Coatesville? East Fallowfield? (Chester, Pottstown, Downingtown: low income, crime, houses)

[holly80104]

LOOKING FOR ANYBODY WHO LIVES OR KNOWS ABOUT EAST FALLOWFIELD, PROVIDENCE HILL COMMUNITY. MOVING TO PA IN JUNE.
WHAT ABOUT POTTSTOWN? SOMEONE WAS SAYING THERE IS A LANDFILL NEARBY? TRUE? MY HUSBAND HAS SEVERE ASTHMA, THAT WOULD NOT BE A GOOD IDEA.
HELP........

[blueandpink]

Pottstown and Coatsville are awful! Crime and lots of drugs! AVOID!

[toobusytoday]

I don't know as they are awful but certainly not the destination that most people would choose. Look around carefully before you buy. My knowledge of Coatesville is from when we lived in nearby Downingtown almost twenty years ago. At that time it was a struggling blue collar time with poor schools. Things may have changed for the better. www.schoolmatters.com will give you some insight into the schools. Even if you are not interested in the schools, the demographic information such as low income students will give you an indication of the welfare of the area.

If you have elementary aged or younger children you will still want to look at the information about all the schools that your kid(s) could possibly attend. Look for a high percentage graduation rate and a high percentage of students that take the SAT's. Often kids do well in elementary school but then score lower in MS and HS when peer influence take over.

Good luck!

[sgallo28]

I have to disagree with some of these response, both Coatesville and Pottstown have changed dramatically in the last 20 year. where hasn't. for starters the Pottstown landfill closed in 2004 or 2005, either way it closed and nothing more than a green hill in the background. East Fallowfield isn't exactly Coatesville, it is a suburban community outside of the city that actually has some of the prettiest rolling hills and pastoral scenery in Chester County. I happen to live in Pottstown, well actually Upper Pottsgrove, which like east fallowfield is a suburban community outside of the downtown area. Unlike East Fallowfield upper pottsgrove doesn't share a school district with pottstown, it is in the pottsgrove school district. Pennsylvania is confusing, i know. anyway in the last couple of years a couple of great little restaurants have open up down town and i really like my neighbors, my community and area is really convenient to a lot of major highways that my wife and i take to work.

[Steams]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

I don't know as they are awful but certainly not the destination that most people would choose. Look around carefully before you buy. My knowledge of Coatesville is from when we lived in nearby Downingtown almost twenty years ago. At that time it was a struggling blue collar time with poor schools. Things may have changed for the better. www.schoolmatters.com will give you some insight into the schools. Even if you are not interested in the schools, the demographic information such as low income students will give you an indication of the welfare of the area.

If you have elementary aged or younger children you will still want to look at the information about all the schools that your kid(s) could possibly attend. Look for a high percentage graduation rate and a high percentage of students that take the SAT's. Often kids do well in elementary school but then score lower in MS and HS when peer influence take over.

Good luck!

Coatesville and Pottstown Suburbs are great places to live. Its all farm land and amish people out here. You live close to the city, close to the main line and exton and west chester. Plus the houses are going up like crazy because it the only areas where you can still get a 4BR house with 1/2 acre of land without spending $500k. Coatesville is a huge area and the city makes up a tiny percentage. Most of coatesville is farmland that is being developed.

How can you have an opinion on something relevant today from 20 years ago? How can you judge a high school 15 years from now. The area is growing so much that another school will be built in Coatesville.

[toobusytoday]

Steams, Did you take the time to check out Coatesville at schoolmatters.com? The students performed at 58.4% proficiency rate in reading and 52.9% in math. This is a horrible performance rate and well below the state and county average.

When you buy a house you must always think of resale and if a house is located in an area with bad schools you are cutting out a huge percentage of people that would be your neighbors or buy your house when you choose to move just because of the schools. I looked at the numbers before I posted. Check it out yourself.

[BBGsinger]

I have family that lives in East Fallowfield, which is actually quite rural and pretty, much better than the slums of Coatesville. I lived in the next town, in Thorndale/Downingtown for 2 years. I recommend checking out Thorndale or Downingtown for better schools and slightly better communities, unless you like the sticks, then you might find East Fallowfield charming. Personally, it's not where I would choose to live, but you could check it out. I have seen some new developments going up in that area that look nice. I would not recommend Coatesville public schools and I'm unsure of what private schools exist in that area, but if you have kids, that would be my main concern. Good luck!

[KoZmiC NinJa]

Originally Posted by Steams

The area is growing so much that another school will be built in Coatesville.

GREAT !!! Coatesville school taxes were about 3,000 a year when
I left...every dollar of it mismanaged and misappropriated.
PA had to step in and sort it out. Another school would
up the rapeage to about 4,500 a year per household for
Coatesville officials to make disappear into nowhere.
You guys who applaud the out of control develpment in
Chester Co. probably arent homeowners who have to pay
service taxes there or dont attend township meetings to see
how outragiously abysmal the 'leadership' is there.

[Mattingly23]

East Fallowfield is very nice, unfortunately it is in the COAtesville school district.

[Steams]

Originally Posted by KoZmiC NinJa

GREAT !!! Coatesville school taxes were about 3,000 a year when
I left...every dollar of it mismanaged and misappropriated.
PA had to step in and sort it out. Another school would
up the rapeage to about 4,500 a year per household for
Coatesville officials to make disappear into nowhere.
You guys who applaud the out of control develpment in
Chester Co. probably arent homeowners who have to pay
service taxes there or dont attend township meetings to see
how outragiously abysmal the 'leadership' is there.

There is new leadership in coatesville. The Tax payer alliance is a group that has formed from the mismanagement and is doing well to keep tabs on the local school board. I do understand that the Middle school and high schools are bad and it does hurt the area, but it hasn't hurt it in the last 6 years with people migrating to coatesville. The more people come here and send thier kids to the schools the better they will become.

As far as private schools there are several in the area including a brand new Chatholic school that just opened up inbetween coatesville and Honey brook. Right now I plan to send my kids to public school until they have to go to middle school and if nothing has changed use the catholic school. Its not as expensive as you think it would be, about the same as my cable bill.