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My husband and I have narrowed down our search for a home to these three areas--Merrick, Bellmore, and Wantagh.
We are looking to be fairly close to the LIRR. Doesn't have to be walking distance, but close enough. Both me and my husband work in Manhattan and are use to having our kids in after school programs.
I have some questions:
1) how is the commute from the three towns above? How long does it take you to get into and home from the city?
2) what after school programs are available? A lot of the programs seem to only go until 6pm. Are there any programs within the three towns that go until 6:30? if so, are they within the schools? If not, is there bus service from school to teh facility?
Where we are now, parents have two options. You can send your kids to Catholic School and pay for after school until 6pm. Or, you can sign up with the local Y. They pick-up your kids from elementary school and provide homework help and activities until 6:30pm.
To answer your first question, simply look at the LIRR schedule for the babylon line. That will tell you the planned time to/from your station and Penn or Atl Terminal. You will also have to add on your commute time to and from the stations to home or work.
For the most part the LIRR is on time. When it does screw up, you can add minutes to hours for your commute. Babylon branch is better than most though.
Those 3 stations are only a few minutes apart. Parking is tight at all of them after 7am but (for now) Bellmore does not require a permit from Town of Hempstead (rumor is it soon will). As for child care, the only one I know that goes til 7pm is Tutor Time but that is either in Levittown or Massapequa (nice new facility, just off Sunrise Hwy about 5-10 minutes from Wantagh LIRR station). Best to call around and ask how late different facilities provide coverage. Almost all of the larger daycares (i.e. not in someone's home) provide pickup from school, homework assistance and a snack. Good luck.
Check out JCC in Merrick, I know that Oceanside branch of it provides care till 7 PM for a little extra pay, not sure if Merrick does. The program is amazing and most of our friends kids go there. After school care in itself is an issue, not just in Long Island, but anywhere in the NY metro area-it seems that 6 PM is reasonable in other parts of the USA when people leave work at 5 on a dot and have 15-30 minute commutes, not here when you are lucky to get out at 6 and make it home by 7:30.
One more question, is it true that the Wantagh School District buses in kids from other districts/towns? I mentioned to someone that I was looking at homes in Wantagh and they told me to be careful about that. I've been looking on-line but nothing has come up.
One more question, is it true that the Wantagh School District buses in kids from other districts/towns? I mentioned to someone that I was looking at homes in Wantagh and they told me to be careful about that. I've been looking on-line but nothing has come up.
TIA.
Yes, Wantagh schools are wicked ghetto. Send the kid directly to MIT, Rensaleer or NASA. Seriously, Wantagh schools are fine. Quite good in fact. Just like 90% of LI.
They should be decent. We pay about $42,000,000 per student in school taxes (ok, I exaggerated a little).
There is no busing between districts on Long Island for public schools. What this "someone" may have meant is there is more than one school district that covers Wantagh. I believe there is part of Levittown that goes to Wantagh schools (or maybe it's vice versa). At any rate, I'm not sure where you concern lies, they aren't taking gang members from Roosevelt and putting them in those schools.
There is no busing between districts on Long Island for public schools. What this "someone" may have meant is there is more than one school district that covers Wantagh. I believe there is part of Levittown that goes to Wantagh schools (or maybe it's vice versa). At any rate, I'm not sure where you concern lies, they aren't taking gang members from Roosevelt and putting them in those schools.
True. North Wantagh kids go to MacArthur HS and Salk MS (Levittown schools but both highly ranked). I think there may be some bussing of special ed. students if an IEP calls for it for whatever reason but that's a rare thing.
It wasn't as much of a concern as a curiosity as to why. My friend's comment wasn't going to prevent me from buying a house in the area. I was just curious as to why it was done. One of the reasons we are looking into Wantagh is because of the good reputation the school district has.
Those 3 stations are only a few minutes apart. Parking is tight at all of them after 7am but (for now) Bellmore does not require a permit from Town of Hempstead (rumor is it soon will). As for child care, the only one I know that goes til 7pm is Tutor Time but that is either in Levittown or Massapequa (nice new facility, just off Sunrise Hwy about 5-10 minutes from Wantagh LIRR station). Best to call around and ask how late different facilities provide coverage. Almost all of the larger daycares (i.e. not in someone's home) provide pickup from school, homework assistance and a snack. Good luck.
Mongoose,
They started a 'pilot' program at Bellmore - of the approximately 1800 parking spots, 227 of them now require a ToH parking permit (as of 10/22/12).
I've actually been to Bellmore since and found parking at ~8:00 AM (catching the 8:13 train) in the lot just north of the tracks, just east of Bellmore Avenue, but by that time there are only 10-15 spots left and they're about as far from the ticket machines as you can get.
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