Is Weston Overrated?

[smarty]

Originally Posted by canbonbon

And now my favourite Smarty:

You obviously don't have kids or they are grownups so you have forgotten how they were as babies? Forget 1-2 days, I can live for 1-2 wks without food, as I was trained in the Israeli Army when I was 17-18, but when it comes to 2 little kids, yes, even 1-2 hours without food is not tolerated by a concerned parent. I was just making a point, that I see this as a fundamental flaw in town planning, whatever the reason maybe. Maybe that store is owned by the Mayor and he would not let anyone else come in. I am not saying they should allow big malls, etc. but this is like throwing baby with the bath water.

But in general, if I follow your suggestions, this is what I should do. Raise a cow farm. Yes, that would be great as that would solve the milk/meat issue and add some chickens to the farm while I am at it(to solve the eggs problem). They will get plenty of food (big acre lots), a lot of Privacy (as the celebrity neighbours don't care and my farm would be well hidden by a *lot* of trees), I could officially call myself as *rural* (any tax benefits on that?), no one will steal my cows or chickens (very low crime rate), my cows can hang out on the rural roads (will get best police protection) and I can go around in my (very low insurance paid) car to round them up at night. Perfect, I am sold. Where do I throw my $$ now? Yes honey, I will get some sheep and goats too. Sorry, wifey was chirping from the back. She likes sheep.

Jokes apart, I would actually like to thank you for your suggestions. I just agree to disagree with only *some* of them. Maybe this is not *the* town for us. Money is not the issue (as we could go more), the *town* is the issue. We should look in Wellsley and are going to see some homes in Chestnul Hill this weekend. Interesting thread and I will post more as we make some progress. I am worried that we might end up living in Boston and send our kids to a private school. I just don't want to do that, if possible.

Your joke is fairly funny... but I'm not sure how it went from what I said to what you're thinking about. Btw... sheep is a little better than goat because sheep eats the grass blade and goat will pull out the roots.

In terms of town planning, New England towns are old and small. No such thing as planning in the 1700s. Very little streets that are straight. Streets were created by people and horses traveling back and forth. It is not often that the town can take your property and convert to a different usage. CA has much better planning. You'll also find people here do not like changes. You'll find people here 3-4 generations living in the same towns and having same jobs... have you ever heard of employees celebrating 40 year anniversary?

Yes. My kids are older. When they were young... really young... we decided on the natural process... breast feeding. Yes. They eat constantly. But with people's schedule nowadays, who has the time to breastfeed? I find it interesting that email answered within minutes is too slow... hence IM is needed... to talk mostly about nothing when only 20 years ago we rely on snail mail. Snow storm is not a problem if you do not need to physically be certain place at certain time.

We baby our first one.. no soda... no eating off the table... he became a very picky eater... my youngest one eat off the floor... he became the healthiest one... process bacteria and viruses much faster... never get sick for more than 1 day. My point? Relax... Trust nature... they'll adapt. If we condition them too much, it may not be a good thing. I saw 14 kids sitting around waiting 15 minutes for the coach at a soccer practice... when they could just self organize and have fun with the ball.

With all the posts, I have no clue as to what your dream house or town is. Another Cupertino or Palo Alto? What factors are important to you? You also mention how important school is. What in a school is important to you? Being the best kid in the worst district sometimes will get you into the best colleges.

[canbonbon]

We liked the chestnut hill area so we would continue to look in that. But I am being told that the school district is not that great (primarily because Newton has too many kids) and the ratings from the most recent MCAS results shows it too (75th rank in the state).

NOTE: BTW, Smarty, Weston High school, the one you were touting to be good, is 12th in MA in English, but in Maths, hold your breath, it is 50th overall. See here:
Top-scoring schools on the 2007 10th-grade MCAS exams - The Boston Globe - Boston.com

or if you want to take a look at district level:
Top-scoring districts on the 2007 10th-grade MCAS exams - The Boston Globe - Boston.com

It does not matter to us as we have moved on, but might help others who are planning to throw their money there. Please don't tell me now that MCAS is all fake and irrelevant, you had your chance. Not that we want all our kids to be Math geniuses like the one in CBS-Numbers, but 50th?

Honestly though, what do these MCAS ratings mean? The (*mostly uninformed*) real estate agent said they mean a lot. But I tried to look at some old articles on the web and found it to be something state regulated; and found that quite a few districts don't endorse it properly. I will try to post a separate thread for this, simply for me to understand the MCAS results better.

We will be trying Winchester next and then Dover.

[RLCMA]

Do some parents actually think that sending their kid to the "best" school in the state guarantees success in life? Are parents really that superficial? Ever heard of the old saying, those who make A's make doctor's, those who make B's make lawyers, and those make C's make millions? I know sending your kids to a good school is important but the OP sounds very pretentious. I would rather my kid have average grades and common sense rather than get A's and not have a clue with day to day life. The very fact you have to post how much your house is worth, what kind of car you drive, and saying you have to send your kid to the "best" school in MA simply says to me you're much more about surface than substance when it comes to yourself and your kids.

[ogre]

If you like the population density and character of Chestnut Hill--sburban, but an area with sidewalks and neighborhoods rather than woodsy winding roads--Winchester would be a nice upscale town, with good schools, which you should definitely check out. At least as best I can get a feel for what you seem to want in a town, Wellesley keeps screaming at me that it too is a town you should look into.

[pborde]

I don't mean to take this discussion too far off topic, but as Newton has been mentioned a few times, I'd be be so appreciative if anyone could comment on a few of the public elementary schools: Bowen, Cabot, Ward and Angier. How good are the teachers, principal, playgrounds, parent participation...?

Also, which schools are considered to be the real gems in Newton these days?

Thanks very much for any advice.

[smarty]

Originally Posted by canbonbon

We liked the chestnut hill area so we would continue to look in that. But I am being told that the school district is not that great (primarily because Newton has too many kids) and the ratings from the most recent MCAS results shows it too (75th rank in the state).

NOTE: BTW, Smarty, Weston High school, the one you were touting to be good, is 12th in MA in English, but in Maths, hold your breath, it is 50th overall. See here:
Top-scoring schools on the 2007 10th-grade MCAS exams - The Boston Globe - Boston.com

or if you want to take a look at district level:
Top-scoring districts on the 2007 10th-grade MCAS exams - The Boston Globe - Boston.com

It does not matter to us as we have moved on, but might help others who are planning to throw their money there. Please don't tell me now that MCAS is all fake and irrelevant, you had your chance. Not that we want all our kids to be Math geniuses like the one in CBS-Numbers, but 50th?

Honestly though, what do these MCAS ratings mean? The (*mostly uninformed*) real estate agent said they mean a lot. But I tried to look at some old articles on the web and found it to be something state regulated; and found that quite a few districts don't endorse it properly. I will try to post a separate thread for this, simply for me to understand the MCAS results better.

We will be trying Winchester next and then Dover.

Please check out this post
http://www.city-data.com/forum/massa...ng-school.html

When a district is up there... MCAS is not that important... You got to ask yourself what other factors are more important to you.

[crankycook]

Our family moved to Weston almost 20 years ago from New York City, so I understand some of your concerns. But comparing Cupertino to towns in Eastern Massachusetts is like comparing apples and oranges.

I have not been to Cupertino, but I have looked at the demographics. It has 55,000 residents -- Weston has 11,000. You have 3 high schools with at least 6,000 students. Weston has one with less than 1,000. We don't even have a Mayor (so no point trying to call) -- we are a New England town with Selectman and Town Meetings.

Weston is a very homogeneous town -- not only in its racial composition, but in its socio-economic component. Although they might like to deny it, many folks choose to live here because they know that their fellow townspeople are going to have high incomes and be well-educated and have certain hopes and expectations for their children which are reflected , somewhat, in the quality of the schools. Remember, the composition of the schools in any town reflect the composition of the community. The closer you move to Boston, the more the composition of the schools will resemble that of any sizeable city.I have no idea what percent of graduates the Cupertino high schools send to Harvard and other highly competitive schools, but I do know that many of the kids from town who go to Harvard in particular, while certainly smart, are also legacies. This is a town of doctors, lawyers, financiers, bio-tech, IT, CEO's and entrepreneurs -- with a smattering of celebrity athletes, authors,chefs....

As for private schools, there are only 2 or 3 within a 25 mile radius of Boston that are worth paying tuition to if the Ivy League is your goal. The Weston schools do a good enough job up until high school (and you know your child will be safe and make friends in the same town). But 40% of my child's class left in 9th grade to attend private or boarding schools -- including our child, who had to commute 25 miles each way each day, but went to Princeton 4 years later. Having said all this, I don't think you will find that the public schools in any of the other towns that have been recommended to you have better selective matriculation rates than Weston.

One thing you do not mention is where the parent(s) will be working. Weston is just about the easiest suburban commute to Boston -- less than 30 minutes door-to-door almost anywhere downtown. If the employer is in a suburb, that would be useful to know, because you might prefer to live in a nearby town that has good enough,if not as highly ranked schools.Sherborn and Dover which folks mentioned are more sparsely populated and rural than Weston and further from shopping malls, movies,restaurants etc, so I can't see what issues of yours they thought they were helping to solve. Whatever you don't like about Weston will be worse there. Weston is 20 minutes from the malls in Chestnut Hill (your conclusions about the schools are correct -- see homegeneity above) and 15 minutes from the Natick Collection in the other direction (think Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom,etc.).

This may sound "snobby", but if you have over $2 million to spend, I think that you would be happiest as a newcomer in Weston if you like space (stay south of Route 20) or Wellesley (where most folks from Weston visit frequently)if you prefer a more traditionally suburban community with sidewalks, local elementary schools,a very nice upscale local shopping and restaurant area and a larger population (over 30,000). I like Weston a bit better because as a stay-at-home Mom I can avoid dealing with traffic and parking issues; I like seeing wildlife,grass and trees from my windows; and I like living where there's really no reason for non-residents to be hanging around or up to mischief. As for worrying about your Series 7, it will have lots of other BMW's to hang out with in Weston or Wellesley (although you're more likely to see an X5 or X3 than a big sedan) along with Bentleys, Lexuses and Toyotas,etc -- although you will need to get something with 4 wheel or all wheel drive wherever you decide to live in Massachusetts (that's the real issue with snow and ice). But no matter what you drive, the other drivers up here are so bad that your cars will be dinged up in mall parking lots before you know it -- and don't forget that 3/4 of Massachusetts drivers have had insurable accidents.

Your fears about being snowed in without food and necessities are pretty much unfounded. No one has been "snowed in" for more than a day in Weston in over 30 years (look up the Blizzard of 1978). Unlike California, you do have to look at the weather forecast in the Northeast for 5 months of the year to see if it will be snowy or icy -- if snow is predicted, everyone goes to the store a day or two before and gets whatever they might be getting a bit low on. Not because they are fearful of starvation, but because who the heck wants to drive around on snow and ice to get groceries ! The roads are plowed promply and constantly in Weston -- and since we are ringed by state road and interstates, those are cleared immediately, as well. We have never had to spend more than one day at a time cozily by the fire because of a snowstorm.

We looked at many communities when we moved here -- we have never regretted choosing Weston. Happy to answer any other questions you may nave -- GOOD LUCK !