I grew up in Manchester, went to elementary school/middle school there and it wasn’t bad. My parents enrolled me in the crec school systems for highschool. Overall growing up there wasnt bad, I lived on side of Manchester near bolton/vernon which was pretty nice. I think it depends on where you are in the town personally.

When did Manchester start to sink so bad?

It's worth noting that the loss of the library is in part due to the town voting to rebuild a brand new, bigger library, so it will get better.

Well it depends, are you white? They don't call it Klanchester for nothing.

Manchester is just...okay. So many better towns all around CT

Unfortunately, I believe the current Superintendent of Schools is running the district into the ground. The schools are currently under a strict budget freeze, quality employees that aren't covered by the union are being walked out, senior teachers are not being paid their worth and new hires are underpaid leading to the cream of the crop seeking employment elsewhere. The Super made sure to get his 5% raise though and will be making over $230K by next year.

Not true. The Board of Ed budget and Town budget are seperate.

I haven't lived there but live and grew up in Tolland County and currently work in Manchester, so I'm very familiar.

While the quality of schools is unfortunately not the best, for a dedicated kid and supportive family, the student will do well. The town itself is fine with plenty to do and a variety of neighborhood types.

Manchester, East Hartford is like Ansonia, Derby, South Stratford, South Hamden

[deleted]

Brother has lived in Manchester since we were kids. For the high property taxes, the school system is absolutely dreadful. Like two of the elementary schools are ok/fine but the middle schools and high school keep getting worse seemingly every year. Another good friend was a PE teacher for a number of years at Illing who moved away last year and one of the reasons for him moving was the constant fist fights and admins refusal to discipline or suspend/excel frequent violent offenders.

You get out of school what you put into it and also what the parent accepts/expects from their kid.

As a whole I would say it's midpack. But if you look at a lot of those academic ratings, they're probably not much below the average for the state in general, because very few schools come close to meeting any of those targets.

But let's put it this way, if I had kids in public school, and $500 K to spend on a really nice house in Manchester, or a much more modest house in Avon, West Hartford, Simsbury or South Windsor, I would choose any of the latter towns first.

My goodness. I gotta say Manchester rocks socks. As a guy who grew up in east Hartford and did a 10 year stint in enfield.. this town is great. My caveat is that I don't have kids. But Manchester now reminds me of EH when I was coming up, I know the schools aren't great, but the fact that there's so much diversity really helps kids see the full spectrum of American life.

I personally wouldn’t live there. School quality directly reflects the quality of the town itself. There are plenty of nicer towns around Hartford.

I actually have heard of this. People say diversity yes but it’s segregation within diversity….so is it true diversity??

Don’t know too much specific about Manchester. I can tell you that you are comparing it to the rest is Connecticut. As someone who has family all over the country, I am guessing manchester isn’t great by CT standards, but is probably not the worst when compared to most of the rest of rural America

If it matters,most of the schools are or have been getting renovated. If you kid is lucky enough to be in a newly renovated building, That does make going to school a little better.

I think West Hartford might be closer to what you’re looking for.

Drugs are cheap.

The most desirable? Like, THE most desirable?

No. In the northeast corner? No.

In the immediate vicinity of the mall? Well, yeah, because all of that space is in Manchester.

Any recommendations? I keep hearing people say elsewhere is better but never _where_ and _why_.

Personally, I like Manchester. It has a wide variety of things to offer.

[deleted]

Personally I don’t believe Manchester is that bad overall, but to someone considering moving to the area id also tell them to look at South Windsor, basically same access to all the Manchester benefits (mall, stores, movie theaters area) cause they all border it. I can’t speak for the schools personally but a-lot of my family went and all got into good colleges.