubt about a given school district.

[smile4u]

We live in Sauk Prairie. It's a small town, not much to do here but we like it. It is close enough to Madison to commute for work. Sauk City has great schools and the community is family fiendly. Housing isn't that expensive and the taxes aren't bad.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Drover

Well the basis of comparison is typically other Madison-area school districts (and Madison schools themselves) which are generally regarded as among the best public school districts in the state. I really don't know how Stoughton schools stack up against those schools or how adequate they are in their own right, though I'm pretty confident they're not churning out functionally illiterate stoops. As always, greatschools.net and schoolmatters.com are probably the best online resources when in doubt about a given school district.

There is nothing in the Stoughton Schools that would raise any red flags. It's a quite lovely community with a unique Norwegian identity, and is a wonderful place to raise a family. The only downside is that it's probably a little further from Madison (about 20 minutes) than many other suburbs. And the newer homes there are truly "urban sprawl".

[baddiver]

Originally Posted by Drover

Yeah, my suggestion is come out and see what your taxes buy you. Listening to some folks in certain Mid-Atlantic states, they feel like they might as well take whatever taxes they send off to the state and throw it in a furnace instead for all the good it does them. At least in the Madison area your taxes buy you very good schools, clean parks, good roads and well-maintained infrastructure, effective policing and government services, etc. There's a reason why the population of both the region and Madison Proper continues to climb despite the taxes.

I see this response quite a bit on this forum and with all due respect, must disagree. I grew up in Wisconsin, left for 12 years to Maryland and have now returned. I paid $1200 in real estate taxes on a $325,000 home in Mayland. Here, it is at least 3 times that. The schools were very good there, very similar in quality. The roads and many other services were better there. Income tax was similar. I don't think Wisconsin is good at all on spending taxpayer money. I do like Wisconsin, but the real estate taxes are a joke. We shouldn't try to convince ourselves that we are getting a fiscally responsible state.

[Drover]

My response was specific to the Madison area. There are clearly some parts of Wisconsin where you can look around and wonder where all the revenue is going.

[Madcitygirl]

I grew up and lived through my early 30's on the west side of Madison, we then had a short stint in Illinois. We returned to Windsor to take over my mother's house, I thought I'd hate being on the east side of Madison, but Windsor turned out to be a great small community. They have an elementary school, but the rest of the kids are at DeForest and they're a great school. You're far away enough from Madison to not deal with traffic to run to the store or anything, the interstate is right there, Hwy 51 is right there, but you feel like you're in a tiny little town.

[HWisconsin]

I grew up in Middleton and have lived in DeForest, Poynette, Arlington and now Columbus. Frankly, the west side is getting really congested. When I go back to visit, I cannot believe how hard it is to get to West Towne, Target, etc.
With your DH working in Madison, I would strongly consider Waunakee - very good schools there, friendly community, etc. Quick access to the westside, via Middleton or the northside via Hwy 113.
You could also go with DeForest or Arlington for quick access to the northside. Arlington is a small, small town with just a post office, elem. school, car dealership, but a GREAT summertime party in early August. Arlington Kids go to Poynette for middle school / high school - several miles down the road -- a bus drive for them. Arlington is in Columbia County.
Regarding Columbus - nice small town feel, another Columbia County community. Schools are pretty good too. Great public pool. The drive into Madison is a good 45 minutes to get to downtown. However, only 30 min. to get to the eastside shopping. A big plus for Columbus is that it's not far at all from Beaver Dam (15 minutes up Hwy 151), which is up and coming. Beaver Dam has good shopping (Kohls, ShopKo, new SuperSprawl Mart, Home Depot, Farm and Fleet, HUGE Menards) without all the Madison crowds.
Very close to Columbus is Fall River, a lot like Arlington but with one central K-12 school in the middle of town. No big grocery store. Small class sizes. Mayberry in Wisconsin. Lots of new construction going on there.
If you're kids are REALLY into sports, I would go with Waunakee or DeForest. If they are REALLY, REALLY into sports - Middleton. However, I hear lots of complaints from my relatives in Middleton that kids get shut out of playing at the high school level, due to over crowding at MHS. good luck!!

[transambulance]

I grew up in Middleton, and while I'm horrified that you'd willingly raise your kids in Madison's lily-white suburbs, I can say that the area covered by Middleton's school district is enormous and mostly rural. Cross Plains itself is pretty insular, but there's more variety in the quasi-gated developments around it. There's a new development going in around Middleton's Sunset Ridge elementary school you may want to take a look at. Middleton's schools are as close to Madison's in quality as you'll find in Dane county, but Madison schools are far and away better than those in the suburbs around it. Madison schools do everything by the state's rulebook and attract the best teachers from the University; schools in the burbs are more beholden to developers, churches, and school boards.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by transambulance

I grew up in Middleton, and while I'm horrified that you'd willingly raise your kids in Madison's lily-white suburbs, I can say that the area covered by Middleton's school district is enormous and mostly rural . . .

Bigoted and judgmental much?

[Chelito23]

I believe the Fitchburg-Verona schools are something like 25% minority..and Sun Prairie is about 20% minority...as per a recent newspaper article I read. They certainly aren't "lily white" suburban schools, especially for this area of Wisconsin. Now, the other districts will have much lower percentages of moniorty students, but I think this is the norm in a country where 70% of the country is white.

Also, I don't think the poster is looking for all white school districts, and just because someone happens to move into a district like that, doesn't mean you should be horrified. If it is a good school who cares if it's 90% white or 90% Hispanic?