What's so bad about Huntington schools? (Hempstead, Freeport: school district, college, gated)

[Jennifer06]

Could you just tell me the name of the Elementary school where Huntington Village children go? What is the middle school? We're very seriously considering Huntington as well, but would want to be in/near, as-close-as-possible to the Village/dowtown. What schools would my son go to?

Does the Huntington Station school boundary overlap with any of these schools?

[GigiBowman]

Huntington "Village" (the walk to village area) & the North Half of Huntington Station Share the High School.

quite a few elementary schools:

Washington is south of Route 111 in Huntington Station
Flower Hill in Huntington Bay
Jefferson off of Oakwood
Southdown by Huntington Harbor

Depends on where you live is where your child goes. The lines keep on changing.

Two Middle Schools: Huntington Intermediate (not in the best part of town) and Woodull. Again, the lines change a lot --guess it depends on how many kids they can fit in each school.

Both are pretty mixed racially as well as economically.

WE have no rich kid vs. poor kid schools or white kid vs. kids of color schools around here....all the schools are diverse. Personally that's what I like about Huntington. Some people might not but I feel it's more a representation of the real world.


One Middle School - Finley which is the hardest age 7 & 8. This school is the tougest but also the kids that age with their raging hormones and testosterone are the hardest to teach

One High School

[Jennifer06]

GiGi, thank you for the reply.

Originally Posted by GigiBowman

Huntington "Village" (the walk to village area) & the North Half of Huntington Station Share the High School.

quite a few elementary schools:

Washington is south of Route 111 in Huntington Station

I'm sorry, but I don't see a Rte 111 on my map. Do you mean Rte 11, Pulaski Rd?

Jefferson off of Oakwood

Is that east or west of Oakwood?

Looking at a map, am I right to assume that if you are south of Rte 11 and east of Oakwood that you are largely in a Huntington Station school? Or, rather, I'd want to stay north of 11 for what you're referring to as the "walk" to the village and perhaps a safer school?

I'm all for diversity, don't read me wrong. We are a mixed race family with a Korean son. I want him to experience as little prejudice as possible. That is why I ask. I've been here long enough to know that racial prejudice is real. I want to be where the liberal people are at

Depends on where you live is where your child goes. The lines keep on changing.

By how much? Kind of disconcerting, no?

One High School

I'm confused. Above you wrote,
"Huntington "Village" (the walk to village area) & the North Half of Huntington Station Share the High School."
Where does the "south half of Huntington" begin, then? Would that be the South Huntington SD? Does that mean that the S. Huntington district & Huntington district share elementary schools?

Again, thank you!

Jen

[GigiBowman]

lol sorry, I meant Pulaski, Route 11


Jefferson is right on Oakwood and it's just north of Pulaski (route 11 once again)

I'm not sure where the line is that begins the half of Huntington Station that goes to the South Huntington SD (SD #13)...but the Jr. HS for those kids is Simpson which is on Oakwood. If you live in the Village (walk to village) where the stores are your child will probably go to Jefferson School or Southdown. If you live in the Bay your child will go to Flower Hill or Southdown, if yiou live closer to the Park Avenue Wood Hull area your child will probably go to Washington or Jefferson.

All the kids go to Finley

It's really mixed up with Woodhull & Huntington Intermediate. I have lived down the block from Woodhull but my kids still went farther away to Huntington Intermediate.

You really should call the HUFSD and ask for a map of the school lines:

631- 673-2038

To answer your question about the S. Huntington Elementary Schools --no they are all completely different schools and they are not shared with Huntington.

I guess the confusing part is that Huntington Station is split in two where it concerns school districts. 1/2 of The Station is in Huntington SD#3 and 1/2 is in S. Huntington SD #13.

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by newtoli

What exactly is the problem with that? My brother is graduating at age 20 this year. It is a MONUMENTAL success for him. He struggled with learning disabilities growing up and was in a special ed school and left back one year, and then mainstreamed into regular high school and graduated a year late. I am very proud of him for this success.

What exactly do you propose? Should students be automatically passed or kicked out of HS once they reach a certain age?

Kudos to your brother!!!!!

In terms of your question, there are schools out there that do what is called "social promotion" meaning pass a kid to the next grade because s/he will feel funny being left back, and there are schools where kids who don't pass their classes at the end of 12th grade graduate anyway.

[GigiBowman]

Some interesting reading on education in America

Amazon.com: The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America - A Chronological Paper Trail: A Chronological Paper Trail: Charlotte Thompson Iserbyt,Charlotte Iserbyt-Thomson: Books

Charlotte Iserbyt -- No American Left Alone!

[iluvmycuties]

From what I understand about Huntington schools, GiGi is very accurate. My mother is a sub in one of the elementaries on a special education level. The classes are inclusion, in case that poses an issue for you. My mother basically "pulls" kids from the classrooms in order to give 1:1/resource. There are quite a few children who do not speak English at all (I feel bad that they are in English-speaking classrooms all day until they are pulled for only an hour).

If you want diversity, you will find a nice blend of it in Huntington. The village (or hamlet, I have no clue what the proper term is) and the station might have a Mason/Dixon line, but it is not so in the schools.

GiGi, the one issue my mother has with the district is the clique of younger teachers (early 20's) on the elementary level. Do you find that is so at the high school?

[AlexisT]

I went to South Huntington, cousins went to Huntington (back when Halesite was zoned to Huntington El, which is now intermediate).

Part of it is LI racism. I've said it before and i'll say it again because it's true: LIers often look down on districts with a large black/Hispanic population. It's one of the most educationally segregated parts of the US.

I would not class either Huntington or Whitman as being in the top high schools (and the stats bear this out if you look at NYS report cards). But they're not bad. Their rep is far worse than the reality. They've made real efforts to deal with the gang problem that they had a few years ago (my sister went to Whitman when it was bad--graduated in 2000).

Illegal immigrants: sorry but the district has no choice under NYS law. Are you sure that the classes are specifically based on immigration status? that doesn't sound right to me. What seems more likely is that they're language based, and coincidentally many of them are not legal. I'd rather have these kids in school than out roaming the streets. Also, NYS law provides for education up to 21; this is not NCLB. Some areas do push kids out into "alternative" programs but this has a much higher drop out rate. Holding kids back to repeat was built into NCLB, but this has always been possible. Even when I graduated ('94) we had 5th year seniors.

[GigiBowman]

Originally Posted by iluvmycuties

GiGi, the one issue my mother has with the district is the clique of younger teachers (early 20's) on the elementary level. Do you find that is so at the high school?

I think that in the High School there are less younger teachers and more teachers in my age group (48) so I just place myself at the lunch table where they hang out and eventually they got used to me and became very friendly.
I do notice that a lot of "shy" substitutes will sit by their lonesome at some far of tables sometimes. Best to not be shy and eventually you realize that cliques are really only a group of people who know eachother

[GigiBowman]

Originally Posted by AlexisT

Illegal immigrants: sorry but the district has no choice under NYS law. Are you sure that the classes are specifically based on immigration status? that doesn't sound right to me. What seems more likely is that they're language based, and coincidentally many of them are not legal. I'd rather have these kids in school than out roaming the streets. Also, NYS law provides for education up to 21; this is not NCLB. Some areas do push kids out into "alternative" programs but this has a much higher drop out rate. Holding kids back to repeat was built into NCLB, but this has always been possible. Even when I graduated ('94) we had 5th year seniors.

Yes, you are right Alexis, it is language based but I asked the kids who got to know me after awhile and told me where they were from, how they got here and about themselves. When I say dedicated teachers I say this because these kids do not leave the classroom. They are in the same classroom all day almost like when your child is in elementary school. They learn every subject in the same classroom and they are taught in spanish (which was very hard for the brother & sister from Japan that were also in this classroom). They leave for breakfast and come back with food to eat in the classroom, they leave for lunch and bring the food back to the classroom. They do not pay for these it is provided by the school. These are the children of the "day laborers" that I often hear people complain about. By the way....I was amazed to hear that most of them got to New York by car...they drove from -----El Salvadore.

These children are well taken care of by the Huntington School District. Many are over 18.

I would also have to say that Huntington puts a lot of effort, time, teachers and money into teaching special ed.