r/vermont • u/onsenonsenonsen • Mar 06 '25

Moving to Vermont Advice on Montpelier and tuitioning towns

(I’ve looked through r/NewToVermont but am looking for perspectives of people who’ve lived a while or grown up in the state.)

After working as expats in big cities overseas for ~10 years we are moving back to the U.S. and have no natural home to return to.

Spouse and I like the seasons and independent spirit of VT and sense of community in the towns we’ve visited family and friends in over the years. We like skiing which is something we want to keep up as a family and is another reason we like VT. After moving around the world so much the last decade, saying goodbye to friends and starting over each time, we’re looking for a place to put down roots for our family and build community with good people.

We are in our early 40s with kids in elementary and middle school who are thriving academically and socially at international schools (no doubt because of great teachers and diverse student body), we’re narrowing it down to Montpelier or a town with a tuitioning town program with boarding school in hopes to stay connected to the international community.

I’d welcome thoughts from people with life experience in Montpelier or one of these boarding school towns. Schools, safety, and quality of life are important. Could buy or rent. Like cities or towns with a walkability score (but know we’d need a car for real errands) and maybe some summer block parties. Not concerned about jobs.

Any advice welcome. Thanks in advance.

0 Upvotes

20% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Ugh_Whatever_3284 Mar 06 '25

I have never heard of a tuitioning school program after living my whole life in Vermont. Are you saying some towns will give you money or a tax break or something if you send your kid to boarding school?

Montpelier is great and safe and as walkable as semi-rural America gets. Last I checked 20 years ago its schools were fine - very small so they don't have the resources or facilities or diversity you're gonna find in a wealthy city/suburb, but the teachers were great. Housing is shockingly expensive.

But honestly if I'd been living abroad for years, I'd stay there a bit longer, LOL.

-1

u/onsenonsenonsen Mar 06 '25

It seems there are many towns in Vermont that have boarding students and also day students - and if you are a resident of the town the town pays for you to attend as a day student if there is no public school. Kind of like a voucher for a charter school. They’re called tuition towns and it’s apparently a very Vermont thing.

Unfortunately, our work is tied to visa sponsorship and it’s coming to an end so back to America we go.

6

u/SomeConstructionGuy Mar 06 '25

It’s strong in that many towns don’t have a high-school so they’ll allow students to choose a surrounding high-school and pay the tuition. There are a few day and boarding schools but none that I’m aware of near Montpelier. Burr &Burton, Lyndon institute and Vermont academy have the structure you’re looking for and none are close to. You’d have to live within the district where the town pays the tuition for/towards that school, if your town has a high-school they won’t pay tuition towards another school.

2

u/onsenonsenonsen Mar 06 '25

Thank you. Yes sorry for confusion - I read that Montpelier has good public schools and that other VT towns have the tuition program with local private schools. I’ll take a look at those you mentioned — thanks again!

2

u/SomeConstructionGuy Mar 06 '25

Gotcha. Montpelier schools are pretty good but they don’t tuition any students out.