[DurinDurin]

Originally Posted by catfeet

Creoena- I've heard nothing but good about U32...can you tell me what the basis for your opinion is? I'm not trying to be argumentative here, I sincerely would like to know, because it will help to base what school districts we look at.

Thanks,
Ann

What I've heard about it and seen is that it's drug infested and the teachers can be a bit sketchy. I played football at U-32 in 7th grade (since MSMS did not have a football program) and there were a couple of kids doing drug deals right on the field during practice in front of the coaches and they either didn't see it or didn't care. Keep in mind this was 7th grade. I also heard from a few of students that one of the teachers was sleeping with his students. Granted that teacher may not be there anymore, but everything I saw about U-32 was pretty sketchy. It's much better than Barre's schools (and most other schools outside of Burlington from what I've heard) but Montpelier is still much better.

[68vette]

There are drugs in every school and if you think there aren't then you are naive. Like I stated in my other post, if you are involved with your kids and their lives most likely they will do fine. Not to badmouth Montpelier High, but several years ago a freind of ours who works with the state police and a government agency tracked a man who was a pedafile luring young girls in that school. You can't blame the school nor can you say that there are pedafiles in the halls of the school. Bad things happen everywhere. Be a parent and don't rely on a school to raise your child. Your kids can go to the worst school in the country and still turn out fine if they are raised and influenced the right way. I would prefer my kids went to school in the Burlington area where I live(it would save on two trips to Montpelier everyday from Colchester), but I am very happy with the education they are getting and I am very happy with the quality of the teachers there.

[flu189]

Parents involvement is really critical. I survived the NYC public school system and lessons learned from my parents I used with my kids and they too survived and excelled in an urban school system rife with problems. Good schools are important, but all too often the nanny state atmosphere and burden of responsibility is shifted too far on the schools and away from the parents.

[catfeet]

Thank you all. We are very involved parents, but class size, teacher quality and the class choices avalible to our children are important to us, as are general reputation and test scoring. I'm in a completely different part of the state, in beautiful town, with great houses, but a dreadful school district.

There are some things I've heard complained about here that we don't even have as options. If you go and look at the school testing and ratings, my town and village are so low as to not even rank. We've also go some serious problems here with accountibliy when it comes to special ed vs regular student spending, and if you want to talk drugs? It starts in the 5th grade here, with something like 30% of the student population having tried softer drugs/alcohol and 10% having tried the hard stuff...at 10. And that's just the social aspect of it, there's a number of physical problems with some of the buildings that no amount of retro-fitting short of a gut can cure. For example, the high school doesn't have full walls, it's got office style 6 foot walls, so every class can hear what every other class is doing. _I_ couldn't learn in that sort of situation. I don't want to put my children into an equation that's going to lead them to failure. Rather the opposite, I want to give them the tools they need for success.

Anyway, there are some things I want to avoid having my kids exposed overly much to. I can't do that here. So, when I look at other districts, I want to look with a careful eye at the benefits as well as the amount of reported problems. I also want to see if there are any offerings avalible that are not typically.

Both U32 and MHS have unique offerings. I like that about them both. The question for me becomes now, how are they different, other than location and classes? Is there a different social atmosphere between the two schools? Is it attitude about learning? How do schools relate to students?

[GypsySoul22]

Originally Posted by catfeet

and if you want to talk drugs? It starts in the 5th grade here, with something like 30% of the student population having tried softer drugs/alcohol and 10% having tried the hard stuff...at 10.

Why the hell are kids trying drugs at 10 years old? Talk about lack of parental supervision. Are the kids left home alone or something? Do they party at each others' houses? Do they grow it in their back yards or have their parents give it to them?

Some things here are just bizarre.

[catfeet]

Yes. To all...we are a town that's trying to pull out of the multi-family/section 8 boom of the 80, where nearly all of the great older Victorians here got cut up for state supported housing. It brought the town down. The last 10-15 years here have been about pulling it back up by the bootstraps again and putting those cut up houses back together into single families once more.

Archer Mayer put it best in his novel, named Bellows Falls, "BF is a town of 26 year old grandmothers". Now, that's been changing for a good long while, but we're still dealing with the fall-out.

[68vette]

We have the same issues here in Vermont. The problem is just as bad here and sometimes worse because in Vermont both parents often times have to work for a family to survive. This leaves to much free time without supervision. My stepson would tell us horror stories about the drug use in elementary and middle school. He ended up turning out fine and we figured if he was willing to talk to us about it then that was a step in the right direction. I can't find the link, but there was a survey released about the drug and alcohol rate increasing after there was a steady decrease during the past decade.

The main difference between the two schools is that U-32 is more of a liberal arts focused school. They are both good schools. Teachers at both care for their students. I would rate them both the same as far as education.

[NorthBound700]

Would anybody have any views about how to rate U32 versus Montpelier High for an 8th grade sports-oriented student who is academically struggling? I might have an opportunity to move to the Montpelier area from out of state. I have 13 year old boy who is very into sports (basketball) but who has some challenges and is a struggling reader. I need to find schools in the Montpelier or extended area where the class size is reasonable, where there is good academic support for struggling kids and where the atmospehere is friendly since my son will be transplanted. Any and all info would be very helpful.