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Old 01-14-2012, 02:55 PM
 
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It's looking possible that we might be moving to Buffalo with elementary age kids, and as far as I can tell, these three seem to be among the "best," or at least the most highly rated school districts. My wife is big on living where she can walk places. So with those guidelines, I would welcome comments, suggestions, comparisions, etc.
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Old 01-14-2012, 06:45 PM
 
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If you want truly innovative schools you have a better bet with private schools. My take on it is to buy cheap in the city and use the money you'd save on mortgage and taxes to send your kids to private schools. The "best" of those suburban schools are really just not that bad, but they are far from innovative. The best places will have small classes, that's one of the primary factors in making a school better for your kid(s). So I would say save your money on real estate / taxes, buy in Buffalo and pursue private schooling. Then your wife will also have the luxury of walking places which you can't really do in any of the above mentioned suburbs.
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Old 01-14-2012, 07:06 PM
 
Location: Hamburg, NY
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In reality the difference between the so called great districts of Williamsville, Orchard Park, East Aurora & Clarence and the very good districts of Lancaster, Grand Island, Amherst, Hamburg, Sweet Home & Frontier is minimal. All of those areas have very good public schools with safe, walkable neighborhoods & downtown type areas (except Grand Island which doesn't have a downtown). The main differences are going to be that the areas south of Buffalo are usually going to get more snowfall & in most of the areas you originally mentioned housing is going to be more expensive than a lot of the other suburbs. Where you are going to be working may play a bigger role as to where you should live as you really don't want to be commuting from Orchard Park or East Aurora to the Northtowns just because of the schools as there are plenty of comparable schools in the Northtowns (or vice versa).


As genoobie mentioned private schools within the city of Buffalo are definitely an option as property taxes & housing are usually much cheaper in the city than in many of the suburbs. Buffalo also has some very good public schools but it can be tricky getting your kids into them.
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Old 01-14-2012, 11:28 PM
 
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I would be working right downtown, and private schools aren't an option with as many kids as we have.
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Old 01-15-2012, 08:10 AM
 
Location: Hamburg, NY
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If private school is out of the question there is no way I'd live in Buffalo & play Russian Roulette with the school district.

The easiest commute from downtown is from Hamburg, I can usually get downtown within 15 minutes though snow can change that by quite a bit. East Aurora & Orchard Park are only a little further than Hamburg (maybe 25 minutes in good conditions). Williamsville isn't too bad either but the traffic in & around Williamsville is much worse than the areas mentioned (in general Northtowns traffic is much worse than Southtowns).

All of the towns are very walkable & full of parks though Orchard Park's downtown area is much smaller than the others as its more of a spread out community. All of the towns are close to shopping so travel for groceries or even a shopping mall isn't going to be a concern.
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Old 01-15-2012, 11:52 AM
 
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I believe Williamsville has an incredible shortfall on their school budget due to the 2% property tax cap and not having money set aside. I caught it on YNN a few days back -- they had a 10 min segment with people talking about what they don't want cut. I guess their Board Minutes should have it.
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Old 01-15-2012, 12:52 PM
 
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If you have more than three then perhaps you would be right. 3 or less Buffalo + private is probably the best option. Of course if your kids get into one the better Buffalo schools then you're all set and you get the cheap rent + taxes to boot. Save the money and spend that on your kids education. We are in a unique position where we can homeschool our kids so that works quite well. There are many resources and more parents seem to be choosing this option. Not sure what you mean by "walkable". If you mean walking to grocery + other shopping, as far as I know that's not really an option in suburban Buffalo. If you don't mind driving everywhere then that's where you would be most comfortable.
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Old 01-16-2012, 07:40 AM
 
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I am going to give a different perspective. That being: I currently live in West Falls (East Aurora school district), and have 2 elemantary children (my step kids) and a teenager (bio kid) in that school district. I moved from Lancaster where my older daughter (now in college) graduated with an advanced Regents diploma and a member of the Academy of Finance (which I believe only one other district in WNY is a member of). The Academy of Finance opened doors to her; she worked for The Bank of Akron on Internship (unpaid and paid) and now works for a student loan collection agency making excellent $ and is majoring in business. The downside of Lancaster is the really bad prevalence of drugs and nasty "Jersy Shore" like girls and guys. My younger bio daughter, furious at first to leave her friends in Lancaster, has found a nicer, more welcoming, calmer atmosphere in the country (East Aurora). Yes there are drugs here too but she doesn't feel that pressure and actually said she is SO glad we moved. She is doing very well in school where the class sizes are WAY smaller than Lancaster. My young step children love school; my step daughter is advanced and my step son has struggles with reading comprehension. The teachers accommodate both situations well.
My other perspective is that I myself grew up from elementary school to 7th grade in the Cleveland Hill school district (Northern Cheektowaga) then moved to Williamsville. Talk about a class difference. Where I was once welcomed and didn't feel threatened, I woke up to complete harrassment (this is going back to 1984-1989) simply because I dressed different and my hair wasn't like the other girls. Teachers, monitors, social workers, everyone saw the verbal and physical abuse occur to not only me but a few others and did nothing about it. I was afraid to take the bus so I walked the 3 miles or got a ride from my friend (who was also bullied). The Williamsville School district does nothing about bullying until the spotlight is placed on it (ie suicide of Jamie R) and even then it is too little too late. I have nothing but bad things to say about Williamsville schools. The taxes are ridiculous, and the leaders care nothing about the children who suffer silently at the hands of other children. Williamsville is a bad choice in my opinion, and that's an understatement.
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Old 01-16-2012, 09:18 AM
 
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I'd have to say I find that welcoming atmosphere where I teach in Buffalo. There aren't the cliques that you see in many other districts. Believe it or not the exposure to drugs is very limited (because kids can't really afford much more than marijuana). As far as performance and numbers go, my kids at Tech frequently beat City Honors in my course and the academic capability is there. I wouldn't hesitate to send my own kids to tech.
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Old 01-16-2012, 10:26 AM
 
Location: Buffalo
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GingerAmy View Post
I am going to give a different perspective. That being: I currently live in West Falls (East Aurora school district), and have 2 elemantary children (my step kids) and a teenager (bio kid) in that school district. I moved from Lancaster where my older daughter (now in college) graduated with an advanced Regents diploma and a member of the Academy of Finance (which I believe only one other district in WNY is a member of). The Academy of Finance opened doors to her; she worked for The Bank of Akron on Internship (unpaid and paid) and now works for a student loan collection agency making excellent $ and is majoring in business. The downside of Lancaster is the really bad prevalence of drugs and nasty "Jersy Shore" like girls and guys. My younger bio daughter, furious at first to leave her friends in Lancaster, has found a nicer, more welcoming, calmer atmosphere in the country (East Aurora). Yes there are drugs here too but she doesn't feel that pressure and actually said she is SO glad we moved. She is doing very well in school where the class sizes are WAY smaller than Lancaster. My young step children love school; my step daughter is advanced and my step son has struggles with reading comprehension. The teachers accommodate both situations well.
My other perspective is that I myself grew up from elementary school to 7th grade in the Cleveland Hill school district (Northern Cheektowaga) then moved to Williamsville. Talk about a class difference. Where I was once welcomed and didn't feel threatened, I woke up to complete harrassment (this is going back to 1984-1989) simply because I dressed different and my hair wasn't like the other girls. Teachers, monitors, social workers, everyone saw the verbal and physical abuse occur to not only me but a few others and did nothing about it. I was afraid to take the bus so I walked the 3 miles or got a ride from my friend (who was also bullied). The Williamsville School district does nothing about bullying until the spotlight is placed on it (ie suicide of Jamie R) and even then it is too little too late. I have nothing but bad things to say about Williamsville schools. The taxes are ridiculous, and the leaders care nothing about the children who suffer silently at the hands of other children. Williamsville is a bad choice in my opinion, and that's an understatement.
Ginger Amy,
Williamsville Schools weren't then, and aren't now, a "bad choice". If you went to South in the late 80's, there was some overlap between us (88-89) I had many friends at East and a couple at North too.
I can tell you from from first hand experience, if you "bullied" another student there, you were disciplined. No one was exempt. Not even the football team.
I'll share with you a personal example:
My freshman year I was on the football team and it was common practice for Varsity football to pick on the underclass football players. I wouldn't go so far as to say hazing - more like initiations. They got me about a week or 2 into the school year at lunch. Made me play a game called "walking through the forest". The "game" consisted of a piece of 8x11 paper with little circles on it. I was given a pen and told to close my eyes and try to navigate accross the paper without hitting a tree. Well to my surprise when you hit a tree, you got smacked in the face with a text book. I didn't get it bad and I didn't "report" him, but it made my nose bleed a little and the lunch monitors took the senior to the office. The senior actually apologized right away said it was not meant to hit my nose but rather just my forehead.
That player was given a couple days of after school detention. I was called down to the office for my version of events and I tried to tell them we were just horsing around, but they knew better. I just didn't want the senior to get in BIG trouble because I figured that would have more upper classmmen angry at me! There is probably a little life lesson learned from this event...

In a more general sense, at every high school in America, kids are picked on for a variety of things. Different clothes, hair style, etc are oh so common. This is not unique to Williamsville. I'm sorry your high school experience was difficult, but everyone turning a blind eye to physical abuse? Sorry. Just can't buy that.

I have nothing but good things to say about Williamsville Schools. Same with my mom (she went to South in the 60's!) and my 3 siblings too. (between the 4 kids we had the years 87-94 covered at South)
Incidentally, I dated a girl in high school that went to Cleve Hill. She hated it there.
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