Why Not?

[Lynn and Russ]

Lynn and I are working on a move to Maine as well. Our last child finally graduated high school so we are planning on leaving Lancaster, PA and pursue our dream to open a small pub up there. Hopefully this time next year, we will be residents and business owners.

The last few months have been spent on this forum where the folks have been nothing but helpful, insightful, friendly and inspiring. We are currently chatting with the Restaurant Assoication of Maine about our pub idea. Speaking with a few realtors while searching online as well. Reading "Down East" and "Moving To Maine" which the latter has been a gem of information. Perfecting recipes which we try out on our friends and I have been working on a logo.

We are also planning a trip in September to scout locations even though Orono/Old Town and Freeport are the front runners right now but are open to suggestions/thoughts/ideas.

Lynn and I cannot wait for the day when are finally there, living our dream and being called a "Mainah". Did I get that right?

Lynn and Russ

[Audry524]

I read through to your second post and I think you are very wise to make sure you visit Maine during the winter. For a lot of Maine (especially the touristy areas) summer and winter in Maine are worlds apart.

Now I'm very familiar with Maine (lots of family there, been there a million times) so for me it was easiest to start with the bigger cities I preferred and I worked my way out to commutable towns from there. Once we narrowed down towns I have found that a great resource is greatschools.com. The current school my kids go to has a rating of 6 from greatschools and it's so/so, so immediately we elimated all towns with a rating of 6 or lower. Jobs aren't an issue for us though, my husband is in the medical field and he's sent out emails to various hospitals and they are practically begging us to come now. Depending on your field though, it could be an issue.

We're planning our move in about 2 years and there's a million tools on line, but I started with schools, then checked out crime rates and was able to narrow down towns fairly quickly. From there I've been doing searches on the towns from my narrowed down list for the things that interest us (dance schools in town for my daughter, etc.) and I've also found that some town have their local papers online which is a great insight into the community. I could go on and on but you get the jist. Use the internet!

Best of luck. I've wanted to live in Maine since I was a little girl spending summers there with my grandparents. It's different from any place I've ever been, but so worth it, and a great place to raise a family!

[dramamama6685]

No you are not mad. How is crazy to want to leave all the hectic, crazy, rush about world behind? My huisband and I should have moved there a long time ago. Though it will be several years yet for us and our friends and familyknow this...Ohioans are quick to voice their negativity as well. What they don't know..can't hurt me!

[kitti]

dont come to the midcoast unless you like to pay alot of taxes. go way up north. its colder but the taxes are less and people are not in as much as a rush

[mollysmiles]

Audrey, I went to greatschools.net, and found their information to be very inaccurate for Washington County, as well as Penobscot County. I'm not sure what the site is using for it's "standards", but they seem to somehow base their ratings on how many children are receiving subsidized meals. That's alarming in Maine. Here in Calais we have two 2007 Maine State Teacher Award teachers on staff, and a ratio student to teacher 14:1, not including Ed Techs, and yet we're only ranked at a 3. I have 4 kids in the school department, and as a former teacher, I'm concerned that websites like this may too easily cause concern amongst parents. Nothing should replace a visit to a child's school. I will be looking more in depth to this site, but at this point, I'm having trouble determining it's validity.

[TrekkingNorth]

Molly,

Seems to me that most of the rating comes from parents or others rating the schools by survey. That may be combined with the student to teacher ratio and socio-economic stats. But if, for instance, there are no parent ratings for a school, then the results may be wildly skewed. I think the more input greatschools.net gets, the better the results may be. That makes Maine sort of a poor model for the Greatschools system, given the number of small and rural schools.

[mollysmiles]

Originally Posted by TrekkingNorth

Molly,

Seems to me that most of the rating comes from parents or others rating the schools by survey. That may be combined with the student to teacher ratio and socio-economic stats. But if, for instance, there are no parent ratings for a school, then the results may be wildly skewed. I think the more input greatschools.net gets, the better the results may be. That makes Maine sort of a poor model for the Greatschools system, given the number of small and rural schools.

that's very true....and if parents have no idea about the site or no idea how to input, then there's no way the results for Maine can be accurate It may very well say that on the site too, I haven't had a chance to go back and look, but I hope to tonight or tomorrow

[Audry524]

Originally Posted by mollysmiles

Audrey, I went to greatschools.net, and found their information to be very inaccurate for Washington County, as well as Penobscot County. I'm not sure what the site is using for it's "standards", but they seem to somehow base their ratings on how many children are receiving subsidized meals. That's alarming in Maine. Here in Calais we have two 2007 Maine State Teacher Award teachers on staff, and a ratio student to teacher 14:1, not including Ed Techs, and yet we're only ranked at a 3. I have 4 kids in the school department, and as a former teacher, I'm concerned that websites like this may too easily cause concern amongst parents. Nothing should replace a visit to a child's school. I will be looking more in depth to this site, but at this point, I'm having trouble determining it's validity.

That's actually really good to know. Greatschools is pretty accurate for the state I'm living in now, but I didn't give any consideration to the fact that this may vary from state to state. Of course I'm pulling information about the schooling for my kids from other resources too and won't move to any town with visiting the school.

Thanks for clearing that up! You may have opened up a few more towns for me to look at

[Submariner]

We have been exposed to school districts on the West coast and the East coast, as well as federal maintained schools overseas. From our experience schools in Maine are about the best that we have seen.