Info about Holliston, Medfield?

[puffle]

Originally Posted by johnycakes

I grew up in Holliston and presently live next door in Ashland. I graduated HHS with Terese Messina, who is Jo Dee's older sister. It's a nice town.

Do you mind if I ask why you left Holliston for Ashland? A friend that lives in Belmont thought Reading was the best choice amongst Medfield and Westborough as a last choice and that Holliston and Hopkinton too far out from everything but more bang for your buck, as he put it.

[jsa2]

My husband and I lived in Holliston until we moved to the Cape 9 yrs ago. It was a great town, definately cute, New England, family-oriented with good schools. We bought in Holliston for those reasons and planned on raising our children there, but the opportunity to move to the Cape (before retirement!) arose, so we jumped at the chance. Otherwise, we definately would have stayed.
I grew up in Norfolk and my best friend grew up in Medfield. Both great towns. When you get to 7th grade in Norfolk the school system becomes King Philip Regional (Wrentham and Plainville are the other two attending towns). In all honesty, I'd say Medfield has a better school system - also tends to be a bit more hoitie-toitie. Some very good friends of ours live there currently (in a million dollar house) and love the town and the public schools. They do say that those who can't afford Medfield move to Norfolk. Sorry, but it's true.
Really they're all nice towns and you would be fine in any of them. They are the ones I would look at if I were moving back to that area. Holliston was rated as a "hidden gem" sort of town for it's school system, etc. but I can't remember by whom it was rated - maybe Boston Magazine?
Good luck!

[puffle]

If you had it to do over with kids, where would you have gone?

[puffle]

Originally Posted by johnycakes

My 6 year-old boy has special needs and is on an IEP. He's in an integrated classroom at the Warren Elementary School and has a very good teacher for his regular teacher, but I think their special ed people leave A LOT to be desired. I would look much harder at the special ed programs in the prospective town, but in order to really evaluate those, I think I would have to speak to parents with special needs kids.

I felt the Ashland Preschool did a really great job with my 6 year-old boy and is presently doing a great job with my 5 year-old girl and my 3 year-old girl. And I think the Ashland Kindergarten did pretty good with my 6 year-old, too. But there is a different special ed coordinator once they get to first grade and, frankly, I think the transition left much to be desired, the communications leave much to be desired, the amount of attention my boy gets leaves much to be desired, the level of understanding of the particular problems of my boy leave much to be desired, and frankly, the overall level of concern about my boy leaves much to be desired at the Warren Elementary School.

This is not the kind of stuff that shows up in test scores, either. Like I said, I think Logan's regular first grade teacher is very good... it's the special ed people and people above the level of the classroom teacher that I think aren't really living up to our expectations. So I'm sure there are kids in Logan's first grade class that, by the time they take their first round of MCAS tests, will score very well. But those kids aren't on an IEP and don't have any pervasive developmental disorders like my boy does. I just get the feeling like it's a tremendous inconvenience for them to have to deal with him, for starters, and on top of that, they really either don't care what developmental problems he has, or they think they know what his issues are when, in fact, they really only know what the symptoms of those issues are.

So if I had to do it all over again, I would have to evaluate the special education programs in the prospective towns and to do that, I would likely have to find the parents' group associated with the town's special ed program and ask for feedback from them.

But towns I would be most likely to initiate those queries, taking into consideration our financial resources, would include Holliston, Hopkinton, Southborough, Sudbury, and possibly even Wayland. If we were just a little more affluent, I would look harder at Weston or Wellesley.

Thank you so much for sharing your situation. I'm not sure what an IEP program is...my son has ADHD and his current middle school is pretty good at addressing these issues and making special accomdations. There is a program called 504 plan that every school is suppose to have in place with a Doctor's evaluation and recommendation. Again, I do not know what an IEP program is or what your situation is, but I know getting the right school is key. Thanks again.

[smarty]

Originally Posted by puffle

Thank you so much for sharing your situation. I'm not sure what an IEP program is...my son has ADHD and his current middle school is pretty good at addressing these issues and making special accomdations. There is a program called 504 plan that every school is suppose to have in place with a Doctor's evaluation and recommendation. Again, I do not know what an IEP program is or what your situation is, but I know getting the right school is key. Thanks again.

IEP - Individual Education Plan.

Anyone qualified for special education in MA should have an IEP. An agreement between you and the school about what needs to be done to improve your child's education and how to evaluate progress. I think it is similar to 504 plan. It can include special accomodations for the classroom and testing.

doe.mass.edu/sped/iep/

[augustwest]

there are a ton of towns closer to acton that are every bit as nice as those you have mentioned.