Newton, Lexington or . . . Winchester? (Boston, Concord: apartments, renting, homes)

[camer]

Originally Posted by lorisheepdog

Thank you, thank you! Lots of great information. We will be there Friday, the 22nd through Sunday. Wish us luck!

By the way, I've been in Newton for many years. Commute time into Boston is great; public library is the best; nearby colleges and universities make it convenient to take a course here and there; new superintendent of schools coming in along with a new mayor....a POSITIVE thing; a good community hospital; excellent socioeconomic diversity; many neughborhoods that "keep to themselves" but at the same time, many neighborhoods that celebrate block parties etc etc. I think the pros outweigh the cons.

[lorisheepdog]

Yikes! We decided on Winchester. We liked the quaint down center, the close proximity to Boston, the fact that it was under the radar a bit. Mostly, we loved the houses there--we like older, architecturally interesting homes. Newton has those too, but seems so spread out. Anyway, we're looking for a specific house and I find out that Winchester is part of a supposedly incredibly awful collaborative for disabled kids. My son is severely disabled--wheelchair, etc. The collaborative is called SEEM. And someone else told me the highschool facility is terrible and overcrowed. She said many parents pull their kids out of the highschool and put them in private school. In general, I have heard that special education in Winchester is poor.

Does anyone have any knowledge about the SEEM collaborative or other school issues? My son is in middle school and I don't want him to go to a dilapidated highschool.

Thanks.

[DreamworksSKG]

dogNH I'd disagree with you on that.

Winchester used to have mostly rich conservative folks, but now there's a wide mix of different incomes--we have more affordable housing unites in town now, and a much more culturally diverse population we have indians, asians, hispanics, african americans, as well as your traditional conservative base. There is a wide-moderate liberal, progressive liberal movement in Winchester now as well, and also libertarian, and 3rd party. There's a wide diversity of people and our volunteer organizations show that. Winchesterites are highly involved in their town and take great care to preserve the character of the town. That is why we didn't allow it to be built up in the 60s and 70s like Woburn is and parts of Reading and other towns are like Peabody. We kept most of the business to the north side near Woburn - and some downtown -but also kept the character of the old-style of the old-fashioned new england towns. Winchester is like it was in the 1800s. look wise. - but some of the stores have chnaged , a new elevated train station has been built, but a lot of the town still remains unchanged.
We also have lots of services in town like banks, grocery stores, laundromats, dry cleaners, a few cafes and restaurants, boutiques, video store, post office, coffee shops, 24 hour convenience store, and more. There's a neat Photography museum in town with a red wagon wheel called the Griffin Museum of Photography named after the great photographer legend Arthur Griffin who lived in Town ...youth sports are big in winchester, youth theatre as well, and other youth activities, recreation department etc.
Education in town is Top Notch. -
Two commuter rails are in town provdiing easy access to Boston
(20 min train trip)
Some people even walk to the train station for exercise in the AM
from their homes - on good days
Overall Winchester is more open these days than in the past, and is welcoming to all people.
Some come on down!
We also have a great park called the Mystic Lakes --Sandy Beach area, and also the Middlesex Fells reservation with miles of hiking trails and some lookout towers

[DreamworksSKG]

I went to Winchester High School and graduated in 1995.
The high school is Not overcrowded in my opinion

There is overcrowding in every high school and town in Massachusetts, due to the continuous influx of new school residents.

Though the last couple years the influx in Winchester has stabilized. They are talking of building a new high school in a few years.

I never had a problem in Winchester High School. The teachers are very good in my opinion , there is a lot of activities, and people make friends easily in McCALL Middle school (the principal there is great, Vandy French) and just about everyone who attends WHS graduates.

There were about 184 students in my graduating class in 1995.

about 800-900 total in the entire high school
which is a lot smaller than most schools

Yes the building might not look the best, aesthetically but it isn't a huge campus where people can't find their way around and get lost easily and get lost in the shuffle of things

teachers spend time one on one with the students whenever they can in elem school middle school and through high school

And the fact that just about 99% of the students graduate and go onto college and graduate college should speak for itself

I think you'll like Winchester and the schools

Winchester is an open community to all, even people with disabilities

Though its up to you if you want to send him to another school I'd say stick with Winchester a bit and see how it goes

you might like it

[DreamworksSKG]

They are also talking about eventually building a new high school in a few years--they just expanded the MCCALL Middle School

[smarty]

Just to show some school district's race composition for diversity (compare to surrounding communities)
Race................ Winchester, Lexington, Arlington, Belmont, State
African American 1.1 4.3 3.6 3.6 8.2
Asian............... 10.4 24.5 9.5 13.3 5.1
Hispanic........... 2.7 4.3 4.6 4.2 14.3
Native American 0.1 0.1 0.1 0 0.3
White.............. 82.9 63.7 79.4 74.4 69.9
Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander 0.2 0 0.1 0 0.1
Multi-Race, Non-Hispanic 2.4 3.1 2.7 4.5 2

As to HS graduation and go to college rate... Everyone knows it has to do more with "Money"!

[specter612]

look into brookline, I lived in Newton for two years and found it a tad parvenu.

[lorisheepdog]

Well, we have now elminated Newton for reasons having to do with their special education system. I've been told by multiple sources that Newton will insist that your handicapped child be included with the gen. ed kids no matter how handicapped that child is. They feel that their system is complete and won't pay for an out of district placement. This would be unworkable for my child who has a serious disease and multiple severe disabililties. I was actually rather shocked by this policy.

Anyway, that leaves Lexington vs. Winchester. We are coming back this weekend to make a final decision. Basically, I like the size of Lexington & the fact that the people are a bit more liberal. Winchester has 20,000 and lexington has 30,000 people. I don't like people in my business. lol. On the other hand, Winchester's hs has 1,000 in its graduating class versus Lexington's 2,000. This might be good for my older son who has historically had some emotional issues. We think Winchester is overall more physically attractive--more quaint and old-fashioned.

Any more thoughts are welcome. If not, I'll let you know Monday what we decide!

[Concepts]

Have you thought about calling the Superintendant of the schools where you are interested in living? They should be able to (hopefully!) answer your questions on how their special ed system works. Its always difficult to tell someone what towns have a great school system; we tend to rely on MCAS scores, student/teacher ratios, percentage of students that graduate/go on to college,etc.

When, in fact, some of the schools sytems that look "middle of the road" in these respects might actually be the perfect school for your child as their special education program may be awesome.

[MovingForward]

Originally Posted by lorisheepdog

Well, we have now elminated Newton for reasons having to do with their special education system. I've been told by multiple sources that Newton will insist that your handicapped child be included with the gen. ed kids no matter how handicapped that child is. They feel that their system is complete and won't pay for an out of district placement. This would be unworkable for my child who has a serious disease and multiple severe disabililties. I was actually rather shocked by this policy.

Anyway, that leaves Lexington vs. Winchester. We are coming back this weekend to make a final decision. Basically, I like the size of Lexington & the fact that the people are a bit more liberal. Winchester has 20,000 and lexington has 30,000 people. I don't like people in my business. lol. On the other hand, Winchester's hs has 1,000 in its graduating class versus Lexington's 2,000. This might be good for my older son who has historically had some emotional issues. We think Winchester is overall more physically attractive--more quaint and old-fashioned.

Any more thoughts are welcome. If not, I'll let you know Monday what we decide!

Either Winchester or Lexington--you can't go wrong with either place. I have friends who moved to Winchester and really like it. Personally, I prefer Lexington--in my opinion, it has more of a community feel, people are really invested and involved in community issues, and it has more history. My advice would be to visit the two towns again and see which one "feels" more like "home" to you.