[parentologist]

2 hrs to lincoln center from west hartford early Sunday mornings.

[parentologist]

BDL has a lot of nonstops now on cheap airlines. Pretty much anywhere in US with one stop. Souteast simsbury is actually closer to stuff. Lots of shopping and restaurants in avon, simsbury, farmington now.

[CTartist]

Originally Posted by WestRiverTraveler

I think "have to" is a bit of a stretch. Branford Schools aren't Waterbury or Meriden. Branford has more socioeconomic diversity than the gold and silverplated districts. That always makes test scores lower and brings down official rankings. When I worked in Waltham, I constantly heard the same thing. Meanwhile, I would have sent my kid to Waltham every day over Lexington.

You don't understand the caliber of Westport schools but I do. In comparison to Branford I will use Niche. Fairfield County A+ Gold Coast school systems are on an entire different level.

Look at the link below. Most of the FFC Gold Coast towns are an A+ and good for the towns outside of FFC that are A+. Not only are the A+ school systems superior in CT they are some of the best in the country. I know because every time I would go to tax meetings in my town of Trumbull I would hear this line over and over by the people who want to raise our taxes very high, "we want schools like Westport". I have been hearing that phrase for over 20 years. Trumbull is #21 and graded an A. Trumbull has excellent schools but not SUPERIOR schools.
https://www.niche.com/k12/search/bes.../s/connecticut

#1 Westport A+
#64 Branford B+

BTW, there is nothing wrong with wanting you children to be in a superior school system.

I have friends and relatives who move to the A+ towns and live in small houses and apartments. I would say "why don't you move to Fairfield or Trumbull and get house with more space. The reply was always the same..."I want my kids in the best (superior) school system".

[SteveM85]

Originally Posted by CTartist

You don't understand the caliber of Westport schools but I do. In comparison to Branford I will use Niche. Fairfield County A+ Gold Coast school systems are on an entire different level.

Look at the link below. Most of the FFC Gold Coast towns are an A+ and good for the towns outside of FFC that are A+. Not only are the A+ school systems superior in CT they are some of the best in the country. I know because every time I would go to tax meetings in my town of Trumbull I would hear this line over and over by the people who want to raise our taxes very high, "we want schools like Westport". I have been hearing that phrase for over 20 years. Trumbull is #21 and graded an A. Trumbull has excellent schools but not SUPERIOR schools.
https://www.niche.com/k12/search/bes.../s/connecticut

#1 Westport A+
#64 Branford B+

BTW, there is nothing wrong with wanting you children to be in a superior school system.

I have friends and relatives who move to the A+ towns and live in small houses and apartments. I would say "why don't you move to Fairfield or Trumbull and get house with more space. The reply was always the same..."I want my kids in the best (superior) school system".

Lol, what a waste.
As if A-list districts have kids measuring and analyzing electromagnetic waves of the speed of light in vacuum.
No one here is ever able to explain why they are SOOO superior other than to just look at top 10 lists.
Your friends kids are going to end up in the same place as Branford or Fairfield or Waterbury or Bridgeport kids - posting journal entries or sorting PowerPoint slides with glorified titles in Corp America. None will lead groundbreaking research in curing Gehrigs Disease.

[SteveM85]

Originally Posted by notghinsaw

Well, if you knew then you'd knew there are plenty of public boat launches with direct access to sound right next to westport. It's not hartford where billionaire's yachts are moored, it's LIS.

Well yeah, if you launch then it doesn’t matter where you live. Westport has a public launch in Saugatuck beneath the 95 bridge.
Yes, billionaire yachts can only be moored in LIS due to draft limitations.

[WestRiverTraveler]

Originally Posted by CTartist

You don't understand the caliber of Westport schools but I do. In comparison to Branford I will use Niche. Fairfield County A+ Gold Coast school systems are on an entire different level.

Look at the link below. Most of the FFC Gold Coast towns are an A+ and good for the towns outside of FFC that are A+. Not only are the A+ school systems superior in CT they are some of the best in the country. I know because every time I would go to tax meetings in my town of Trumbull I would hear this line over and over by the people who want to raise our taxes very high, "we want schools like Westport". I have been hearing that phrase for over 20 years. Trumbull is #21 and graded an A. Trumbull has excellent schools but not SUPERIOR schools.
https://www.niche.com/k12/search/bes.../s/connecticut

#1 Westport A+
#64 Branford B+

BTW, there is nothing wrong with wanting you children to be in a superior school system.

I have friends and relatives who move to the A+ towns and live in small houses and apartments. I would say "why don't you move to Fairfield or Trumbull and get house with more space. The reply was always the same..."I want my kids in the best (superior) school system".

Superior? Based on what? Niche? I want my kids in a great school system. My district is #8, but that's not why I chose my town. My decision to be in Madison vs Branford had NOTHING to do with the school. I would have been happy with Branford.

I could do the same comparing Lexington and Waltham. I know both districts VERY well. Niche rating are so...overrated. Yeah, I know many parents pay attention to that. Honestly, top third in CT is superior to almost anyplace else.

I'm with Steve on this. I've been in education for 21 years and hold two M.Ed, including one in leadership. My side job is evaluating new teachers for the state. I went to my admin program with people from the "best" districts in MA, did observations and analysis in those schools, as well as observations in Boston PS. I've spend hundreds of hours reading literature on academic achievement. Superior is subjective in my opinion.

You know the one thing that makes a difference in best Westport vs Branford? The peer group. You are more likely in Westport to have a high achieving peer group. You almost can't help it, but if your kids are in the AP/Honors classes, doing the activities, etc, everything else is just window dressing. That can happen in Branford. It's much less about the school district than the peers. Superior is subjective. For many, many kids the pressure and culture of Hand, Staples, Lexington, etc is far from the best choice.

[SteveM85]

Originally Posted by ct1615

Several reasons from my time in schools (and its been a while)
Far more impressive supplies in rich school systems, computer labs that would make universities envious
School sports teams are better supplied and can offer more niche activities/sports
School environment is far more competitive, a higher percentage of kids care about their grades
Rich kids and their parents make great contacts when looking for a job
and lets not forget prestige both in the community and college admissions, we used to send a bunch of kids each year to Cornell but now competitive colleges limit how many kids they will take from a HS each year



now you can create a cons list as well and there are plenty of people in the unemployment line who went to prestigious HS and colleges just a lower % of them than other schools.






Actually a HS class mate of mine is a science professor at Yale so maybe...

That's all fine CT615 but not my point.
99% of kids aren't bright geniuses or going pro ball. A kid can either split atoms or they can't. They can throw 100mph or they can't. A-List publics won't turn them into the next Ed Teller or Gerrit Cole.

99% of kids with secondary educations, no matter where from, will end up side by side in corporate American cube farms doing menial corporate tasks with or without rich parents help. A Waterbury grad extrovert will move up the chain faster than a Westport grad introvert with rich parents. No one will know or care where they went to grade school or that Rich Dad got them a job out of college 5 years prior.

[notghinsaw]

So based on the comments above SteveM85 and alike sent their kids to waterbury high because schools don't matter?

[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by WestRiverTraveler

Superior? Based on what? Niche? I want my kids in a great school system. My district is #8, but that's not why I chose my town. My decision to be in Madison vs Branford had NOTHING to do with the school. I would have been happy with Branford.

I could do the same comparing Lexington and Waltham. I know both districts VERY well. Niche rating are so...overrated. Yeah, I know many parents pay attention to that. Honestly, top third in CT is superior to almost anyplace else.

This is accurate in comparison to many states. I mentioned this on here before, but my wife was contacted about a job in one of the deep South states and the headhunter mentioned how the schools in town where the company was located were among the top 2-3 in the state.

So, I dug into the numbers and based on SAT scores, number of AP classes offered & extra-circular activities, percent going to 4 year colleges, etc, it was one of the top school systems in that state... and, it would be on par with Newington here in CT. Now, I lived in Newington for 7 years and loved the location and the schools are fine, but most posters here would NOT consider Newington a top 10 or top 20 school system in the state (I think at the time, they were like #73 or #75?)

So, the moral of the story is - you're really splitting hairs about the level of excellence at the top school systems in the state.

(By the way, a girl from Greenwich HS won an international science award several years back for coming up with an easier, faster & much cheaper way to detect Ebola -

https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/a...de-6521735.php

[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by in_newengland

I don't think there are any lakes with beaches in the area. The state park in Simsbury (if I'm thinking of the right one) had a few people with little kids, toddler age mostly, in the water. I never went back but someone did take me to a beautiful reservoir or lake that they had to pay to belong to. It was probably part of Barkhamsted Resevoir and it was fabulous. Maybe someone else will know what I'm talking about. It was quite a long drive from Avon or Farmington though. Northward and hilly.

On summer days where it's not raining, the Farmington River gets a ton of people with canoes, kayaks, tubes, etc. A lot of fun and pretty safe as the river is not really deep and it moves slowly in most places.