[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by willow wind

For someone looking for diversity, really good schools, activities and easy commute to Hartford, your best bets are Glastonbury & West Hartford, IMO, depending where in Hartford your hubby might get a job.

Farmington would be another option as well - about as diverse as Glastonbury, though not as diverse as West Hartford.

[Guatmom2]

Willow Wind, yes there are various places to get stats., and we will be pouring over them, but I also want to hear from people who actually live in or know the various areas well. Great schools lists our current school as having a 15:1 student to teacher ratio, which in reality is just not true. So there are some things stats just can't tell you, which leads me to a new question.

Not to offend anyone in the various areas that have been discussed, and not to insinuate anything, but I hope you all will be honest in answering the following question. In the communities that have been mentioned in this thread, does any kind of elitist, upper middle class look-what-I-have-and-you-don't attitude prevail within the schools? I hate to even ask, but I know that sometimes when incomes increase, the attitudes turn more "snooty". My husband could get a job in NYC, but being that we would want to live in a suburban setting, there is NO way that we want to get caught up in the West Chester county rat race. My husband and I grew up in the Hudson Valley area f NY, and we curently live in an area of PA that is a real mix of white and blue collar workers; including a large migrant population. While we want to find a really good school district in the greater Hartford area, our girls are very grounded and down to earth, and we do no want to put them in schools where they will struggle with an elitist attitude to fit in. Again, I sincerely mean no offense, I am merely hoping to gain further insight before we zero in on a specific place to start house hunting.
Once again thanks for your help!

[hvexpatinct]

I have no direct experience with the schools in the greater Hartford area, but I do work there and the subject of schools comes up often in my office as we all
have young kids. The general consensus is that South Windsor has the best mix of good schools and down-to-earth-ness plus convenience to Hartford.

[NewJeffCT]

Guatmom2 - you'll find differences of opinion from everybody on that depending upon their experiences. Somebody said that Simsbury was an elitist town full of snobbish blonde-haired, blue-eyed people and no diversity at all. While it's true that there are many doctors, lawyers and business executives in Simsbury and neighboring Avon, I found both towns to be very welcoming to newcomers, as it's very common for these business executives and others to be relocated both to and from local corporations.

In Avon, we had a neighbor whose job relocated him from somewhere in the Midwest to our street. Then, two years later, the same company moved him out to Arizona. While, we had another neighborhood family that had relocated from Canada, and then the company sent them to Hong Kong 3 years later. Both towns offer some diversity, but are primarily white collar towns and you can find neighborhoods in both towns with homes well over $1 million, though there are plenty of homes that are well under that price and median home prices are somewhere in the mid to upper 300s. I found a lot of the parents in Avon to be pretty down to earth -I remember being the only guy in a PTA meeting where one woman was a lawyer, another a senior level actuary, another an engineer and another an IT executive, as well as several stay-at-home moms, and everybody's opinion was valued.

That said, West Hartford has some great diversity in terms of race/ethnicity and also a mixture of blue & white collar residents, and go to some areas of West Hartford and you're more likely to hear Spanish, Chinese or Vietnamese before English.

[JayCT]

I agree you will find different opinions on this. Unfortunately the better school systems in the greater Hartford area are the more affluent towns, so you will not get away from that snobby attitude. Here in Glastonbury we have found that the vast majority of people are nice and down to earth but you do have a few that do give the attitude. We have generally found that South Glastonbury has more of this. A coworker who just moved to town a year ago though loves South Glastonbury and has said they do not see much snobbery in his area or at their school. Of course they knew the areas reputation ahead of time asnd likely expected more. We live in North Glastonbury which is more diverse and very down-to-earth. We have made a lot of friends there so we are happy and though over the years we could have moved to a more affluent area of town we chose to stay where we were and upgrade our home.

As for East Hampton, as I noted, the schools perform above the state average on the Connecticut Mastery and Connecticut Academic Performance Tests. That said, a coworker that lives there does not think the schools measure up to other towns like Glastonbury. They note that schools are not a high priority in the town like other communities and there is a noted lack of high quality facilities. I have heard this from others living there as well. I think it is all a matter of personal preference and expectations. Jay

[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by JayCT

As for East Hampton, as I noted, the schools perform above the state average on the Connecticut Mastery and Connecticut Academic Performance Tests. That said, a coworker that lives there does not think the schools measure up to other towns like Glastonbury. They note that schools are not a high priority in the town like other communities and there is a noted lack of high quality facilities. I have heard this from others living there as well. I think it is all a matter of personal preference and expectations. Jay

And, you'd most likely leave East Hampton to go to restaurants or shopping in Glastonbury or Middletown.

[marylandmom2011]

I think you mentioned in one post that you go the Delaware beaches. If this is true and you are familiar with the types of people that they attract then here is an analogy, Glastonbury is Bethany Beach, West Hartford is Dewy Beach and the rest of the towns are Fenwick and OC md. This goes for the people. Lots of people who feel entitled (though we are talking about the suburbs of Hartford here, not sure why they feel entitled) Lots of down to earth people as well in all towns.

West Hartford and the towns that border it are the most convenient and have the best shopping. Not to be materialistic but when you have children it seems you are always running out to buy this or that and West Hartford has the most and best selection of stores.

Glastonbury has diversity and I don't think you would be discriminated against but it is mostly white families.
As an example my husband took our kids to the annual Glastonbury Apple Fest which is wholesome fun, the whole town turns out for the event. The one thing he mentioned upon his return is that he did not see one person of color the whole night.

I find the Hartford area to be much less cosmopolitan than what I expected for such an expensive state, so the snootiness is relative, nice car, LV bag and live in the right neighborhood and your all set to climb the social latter.

Seriously though the advice on towns you get on this forum is pretty spot on. I don't agree on the school quality but other than that Glastonbury, West Hartford and the towns that have been mentioned that surround them are really the best bets, especially if you don't have a lot of time to research and/or visit.

[Guatmom2]

marylandmom2011
LOL, I like your analogy to the DE beaches, obviously you are familiar with them as well. Understood, and thank you for that! It is hard to try and zero in on an area without being able to spend time in it. We hope to get up there and visit, but with the girls being in school, an it being winter, i.e. not the best time of year to making a road trip north, it is going be difficult to do right now. That is why I really appreciate everything that people like you have shared with me. Thank you to all!

[Guatmom2]

Anyone familar with the South Windsor area, I would love to hear about the community and the schools.