[3boysandme]

We are making a move to Groton with the Navy in June and are very excitied. My boys have never really seen snow and are looking forward to the whole adventure of it. I am hoping we can live on base, due to the cost of heat oil (so I have heard), but am open to living out in town. I have a two year old Labrador and a cat, and from what I have seen the rental properties really are not geared toward pet owners. I would also like some information on the schools around the base. My youngest would be going into 2nd and my oldest would be going into 4th. We are happy to live out in town, if it means a better school for our boys. I have been told the elementary school next to the base is very good, but the middle on not so much. Any help on the schools up there and an pet friendly rentals would be very helpful.
Thank you

[KH02]

Pet friendly rentals will be tough to find for a dog as large as a Labrador. You will likely have to spend extra money finding one that will allow your dog. Wish I could be more helpful.
Good luck in your search.

[Puttmossman]

Your best bet will be base housing where you will have no problem accommodating your pets. Most of base housing is new or has been refurbished over the last couple of years. The residences are modern and spacious, and your BHA will more than cover your expenses.

The school system is fine. Groton is a blue-collar working class town. A good percentage of it's residents make their living at the Groton Submarine Base or Electric Boat, the Submarine builder down the river. Sometimes the education statistics get skewed when compared to Fairfield County, for instance, which has much more financial resources to put into their school system. Your boys will get a decent education there.

[JayCT]

Welcome to Connecticut. The sub base is located in the Town of Groton so your kids would be going to Groton public schools. Here is a link to information on them:

Strategic School Profiles by District

Strategic School Profiles by School

Schools in Groton generally perform just under the state average on the Connecticut Mastery and Connecticut Academic Performance tests. Education is a very high priority here in Connecticut so while this may not sound good, you should note the our standards are very high.

That said if you are interested in town with better performing schools consider nearby towns of Stonington, North Stonington Ledyard and Montville. A little further away, the Town of East Lyme has one of the best performing school systems in the area. Jay

[3boysandme]

Can anyone recommend one elementary school over the others?

[nep321]

I don't know much about schools, but I do know that East Lyme public schools have a positive reputation. Definitely better than Groton, New London or Waterford.

[ctcoldplay11]

Originally Posted by nep321

I don't know much about schools, but I do know that East Lyme public schools have a positive reputation. Definitely better than Groton, New London or Waterford.

IMO, Waterford has great schools.

Anyway, I think Groton has fine schools. I know many people that have graduated out of the Groton public school system and are smart, articulate individuals. The public High School, Fitch High, has always had a positive reputation in SE CT. However, do heed the advice and avoid New London public schools!

[JayCT]

Actually Groton schools perform below the state averages on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test. Check the links in my post above for more information. Jay

[GrotonMan]

I don't know that the CAPT is an entirely fair meter of school performance. Many schools get branded on this forum for performing below the state average on a single standardized test. This perplexes me some since so many people here are so opposed to rating schools based on standardized testing (e.g. SAT, AP, IB, etc). Don't get me wrong, standardized testing is a relatively effective method of measuring academic performance across large areas and to ensure that academic institutions are teaching certain items, but they only provide a very small part of a large picture. When so much more context is provided, such as in the links above, it isn't fair to label a school negatively based solely on that score.

To put Groton's schools more into context: Groton is a military town so every year, unlike most majority-civilian towns, large numbers of students move into and out of the school system. Some make the transition just fine and take up the learning curve quickly, some are not prepared at all and perform very poorly. Put that on top of the normal percentages of lifelong residents scores, and the average is pulled down. The school does perform lower than the state average on the CAPT tests, however it preforms very well in many other fields.
Fitch out-performs the state average and its DRG average in the number of credits required for graduation, the percentage of juniors and seniors enrolled in college courses, the percentage of students who exceeded state requirements for subject credits, per-student library and computer resources, teacher experience and education levels, physical fitness and health standards, number of advanced placement courses offered, SAT I critical reading and writing scores, percentage of students tested, graduation rates, and dropout rates, as well as graduate higher education and employment rates. It averaged one point lower than the state average on the SAT Mathematics test, but performed as high as or higher than 59.2% of other schools in the state.

The school is also one of, as far as I know, only two schools in the state to provide an IB program, and has been ranked on the list of the 1500 best high schools at least 4 times in the past 6 years.

Is Fitch the best high school in Connecticut? Probably not, but is it even a poorly performing school? Given the rest of the statistics I would say not. Believe what you want, but I learned quite a bit more in the Groton Public School system than any other school system that I attended.

[homewardbounder]

Originally Posted by 3boysandme

We are making a move to Groton with the Navy in June and are very excitied...

Just a piece of advice: Avoid Lawrence and Memorial hospital in New London, and avoid the VA hospital in West Haven, if at all possible. Both are terrible facilities. I would recommend the Backus Hospital in Norwich if you must, even though it's a bit farther from Groton than New London is (5-10 min. farther than L & M). Obviously, in the case of a real emergency, you don't have much of a choice.

Sorry I can't give you specific advice regarding your questions, though.