Help-- Upper Valley Schools-- Husband Offered Job at Dartmouth! (apartment, crime)

[Sporin]

Glad to hear the kudos for Kearsarge, one of my best friends from High School is the Principal there after a number of years as the Vice Principal. He is incredibly dedicated to the school and the kids.

I never think of the New London area as part of the the "Upper Valley" That would be a long commute to Dartmouth imo, especially in the winter. It is a lovely area though, I spent 4 of the best years of my life at Colby-Sawyer Collage in New London.

[ArizonaDesert]

Sporin,

You seem to know a lot about what I am trying to find out.

My wife and I are looking to relocate to VT. I am looking to teach high school. We currently live in Arizona. What are the odds of finding a decent paying job in Vermont teaching?

[GregW]

Our local newspaper in Nashua just ran an article commenting on the difficulty of finding younger teachers to replace the retirees. There is a big problem finding math and science teachers. Contact the New Hampshire and Vermont chapters of the national teachers union for more information.

[Sporin]

GregW gives good advice. I'm not plugged into the teacher market directly so I really can't help much.

[notdancingqueen]

Originally Posted by nhfinehomes

I too have heard good things about Kearsarge Regional. Have you or anyone else had first hand experiences with the various elementary schools in the KR school district, namely Sutton?

Excellent as well (as told to me by a New London ES parent and also a former teacher in the Kearsarge system. Some people will tell you that NLES (now KRES) is the "best" of the system's elementary schools but that seems to be because the town of New London itself is the "more desirable" town.

Sporin, depending on which NH book or guide you read, the NL area is or is not part of the Sunapee/Dartmouth area. Most consider it as part of the Dartmouth area though that might be more for marketing purposes than anything else. It's usually considered part of the Upper Valley at least as far as the "eat local" campaigns go.

I find the Dartmouth-NL drive to be about 30-35 minutes in good weather. DH's commute from Exit 11 to Exit 19 is about 25 minutes.

- Jackie

[Centaurmyst]

Don't raise kids in Windsor. It's a nice little town and the people are really nice but there are severe substance abuse issues in that town. The best 3 towns on the Vermont side to live is Quechee, Norwich and Woodstock. The schools on the Vermont side as a rule are going to be better as well. NH is very anti-tax and the less taxes you have the less state funding for schools. A lot of Dartmouth teachers live on the Vermont side in the 3 towns I listed. I lived in that area for 10 years. I lived in White River Junction, Windsor, Springfield, and Quechee. By far, Quechee was the best of all of them. Norwich also has the Montshire Museum of Science which is great for kids. Woodstock is a quaint artsy town with a lot of character. All are within very easy driving distance to Dartmouth. Buying a home can be costly but you can find nice rentals in all of those areas.

[Sporin]

A lot has changed in Windsor in the 11 years since we moved here, and yes, the town had a rep as being run down and drug addled but times have changed.

For one, the Armory Square Apartments ("The Block") are empty. It was emptied, gutted, and is being rebuilt by Rockingham Area Community Land Trust: Armory Square and will no longer be the Section 8 Tenement they used to be.

The rest of town is night and day from a decade ago, lots of young families looking for an affordable home have moved here and remolded and cleaned up. The downtown strip is also mostly new. It's another bedroom community for Dartmouth now just like Enfield and Canaan on the NH side.

Taxes are low, and you can still buy a really nice house for under $200k. Try that in Hanover or Norwich.

Currently, I don't believe we have any greater drug or crime problem then any other Upper Valley town. Every town has it's "issues" even the all exalted Hanover.

I won't tell you Windsor is the best schools around, it's not. But I have a number of friends with kids in Windsor Public Schools that are very happy with the programs and teachers.

If I had to do it again, I would choose somewhere in the Hartford VT, or the Lyme NH schools system... assuming I could afford my house in those areas (easily triple the price when I bought 11 years ago and double the price now)

[GypsySoul22]

Quechee is great if you have money to own a nice house and you want to live in a retirement community. Hang outside the post office if you want to see the 'true vibe' of Quechee.

Don't even think about renting. They don't WANT you there. Quechee is run by an association that most homeowners belong to--willingly or not. Beware when you buy a home in that area because you may 'have to' buy into the whole 'association' fees and all--read the fine print.

A lot of the houses are 'second homes' for wealthy out of staters. There is good and bad to this. They keep it nice in Quechee, but it's very tourist oriented there. If you don't belong to the 'association' you can find yourself on the edges of the village because you cannot join in with the 'activities.'

The school (elementary) is excellent. If you have a family, most of your social life in the village will revolve around school. Otherwise there is VERY little for kids to do there.

The middle and high schoolers go to the same schools as kids in the other Hartford villages. Even those of us in 'less glorious' Hartford villages get to go there! My son is in special ed and I love his new school. They have been very helpful.

If you don't mind traveling, you can move to a variety of villages and towns near Hanover.

Hanover is VERY crowded. The traffic is *nuts* sometimes. My husband say "I don't see the big deal about Hanover." One day it took him 1/2 hour to get some money from the ATM because he had 20 students in front of him! (Hanover exists because of Dartmouth).

You can live outside the area very nicely. (either in NH or VT). VT has a different vibe to me than NH but both are fine.

[Centaurmyst]

Originally Posted by Sporin

A lot has changed in Windsor in the 11 years since we moved here, and yes, the town had a rep as being run down and drug addled but times have changed.

For one, the Armory Square Apartments ("The Block") are empty. It was emptied, gutted, and is being rebuilt by Rockingham Area Community Land Trust: Armory Square and will no longer be the Section 8 Tenement they used to be.

The rest of town is night and day from a decade ago, lots of young families looking for an affordable home have moved here and remolded and cleaned up. The downtown strip is also mostly new. It's another bedroom community for Dartmouth now just like Enfield and Canaan on the NH side.

Taxes are low, and you can still buy a really nice house for under $200k. Try that in Hanover or Norwich.

Currently, I don't believe we have any greater drug or crime problem then any other Upper Valley town. Every town has it's "issues" even the all exalted Hanover.

I won't tell you Windsor is the best schools around, it's not. But I have a number of friends with kids in Windsor Public Schools that are very happy with the programs and teachers.

If I had to do it again, I would choose somewhere in the Hartford VT, or the Lyme NH schools system... assuming I could afford my house in those areas (easily triple the price when I bought 11 years ago and double the price now)

Armory Square was never the root of the drug problems in Windsor. I had many friends who grew up in Windsor and whose family had lived there for generations. I have friends and family members who still live there and own a home there. Based on what I have heard from family that have owned a home there for over 50 years the drug issue hasn't improved. It's easy not to see it, though, because it's kinda hidden.

The people who own homes in Windsor always believed that Armory Square was evil and they tried to pretend that Jarvis St. wasn't there and told their children not to go down there. However, what they never seemed to realize is that many of their teenagers and adult children were the ones selling the drugs and using most of them. I could name at least 20 long time and well respected Windsor families whose kids were doing cocaine and heroin on a regular basis.

I lived in Windsor and I saw people doing drugs with my own eyes. I knew who sold them (as did everyone, including the cops there). I had friends who got got addicted and some who even died from heroin overdoses. I never did drugs in my life and rarely drank, but I did know many, many people who did. I helped one friend get off cocaine and another off heroin. Since I was around people who were doing that stuff I know a lot about this. I loved the people in Windsor very much. The school used to be pretty darn good, too. My kids went there until my oldest was in the 7th grade, at which point I wanted to get them out of town. It's a pretty little town with very friendly people. It's good for raising young children but I would NEVER raise my kids beyond age 10-12 there.

I'm actually kind of sad to hear that Armory Square won't be Section 8 housing anymore. That place was filled mostly with poor single mothers with young children. There was already a terrible shortage of subsidized housing for single mothers, and now it's going to be 80+ less homes for the poor and vulnerable children of single Moms. This might surprise you, because I speak eloquently and am educated, but I used to live at Armory Square after leaving my abusive ex-husband. Had it not been for "the block" my young children and I would have been homeless because their father avoided paying child support at all costs. I didn't drink or do drugs. Most people who lived there didn't either. Many of us were going to school to try to improve our situation. There were a few lousy mothers who didn't properly supervise their kids and a few who would throw trash on the ground, and that used to annoy me to no end, but there were maybe 4 or 5 apartments out of over 80 where there were drug users living. They usually got evicted pretty quick, too, because addicts tend to not pay their rent.

Start paying attention when you drive through town. You usually see the same young people hanging out of the sidewalk all the time. Those are dealers. There used to be 5 or 6 holding down the sidewalk at any given time just 3 years ago when I last visited. Ironically, you will probably recognize some of them and know their parents or grandparents. That's probably why it doesn't dawn on most people why they are standing on the sidewalk for hours on end. Basically, the Windsor drug problem is hidden right under everyones' noses.

Yes, some other towns also have drug problems, but because Windsor is so small and everyone pretty much knows anyone else it's that much harder to avoid your children being exposed to bad influences on a daily basis. For anyone who doesn't have kids and aren't weak to substance abuse issues I would highly recommend living in Windsor. Or even renting with very young children is fine. But teenagers? No way...

[Centaurmyst]

Gypsy...we rented in Quechee for close to 3 years. I'm a single Mom with 4 kids. I worked at FireStones as a waitress for some of that time. I got to know a lot of the people who lived in Quechee and even though I was a lowly waitress and didn't have much money I never was treated poorly by the people there. In fact, they were very nice to me. My sons became friends with a boy from a family that lived in Quechee Lakes and we all got invited to their home quite often. My oldest would babysit their youngest and they were simply wonderful people. My boys often took part in activities at the Quechee Club with their friend.

There are some very nice rentals there, too. The town is big for tourism, too. The Balloon Festival, the Quechee Gorge, VINS, Simon Pierce, the antique shops, the huge playground and park. If you buy a home it can be expensive and yes, the town is pretty much built around the Quechee Club, but with membership you get the use of the ski hill, golf course, recreation facilities, pool, etc. Some rentals actually come with membership priveleges, too.

Wilder is another town that is pretty good. I forgot to mention that one. I still say that Quechee is my favorite of them all, though.