Westchester County New York Real Estate Blog

Veggie Van to Visit Schools

Westchester County's "Veggie Van" began its tour of schools throughout the county this month as part of an effort to raise awareness about renewable energy and technologies that don't contribute to global warming.

 Fourth and Fifth-graders at the Greenville Elementary School were caught on camera last week as they got a tour of the van, which runs on 100 percent vegetable oil from county-run concessions. Inside the mobile classroom, kids learned about how the converted "Veggie Van" works and learned about other energy-saving technologies like compact florescent bulbs.

 

More about the Veggie Van, here.

Newsweek's Top 1300 Schools - A Controversy

Each year Newsweek publishes a list of the best public schools throughout the country.  This isn’t a broad analysis of the schools but a narrow one. It is controversial.  Certain schools in Westchester County are trying to opt out of this study because they say it doesn’t really reflect the schools and what they offer.  In Westchester County only four schools made the top 100:

1. Yonkers #82
2. Dobbs Ferry #85
3. Rye #87
4. Edgemont #92

The NEWSWEEK list of top U.S. high schools was compiled this year, as in years past, according to a single metric, the proportion of students taking college-level exams: Cambridge, International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement. We count the total number of these tests taken at a school by all students each May, and divide by the number of graduating seniors. Any school with a ratio of 1.000 or higher is placed on the NEWSWEEK list. Over the years this system has come in for its share of criticism for its simplicity. But that is also its strength: it's easy for readers to understand, and to do the arithmetic for their own schools if they'd like.

Small Schools Rising

The Rankings

School Districts Wanting to Opt Out of Report

In May Newsweek will publish it's annual school report.  This particular report is controversial and a lot of school districts don't like it's premise.  They don't want to be included in the report.  That is an interesting concept.  Opting out of a school analysis that you don't like.  Debra Kaplan from Dobbs Ferry says it isn’t whether we are rated low, that’s not the issue” yah, right.  This is just one of many reports that come out each year analyzing school districts and considered with the others is just another view.

"Whether we're rated really high or really low, that's not the issue," said Dobbs Ferry Superintendent Debra Kaplan, whose district ranked 159 in 2007. "That's not an indicator of how good a high school is. So many things go into making a quality school."

In America's Top Public High Schools, Newsweek looks at the number of students in all grades who take advanced-placement, international-baccalaureate or Cambridge exams and divides the total by the number of graduating seniors. Schools with larger ratios rank higher, but only a fraction of all schools make the list.

 

School Districts Wanting to Opt Out

Westchester County Schools, Comprehensive Information

Standard and Poor's has had a school district web site where you can access school statistics, test scores and loads of other information about our school districts.  In response to public inquiries they partnered with our local Newspaper, The Journal News, and have done an indepth school analysis.  Are we getting our money's worth?  This series has five parts, with videos and is just excellent.

• Day 1:  Value
• Day 2:  Risk Factors
• Day 3:  Money Matters
• Day 4:  Better Buys
• Day 5:  Debating Values

Read the report, view the videos, here.

Standard and Poor's Website, School Matters.

RE/MAX Neighborhood Valuation

Compare Home Values in Your Neighborhood!

Compare recently sold homes, select your own comparables and receive a free neighborhood valuation report that includes:

• Home Sales Trends
• School Information
• Neighborhood Data

This is in Beta on RE/MAX.com.  Please click below and check it out.  It is far and away the best home valuation site I have seen on line.  I will have a link on this site if you want to visit this site again.

                                                RE/MAX Neighborhood Valuation

Checking Out School Districts

Barbara Corcoran did a segment on house values throughout the United States and commented about the fabulous houses you can get in Decatur, Alabama and said that they do not have a good school district.  Her comment created an uproar and she was invited to tour the schools. This morning on the Today Show there was a segment where she took the Today Show to Decatur, AL. and visited the schools.  The video of this segment can be seen by clicking here. The article from the local paper, The Decatur Times, is posted at the bottom of this post.

Ms. Corcoran stated that when she researched the original segment she went onto the internet as the great majority of buyers do now and researched school districts.  She went to Trulia.com and Homefair.com but this would apply to all of the school site programs currently available.  What she found was that "good research about schools is more than what is online - the online sites can't give the nuances of a school"

She found that when she went to the schools in Decatur she found they have a violin program for 3rd graders among many other programs that were not noted on the internet sites.  She spoke to parents and teachers and found a love for the schools from all.

So, she summarized, that you need to get up off your bum and go to the schools that you are considering and make an appointment for a tour which most districts will do for potential homebuyers and get a first hand feeling.  I have links to a multitude of school sites in the left hand column of this blog and they are a good place to start, will give you statistics and an overview, but not the whole picture.

The Decatur Times

"Tuitioning In"

A little known option for some parents who believe in public education but might feel that their home district is not quite right for their children for a multitude of reasons and are  "tuitioning in".  About half of the school districts in Westchester County will let parents pay "tuition" to send their children to their districts. This is a win-win for the school districts.  This is an expensive option with parents shelling out between $15,000-20,000/ child.

The Ardsley School District accepted the largest number of students charging $15,881 for K-6 and $19,725 for 7th -12th.  The Blind Brook District in Rye Brook tuitioned in 12 students.  Pelham does not accept students outside their district because of a lack of room.  The Rye School District does.

Some of the downsides are that transporation is not provided, parents can't run for the school board or vote on the school budget, please read more.....