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Good information but I do want to caution the OP about the school district rankings you reference. As we have discussed here many times, the criteria used does not always reflect general public opinion.
From the schooldigger website: Updated Tuesday, September 18, 2018, based on the 2017-18 school year test scores.
I personally think a test score is better than an opinion. While opinions can be good a test score is quantifiable. So when the top 10 or 20 school districts in CT keep getting on all of these list how do you think they are getting there? On people's opinions?
From the schooldigger website: Updated Tuesday, September 18, 2018, based on the 2017-18 school year test scores.
I personally think a test score is better than an opinion. While opinions can be good a test score is quantifiable. So when the top 10 or 20 school districts in CT keep getting on all of these list how do you think they are getting there? On people's opinions?
Those tests do not take into account the diversity of the towns population though. A town like Fairfield or West Hartford have higher numbers of students who come from families where English is not the primary language spoke at home so of course they would score lower on test scores.
The criteria used by these go beyond just test scores so you have to question their rankings. Simsbury is one of the top five most desirable towns in greater Hartford. That is primarily because of its schools. By Schooldigger's rankings Mansfield is a better school district than Simsbury but it is not considered that in the Hartford area. Also note that by this rating Kent, Monroe and East Lyme rank higher but I do not think that they would be considered more desirable than Simsbury.
Also note that one of the most desirable New Haven suburbs, Madison, does not even appear in Schooldigger's top 50. It ranks 54??? Woodbridge ranks 33 and Orange is 39? How is that possible? These are the top suburbs for New Haven that people pay more to live in because of their schools. I would go more by what people are willing to pay a premium to live there than some arbitrary and questionable ranking by a website. To me that says more. Jay
I lived in Southington up until about a month or so but moved to be a little closer to work. I miss it dearly and sometimes regret the move. Southington is a great place for families and not awful for singles either. There are plenty of after school programs for kids - especially at the YMCA. They're involved in a lot of activities the town does. I was a member there a couple years back - highly recommend. It's a solid school system also. Not as good as some down in Fairfield County, the Farmington but light years better than nearby school systems such as Bristol, Plymouth & Meriden. Your child would get a fine education there. There's plenty of shopping, restaurants, bars and activities for people of all ages. It's 20 minutes to Hartford, 12 to Waterbury, 25 to New Haven, and about 50 minutes to Hammonasset Beach. While a little dense, there is a fair amount of open space and hiking though Southington does encourage more and more development. There are a couple of developers who would build on every last inch of town if given the opportunity. There's upper class residents, middle class and some "lower class" if you will but most of them are seniors on fixed incomes. No town is free from riff raff but it is a safe town overall. No one will tell you to avoid any area. Law enforcement is ubiquitous and really cares about the safety of its residents. A lot of the arrests in the police blotter have addresses from different towns. So it's a great town - Simsbury can rank in the top 10 of the 169 CT towns you can't argue that. But I truly believe Southington could break the top 50 which would certainly be an accomplishment given how many great towns there are.
Last edited by RoundTableKnight; 03-23-2019 at 10:11 AM..
Yeah, but the mommy rat race in Avon is a force to be reckoned with. As someone with a fairly large household income even for that area, I wouldn't be comfortable there. Very competitive.
I've lived in Avon on and off since 2007, mostly on. What is this "mommy rat race" of which you speak? I've never heard of moms competing with each other?
What I will say about Simsbury (and also true somewhat for Farmington, but not as much Avon) there is more diversity of income and housing levels in Simsbury than there is in Avon. When we first looked to move west of Hartford in 2006/2007, what we noticed was that in our price range at the time - $400 to $700 - there was a lot more homes in our price range in Avon than there were in Farmington and Simsbury. Both Farmington and Simsbury seemed to have more below our price range and more just above our price range than Avon (leaving out 7 figure level homes in any of those towns)
Personally, I think the schools in Southington are fine and the town is much more convenient to the highways and to places like West Farms Mall, Hartford, New Haven, Danbury, etc than Simsbury. And, with over 40,000 people in Southington, the schools are bigger and have more activities than in Simsbury, a town of 25,000 or Avon, a town of 18,000. If you're dead set on the best school system, then I would go for Simsbury.
I've lived in Avon on and off since 2007, mostly on. What is this "mommy rat race" of which you speak? I've never heard of moms competing with each other?
I work with a number of higher income mothers who live there and it's a common thread of conversation when discussing where to live in greater Hartford. The general consensus is that West Hartford and Simsbury are less competitive and therefore more desirable if one does not wish to be judged as much on things like which extracurriculars children are involved in or how many field trips one can attend. Women aren't particularly nice to each other sometimes and it isn't necessarily something men pick up on.
I work with a number of higher income mothers who live there and it's a common thread of conversation when discussing where to live in greater Hartford. The general consensus is that West Hartford and Simsbury are less competitive and therefore more desirable if one does not wish to be judged as much on things like which extracurriculars children are involved in or how many field trips one can attend. Women aren't particularly nice to each other sometimes and it isn't necessarily something men pick up on.
To an extent that happens in every town. On Southington's facebook page there have been complaints of condescending and elitism actions by the more "wealthy" families. But, can't say I ever directly witnessed it in nearly 9 years of living there.
I work with a number of higher income mothers who live there and it's a common thread of conversation when discussing where to live in greater Hartford. The general consensus is that West Hartford and Simsbury are less competitive and therefore more desirable if one does not wish to be judged as much on things like which extracurriculars children are involved in or how many field trips one can attend. Women aren't particularly nice to each other sometimes and it isn't necessarily something men pick up on.
I've actually heard the opposite on Simsbury because there is more economic diversity in Simsbury and West Hartford - more pressure for working class/middle class parents to keep up with the rich neighbors around the corner or in West Simsbury. Whereas, if you live in Avon, people assume that you don't need to keep up with the wealthy because you're already in Avon.
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