Doylestown Elementary Schools (rental, house, neighborhoods)

[christinejf]

We will be locating to Doylestown for one year from Ireland and need to enrol two daughters aged nearly 8, and 5 years into school. Trouble is we haven't secured a rental house yet but need to make a move on schools as my husband will be over in Philly again soon for a couple of weeks and he wants to try to organise at least a meeting with a principal. Are there lots of elementary schools to choose from in the town? We will be trying to find a house that is in the town as opposed to miles outside. Thanks.

[toobusytoday]

Looks like there are 6 (!) elementary schools with a Doylestown address. I found out by doing a quick search on Schools, High School, Public Schools, School District, Public High Schools - SchoolMatters . You can do a googlemap search to see how far out of town they are.

[christinejf]

Thanks for that - but in the States aren't you restricted to the school in your neighbourhood or is that not strictly the case?

[toobusytoday]

Yes, but these all have Doylestown addresses. To find out the exact neighborhoods that the schools draw from you would have to contact the individual schools. If I were you, I would look at the schools numbers and decide priorites. None of the elementary schools have low numbers for their academics. I would look at number of kids in a school. I prefer a smaller elementary school so I would look at the one that scores well academically and has a smaller number of kids. My choice, just on the numbers would be Gayman Elementary School. It also has a higher ratio of teachers to students.

Your best bet is to find someone that actually lives there and can tell you what they think. But if you have to pick an area from afar without seeing anything going by the numbers will at least eliminate some areas and you can focus on certain neighborhoods. Now, if you find a good, honest realtor they will be able to give you helpful school information and can find you a house according to your criteria. It's best to get someone that really knows the area and the schools.