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Can anyone help me with what are the best school districts (11 yr old) and daycares (18 month old) in Westchester NY, preferably anywhere south of White Plains and including White Plains. Any response is helpful. Thanks. PS - detailed answers are great!
"Best school districts" is not an easy question to answer, as there is a lot of subjectivity. There are many highly performed school districts, in wealthy neighborhoods. And it leads to basically a chicken-egg argument. Are the schools good, just because the community is wealthy... Or is the wealthy community attracted to the good school.
Anyway, in southern Westchester, the most "prestigious" school districts south of White Plains would include Bronxville, Scarsdale, Rye, Irvington, Ardsley, Hastings. Some might include Mamaroneck and Pelham, and possibly Eastchester, Rye Neck and Dobbs Ferry on the list as well.
Bronxville is an "old money" town, that retains the old money feel. No diversity, exceptionally wealthy.
Scarsdale is similarly affluent, but the money is a bit newer. As a result, it has slightly more diversity than Bronxville, with a more significant Jewish, Catholic, Asian population. Purely a white collar town though.
Rye probably lies somewhere between Bronxville and Scarsdale in this regard.
Mamaroneck includes Larchmont, which is very affluent. But Mamaroneck itself, does have a working class segment, including a large hispanic population. It makes the high school especially, larger and more diverse than the other mentioned school districts. For some people, this is a pro. For some people, it is a con, and they send their kids to private school at the high school level.
Irvington/Hastings/Ardsley are river towns. They have the reputation of being a bit more down to earth and less pretentious. Schools are well rated, and the towns themselves are still very affluent. Ardsley does not have its own train station, so commuting can become an issue.
Dobbs Ferry is another river town, not quite as affluent as the others, schools slightly lower rated.
Eastchester remains a bit more blue collar, though it certainly has some very affluent neighborhoods. The schools do well in the "ratings," but the district is generally considered less prestigious than some of its neighbors.
In terms of daycare, I am more familiar with the options in northern Westchester. Whereever you go, you may have to drive a few miles to the best daycare center, a couple towns over. For example, there are some good centers in the White Plains vicinity.
I am looking to rent a place and don't really want to spend more than 1800/month. I just want to rephrase when I say "best". I'm more interested in diversity and size in the school systems. My daughter is a mix of Chinese and Puerto Rican. I want a mid size school system because we will be new in the area.
I'd suggest Dobbs Ferry, a bit more affordable, a bit more diverse. You can also consider White Plains itself, which really is not a bad school system, though it is a very large system.
What's your definition of mid-size?
boobycakes845, in case you are unfamiliar with the local geography:
What people refer to colloquially as "towns" are actually villages and hamlets, which are within actual towns; and, because villages and hamlets are referred to as "towns", then, many times, the error is compounded when actual towns are referred to as "townships".
Also, many colloquially refer to a "downtown business district" in a hamlet as a "village".
When you do find a house that you like, you can find out in which community (city, village or CDP) that house is actually located, which is oftentimes different from the community named in that house's mailing address, by using the Census Bureau's online address search function. (CDP or Census Designated Place is the Census Bureau equivalent for a New York State hamlet.)
And, very importantly, among other things, the Census Bureau's online address search function also indicates in which school district an address is located.
"Best school districts" is not an easy question to answer, as there is a lot of subjectivity. There are many highly performed school districts, in wealthy neighborhoods. And it leads to basically a chicken-egg argument. Are the schools good, just because the community is wealthy... Or is the wealthy community attracted to the good school.
Anyway, in southern Westchester, the most "prestigious" school districts south of White Plains would include Bronxville, Scarsdale, Rye, Irvington, Ardsley, Hastings. Some might include Mamaroneck and Pelham, and possibly Eastchester, Rye Neck and Dobbs Ferry on the list as well.
Bronxville is an "old money" town, that retains the old money feel. No diversity, exceptionally wealthy.
Scarsdale is similarly affluent, but the money is a bit newer. As a result, it has slightly more diversity than Bronxville, with a more significant Jewish, Catholic, Asian population. Purely a white collar town though.
Rye probably lies somewhere between Bronxville and Scarsdale in this regard.
Mamaroneck includes Larchmont, which is very affluent. But Mamaroneck itself, does have a working class segment, including a large hispanic population. It makes the high school especially, larger and more diverse than the other mentioned school districts. For some people, this is a pro. For some people, it is a con, and they send their kids to private school at the high school level.
Irvington/Hastings/Ardsley are river towns. They have the reputation of being a bit more down to earth and less pretentious. Schools are well rated, and the towns themselves are still very affluent. Ardsley does not have its own train station, so commuting can become an issue.
Dobbs Ferry is another river town, not quite as affluent as the others, schools slightly lower rated.
Eastchester remains a bit more blue collar, though it certainly has some very affluent neighborhoods. The schools do well in the "ratings," but the district is generally considered less prestigious than some of its neighbors.
In terms of daycare, I am more familiar with the options in northern Westchester. Whereever you go, you may have to drive a few miles to the best daycare center, a couple towns over. For example, there are some good centers in the White Plains vicinity.
The info you have provided is good, but here area a few comments. Eastchester has only one 'affluent' neighborhood and the most expensive home there is probably $1.5M or so. Irvington, Ardsley and Hastings are really very different from Scarsdale, Rye and Bronxville. There is a lot of comments about hispanics in Mamaroneck, I have commented on quite a few today already. As I mentioned in a previous post homes in Mamaroneck include some of the most expensive in Westchester such as $20M as well as homes on the lower range $400/$500 to $600k. These I guess are the homes the poor hispanic people referred to above live in, the reality is that most people in Westchester would like to live in a $600k home in a town where homes go up to $20M unless you do not want to live in a town with people of other ethnicities. I don't understand why some posters in this board mention this as a negative
The reality is thatr apart from Scarsdale, Rye, Larchmont, Bronxville, Armonk, Chappaqua etc in majority of the towns in Westchester the most expensive home in the town is $1M or at most $3M.
Mod cut: TOS violationAlso visit www.greatschools.net and check out ratings and parents comments on schools.
I should really say www.realtors.com since that is not realtor sepcific, I understand that we are not supposed to link to specific realtor's website, I am not a realtor myself by the way.
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PS - detailed answers are great!
Westchester County - Adding more stuff
