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Hello All. My family and I are going to be moving to the Albany area in January. We have been looking at the Voorheesville and Niskayuna School Districts so far. Everything we have read about them have been good. Today we started looking online at houses in Clifton Park/Shenendehowa School District. Can anyone tell me how the Shenendehowa School District is? Thanks for any help you can give us.
I guess it depends how big of a school you want your kids in. Shen is huge and most of the employees I had that went to Shen did not enjoy how massive the school was. Also, it depends on what your kids' needs are- general ed or special ed? Generally, I would not recommend Shen. If you are looking in that area, why not look into Burnt-Hills/Ballston Lake- I hear it is very good. I went to Ballston Spa, and I know it gets flack, but it was really a good school and provided many opportunities to me- I was able to graduate college early because of the classes I took in high school and am now finishing up law school. My friend, also in law school, who went to both Shen and Ballston Spa says that she enjoyed Ballston Spa a lot better because she at least knew many of the people in her class, whereas in Shen many of the other students are strangers.
I dunno, I kinda disagree with the above. High school sucks no matter where you go so I think I was happy going to a bigger school and seeing 400 people in my grade I had intense hatred for instead of 50 people I had intense hatred for. It's better to be able to spread the hate around IMO. To me, Nisky/Shen >>>> Voorheesville.
You honestly cannot go wrong with Shen, Nisky, North Colonie, or Voorheesville. Shen/Nisky/North Colonie are very alike, Voorheesville is a lot smaller. But all are terrific schools. So if you are close to the airport you might as well go with North Colonie.... in addition to being closer to the airport, it is also closer to malls and restaurants and stuff like that. Shen is a bit out of the way, you have to take the Northway everywhere. No matter where you live the area has good public schools. It's really not like the rest of the country where you have to think about it or even consider private schools and it always shocks us Albany natives when we hear people from other cities talking about this; Albany natives think of home price and proximity to work because they know basically every burb has great public schools.
The Shen school district is very good but it is very large. My friend used to teach in the high school and it's something like 700+ students per grade.
I went through the North Colonie school districts and had a great experience. Very well-regarded schools from the various elementary schools to the middle and high school (Shaker High). It's still large - I had just under 400 kids in my HS graduating class in the mid 90s. I think it's closer to 500 per class now. But I liked a larger school. Liked that it was big, but not overwhelming like a 700 or 800 sized class could be.
For a smaller, but still well regarded school district, keep looking at Voorheesville. You're about 20 min from the airport and the town is more rural-ish than suburban, but still quite close to shopping, entertainment, etc.
They're all nice family areas, but in terms of schools it just depends on what works for your children. I wouldn't have been happy in a small school and thrived in a larger district.
I think a sleeper is South Colonie, which is still good and is probably one of the more "diverse" suburban districts in the area. Districts like Averill Park, East Greenbush, Bethlehem and Scotia aren't bad either.
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