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I live in Little Neck right now, and my son is turning 4 this year, and a daughter turning 2 this year. We have been thinking about moving to Long Island for better school districts before my son starts Kindergarden.
A little bit about our background.
We own our home in Little Neck, and i believe its worth about 1M dollars right now (about 400k Mortgage left). Since both my wife and I both work in Manhattan - we would like to get into an area thats closer to LIRR (preferably Port Washington line) to avoid switching trains in Jamaica station. And along the lines with LIE would be great, but not too far in to Jericho... (LIE Exit 36 , or 37 is max). Our income level combined is a bit over 300k. And i think this is kind of the income mark that will break even between the LI's high property tax vs NYC Income tax. However, the elementary schools in Littlen Neck isn't too bad either - I don't mind my son going to PS 94 (Its the high school thats the problem), but I just think it may be better for him to go to a school where he can grow up together with other kids thats in his area..etc..
We thought about private schools, and if we are going to do Private school - we will do it for both Son and Daughter. Sending 2 kids to private school, is extremely costly, and we are debating if its a better idea to go to a good public school vs staying in Queens but send them to Private school with the unknown if we can even afford it.
While talking to a neighbor today, and she tells me private school is only good if it requires admission test instead of just pay and get in. But i am not aware of any Long Island private schools (along the areas that i am interested in) that requires standardized tests to get in. She was saying, a lot of the people who goes to private schools in great neck or manhasset, are really rich and have the money to show. And their parents/kids are all obnoxious , and think very highly of themselves. Being a minority (I am asian), they will treat your kids as a 2nd class...etc... if they happen to be in same private school. And for the schools that requires tests, those kids are bright and smart, and their manners are so much better...etc... I kind of agree, because i have been to a few open house in Manhasset, Great Neck area (To be honest, these 2 are my most desired neighborhood as I really like the area and the fact that they have small villages to walk around on sunday afternoon..etc) - either the agents or owner does seem that way. i have brought my son to a park in great neck before while driving by - and i saw those "House wife" were all wearing high heels , big sunglasses, walking on grass talking on the phone and just let their kids cut infront of my son when they try to play on the swing or slides.....I do not want my son to grow up like that. My neighbor told me that is her own experience and she was looking into great neck and manhasset also before for their kids, but she realized that is not the place she wants her kids to be in, and now both her kids goes to NEST in NYC (Which is free if you can make it in), and therefore she stays in Little Neck.
For the few open house in Manhasset, Great Neck area in around 1M to 1.2M, and I have to say those houses are just not worth 1M at all - they are all selling the location, and the house is like a fixer upper if not worse. Houses in the 1.7M+ range seems to be nice, but they are just out of my budget. So i found this little area called, Herricks where the schools are great, and the house prices are not ridiculous (Not yet!) that I can find similar priced homes in this area (around 1M), and the property tax area around 20k in this area. One draw back is this area is not a walking distance to any of the village (very unlike great neck, of manhasset, or little neck) and you need to drive to go anywhere. There is no walk out to dunking donuts or supermarket after dinner on hot summer days. And the LIRR station is not walking distance either.
The whole school thing is new to me, and i am just started researching what to do when my son turns 5 next year. I am quite puzzled what would be the best thing to do, whether or not save up for private school, or go to herricks with public schools, or just go to GreatNeck/Manhasset to stick with a house i don't like (Under 1.1M) just to get my kids into their public schools...
Can you suggest some area that I should be focusing on, and what have you done for folks that were in similar situation like me?
I talked to Wisdom Divine in Douglaston last week, their tuition is about 5k / year for a kid. That does not seem very high, but i think with all the champaigns, books, activities, after school, it will very well be 10k / year for one kid. So with 2 kids, i feel spending 20k / year post tax is alot, on top of saving for their college funds every month.. After some reading, it seems like average private school tuition are much higher than divine wisdom, so right now, i can probably afford it but if either myself or my wife stops working, it would be a bit tough in a long run. The worse thing i want to happen is sending them to private schools, and realized that we cannot afford it when they go to middle school, and just moved them back to public school system - and i am back to square one.
There really aren't tons of private schools on Long Island as there are in NYC. The majority are relgious schools. Unless you have religious reasons, most people send their children to the public schools. Not everyone as there are a handful of nonsectarian private schools around, but it is less common here than in NYC. I dont' know of any private school on Long Island that has an admissions test for kindegarten. There usually is a screening and sometimes if your child seems to have a significant learning disability the private school may not accept the child because they would not have the facilities to accomodate a moderate to severe disability. All public schools also screen new kindergarten children, again looking to flag any children that may require some sort of special ed services.
Herricks has excellent schools and you may wish to look into New Hyde Park, Syosset, East Williston, Locust Valley, Roslyn, if you don't want to travel as far east as Jericho. I"m afraid that in the areas where the houses are 1m+, you will find many parents who pass on their attitudes of entitlement to their children, but of course not everyone is like this. I don't think you will find the attitude or intelligence factor much different in a private Long Island schoool vs. a public Long Island school, nor should being Asian mean that your child would be treated 2nd class. We have Asian children in our limited number of nonsectarian private schoosl and naturally less in our relgious private schools since they are predominantly Catholic or Jewish schools. We also have Quaker schools. We certainly have a sigificant number of Asian students in our public schools.
You may want to look into Rockville Centre, Garden City, and/or Port Washington - they're all a little further out than Great Neck/Manhasset (and Rockville Centre and Garden City trains do go through Jamaica), but all 3 areas offer a reasonable commute to NYC, good public schools, plus a village/downtown-type area, and I think you'd have a better selection of houses in your price range in those areas.
Port Washington and Rockville Centre are also a little more economically diverse than Great Neck/Manhasset, which seems to reduce the "snob factor," which it sounds like may also appeal to you.
(And Herricks is a great commute and a great school district - if you can get past the lack of walkability, it's a great value for a young family.)
ETA: With your housing budget, there is absolutely no reason to send your kids to a private school on Long Island, unless your kid is special needs or you are from a particular religious background and want your kids educated in that tradition.
Fyi, south great neck is chock full of Asian people that can almost rival Little Neck & Bayside. I think are you were mixed up with North GN.
Yes, i think cardozo is problematic after they started merging other districts into #26. Cardozo was ranked very high , top 100 nationally before - and now it is a ranked as average (Or a 5 out of 10 based on what ranking sites you look at). You can call me biased, and i am sure there are alot of bright kids in that school also - but i do not want to risk putting my son there, and have bad influenced for whatever reason. It is the same as adult, your friends are usually your own type of traits. I dont need my son to hang out with super rich, but i want him to hang out with humble, mid-upper middle class type of kids.
I know that North GN are mainly jewish and South GN is mainly Asian. I dont have alot of issues with that, and based on what i read, South GN has better ratings and scores compared to the North one.
You may want to look into Rockville Centre, Garden City, and/or Port Washington - they're all a little further out than Great Neck/Manhasset (and Rockville Centre and Garden City trains do go through Jamaica), but all 3 areas offer a reasonable commute to NYC, good public schools, plus a village/downtown-type area, and I think you'd have a better selection of houses in your price range in those areas.
Port Washington and Rockville Centre are also a little more economically diverse than Great Neck/Manhasset, which seems to reduce the "snob factor," which it sounds like may also appeal to you.
(And Herricks is a great commute and a great school district - if you can get past the lack of walkability, it's a great value for a young family.)
ETA: With your housing budget, there is absolutely no reason to send your kids to a private school on Long Island, unless your kid is special needs or you are from a particular religious background and want your kids educated in that tradition.
Neither of these statements are true in my opinion. The nearest RR to Herricks is either Albertson, Mineola or New Hyde Park. As a former LI'er, I was a long suffering Oyster Bay line rider. Not the bet commute for sure. Mineola and NYP also will be a burden in terms of getting a spot to park. NOT impossible for certain, but depending upon time of departure in the A.M. it can get difficult. As far as value, Herricks is very expensive because there is little in the way of commercial property to bring the tax base down. Is it a very good - excellent school district, yes.
There really aren't tons of private schools on Long Island as there are in NYC. The majority are relgious schools. Unless you have religious reasons, most people send their children to the public schools. Not everyone as there are a handful of nonsectarian private schools around, but it is less common here than in NYC. I dont' know of any private school on Long Island that has an admissions test for kindegarten. There usually is a screening and sometimes if your child seems to have a significant learning disability the private school may not accept the child because they would not have the facilities to accomodate a moderate to severe disability. All public schools also screen new kindergarten children, again looking to flag any children that may require some sort of special ed services.
Herricks has excellent schools and you may wish to look into New Hyde Park, Syosset, East Williston, Locust Valley, Roslyn, if you don't want to travel as far east as Jericho. I"m afraid that in the areas where the houses are 1m+, you will find many parents who pass on their attitudes of entitlement to their children, but of course not everyone is like this. I don't think you will find the attitude or intelligence factor much different in a private Long Island schoool vs. a public Long Island school, nor should being Asian mean that your child would be treated 2nd class. We have Asian children in our limited number of nonsectarian private schoosl and naturally less in our relgious private schools since they are predominantly Catholic or Jewish schools. We also have Quaker schools. We certainly have a sigificant number of Asian students in our public schools.
Are there any "Gifted / Talented" program for Public Schools in Long Island like it has in NYC?
And as for highschools, are there any highschools in LI that needs to be tested like the Bronx science..etc..?
Ultimately, i dont want to get into a town where people are too rich which is out of my own means, which i think my kids will end up with alot of peer pressure, but i also do not want to get into a town where people are alot worse than us also.
I am not sure if such town exist in LI thats closer to NYC.
Neither of these statements are true in my opinion. The nearest RR to Herricks is either Albertson, Mineola or New Hyde Park. As a former LI'er, I was a long suffering Oyster Bay line rider. Not the bet commute for sure. Mineola and NYP also will be a burden in terms of getting a spot to park. NOT impossible for certain, but depending upon time of departure in the A.M. it can get difficult. As far as value, Herricks is very expensive because there is little in the way of commercial property to bring the tax base down. Is it a very good - excellent school district, yes.
This is a good point. In Manhasset, i read that the property tax is not as high, becuase of the americana mall generating huge amount of tax for the town. Herricks being a major residential area - that explains why property tax is higher than other towns. (around 20k)
But again, if i move to LI, i am ready to pay 20k for property tax becuase it offsets the NYC income tax (4%) that i am paying currently. This NYC income tax of our combine income right now would evens out the additional property tax cost in LI on top of what we are paying in Little Neck now. I do hope to keep it at 20k/year and not go above, becuase if i have to pay 25k/year for property tax, that means i am overspending 5k / year just to move to Long Island.
You may want to look into Rockville Centre, Garden City, and/or Port Washington - they're all a little further out than Great Neck/Manhasset (and Rockville Centre and Garden City trains do go through Jamaica), but all 3 areas offer a reasonable commute to NYC, good public schools, plus a village/downtown-type area, and I think you'd have a better selection of houses in your price range in those areas.
Port Washington and Rockville Centre are also a little more economically diverse than Great Neck/Manhasset, which seems to reduce the "snob factor," which it sounds like may also appeal to you.
(And Herricks is a great commute and a great school district - if you can get past the lack of walkability, it's a great value for a young family.)
ETA: With your housing budget, there is absolutely no reason to send your kids to a private school on Long Island, unless your kid is special needs or you are from a particular religious background and want your kids educated in that tradition.
Rockville Centre is somewhat out of the question becuase that is on the south side. I'd like to stay on north shore only (which is the reason for closing to LIE).
I actually researched a bit on Garden City, and have been to a couple of open houses in Roslyn, and Syosset. I do not know the area too well, and i just get the openhouse listing on MLSLI.com and go. These 2 areas seems to be a bit run down surrounded with houses around 600k. The open house i went to was a 995k and it just looks very "standout" with a 1M big house surrounded with 600k houses. I am not saying 600k houses are not good, but i also do not want to be in a situation your neighbors thinks you live in a big house and you are rich..etc.. So an area with even house price / income spread would be preferable.
For Garden City - i read on this website that it surrounds with West Hempstead (problematic) and the schools rating that i saw isnt too great also. One of the real estate agent told me she moved to Garden City from Bayside recently for the same reason - schools district. But with from research, it doesnt look like Garden City has a very good school districts. Am i wrong on this? If so, is there a particular area i should search for? (preferable walking distance to LIRR , if possible - and which LIRR station?)
And no, we dont have any religious reason nor special needs as a reason to attend Private school. I only thought of private school soley for the education itself. Thanks for clarifying that private school is not needed for me.
Stay in Little Neck, public schools are fine there and your kid wont be snob.
I can tell you from personal experience....
I'm chinese american, was living in brooklyn/queen's- parents moved to Great Neck when I was in the 5th grade.
Quite a culture shock when you start hanging around with the rich kids.
I hated living in Great Neck but I turned out ok... schools are great, and I'm a doctor now. However, I think I would have turned out the same if we stayed in Queens.
Ironically, I hated Great Neck growing up, that after I finished medical training, I moved to Brooklyn for the past 8 years.
Now I'm sick of the city, and am in contract with a house in East Hills Roslyn, which totally reminds me of Great Neck in 80's before the Asians and Persians took over.
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