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Old 09-20-2018, 02:23 PM
 
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Sounds like the OP has been talking to current students at LHS - there is really no better way to gauge a school's culture as long as you have talked to a large enough sample size.

If you want a truly walkable lifestyle you need to get out of the MA suburbs, except maybe Newton. I heard Cambridge RLS is great, their scores are ramping up every year lately. Somerville's are too - quickly, but the school is a construction zone for the next 3 years. Then again your younger ones would get a state of the art new facility.
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Old 09-20-2018, 02:50 PM
 
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Lol. Talking to HS students????

I've never known any to say "Yay! I love school! It's great!"
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Old 09-20-2018, 03:34 PM
 
Location: The Moon
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Originally Posted by LLCNYC View Post
Lol. Talking to HS students????

I've never known any to say "Yay! I love school! It's great!"
Definitely not the most reliable way to learn about things like academics, data is far more useful.

Kids have more insight into things like safety and the culture of a school system. I was talking to one of my neighbors earlier this summer when his kid and a few friends drove back home. They were worried about a stabbing/brawl that had happened in June involving some of their peers and concerned it might spill over as gang activity over the summer/next school year. Not a piece of information I would have learned about otherwise.
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Old 09-20-2018, 04:00 PM
 
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Originally Posted by LLCNYC View Post
Lol. Talking to HS students????

I've never known any to say "Yay! I love school! It's great!"
Many kids like there schools, actually. And while I don't expect them to necessarily love it, if so many of them hate it then it tells me something about the culture.
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Old 09-20-2018, 05:44 PM
 
Location: East Coast
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Originally Posted by semiurbanite View Post
Many kids like there schools, actually. And while I don't expect them to necessarily love it, if so many of them hate it then it tells me something about the culture.
I actually think college students would be the best ones to talk to. They have a little bit of perspective, they're not right in the throes of the high school drama, and they can assess how well prepared they were for college. Yet they're still recent grads, so what they say will still be applicable.
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Old 09-21-2018, 08:15 AM
 
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Originally Posted by wolfgang239 View Post
I was talking to one of my neighbors earlier this summer when his kid and a few friends drove back home. They were worried about a stabbing/brawl that had happened in June involving some of their peers and concerned it might spill over as gang activity over the summer/next school year.
A little off topic, but lately I have heard of several gang related issues in the Somerville schools. How much of an issue is it and is it getting worse? I know there is a strong MS13 presence in Somerville but thought the gentrification would help.
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Old 09-21-2018, 09:04 AM
 
Location: The Moon
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Originally Posted by sawyer2 View Post
A little off topic, but lately I have heard of several gang related issues in the Somerville schools. How much of an issue is it and is it getting worse? I know there is a strong MS13 presence in Somerville but thought the gentrification would help.
There are always youth gang issues in cities and Somerville is certainly no exception. These kids were most definitely concerned. Most of the wealthy/techy types who moved here in recent years prefer to stick their heads in the sand when it comes to this problem because they dont deal with the same issues lots of the lower income folks here do. I'm not planning on keeping my kid here if things don't improve.

One of the many trade offs from moving to the city from a nice community like Lexington.
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Old 09-21-2018, 12:17 PM
 
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Originally Posted by sawyer2 View Post
A little off topic, but lately I have heard of several gang related issues in the Somerville schools. How much of an issue is it and is it getting worse? I know there is a strong MS13 presence in Somerville but thought the gentrification would help.
Haven't heard a thing since about 2010, and just texted the 2 HS parents I know and they haven't heard of a single incident in the HS, though they said they wouldn't be surprised if a few gang members were still in the school. Clue me in what did you hear? Details please so I can inquire.

153 students reviews here, zero mentions of gangs. Most complaints are about the facilities that are going to become state of the art soon.
https://www.niche.com/k12/somerville...le-ma/reviews/

Last edited by semiurbanite; 09-21-2018 at 12:35 PM..
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Old 09-21-2018, 12:21 PM
 
1,298 posts, read 1,332,776 times
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Originally Posted by wolfgang239 View Post
There are always youth gang issues in cities and Somerville is certainly no exception. These kids were most definitely concerned. Most of the wealthy/techy types who moved here in recent years prefer to stick their heads in the sand when it comes to this problem because they dont deal with the same issues lots of the lower income folks here do. I'm not planning on keeping my kid here if things don't improve.

One of the many trade offs from moving to the city from a nice community like Lexington.
There is a high level of enthusiasm for the city that most parents have here, the ones that don't have it almost always move. You seem to fall into the latter.
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Old 09-21-2018, 12:30 PM
 
Location: The Moon
1,717 posts, read 1,807,412 times
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Originally Posted by semiurbanite View Post
There is a high level of enthusiasm for the city that most parents have here, the ones that don't have it almost always move. You seem to fall into the latter.
Not sure how you determined that. I love where I live, but find it hard to be enthusiastic about well publicized high school brawls/stabbings involving gang activity. I'm hopeful things improve but am prepared for the worst if the high school doesnt shape up, academically first and foremost.

And for OP sorry to go off topic I'm personally done with this tangent.
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