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Just found a house we are thinking of putting an offer on in the Village of Williamsville. Elem School is Forest Elem. Middle School is Mill Middle. Can anyone tell me the positives and negatives of this area as well as these schools? My husband will be working downtown. We are coming from PA and know nothing about Buffalo. Thank you!
Just found a house we are thinking of putting an offer on in the Village of Williamsville. Elem School is Forest Elem. Middle School is Mill Middle. Can anyone tell me the positives and negatives of this area as well as these schools? My husband will be working downtown. We are coming from PA and know nothing about Buffalo. Thank you!
Hi Sccrown,
I grew up in Williamsville and attended k-12 in Williamsville schools. In fact, I attended Forest and Mill Middle (then Williamsville South)
In my opinion, they were all excellent schools. Removing my opinion from it, the school district is top-rated, year after year. Some on here point to the fact that simply teach with the only goal of high standardized testing. Inserting my opinion, I feel the high standardized test scores are a result of the great teachers in the district. I also feel I received a great all-around education, eventually graduating with Regent's honors. I felt extremely prepared going into college.
As for the house, what part of the village are you looking in?
I don't think test scores have much to do with the quality of the teachers. They all earned the same education degree, they all teach the same basic curriculum, etc. The difference is whether the kids have educational support at home, whether they have been brought up in a household that values education and learning.
I'm sure your children will get a fine level of instruction at these schools. Because it is a wealthy district, they will also have well-equipped classrooms, labs, etc. My main concern about sending my kids to a Williamsville school would be about bullying (which seems to be a very significant problem in many suburban schools, and this is the district in which Jamey Rodemeyer was bullied to the point of suicide). My other concern would be about the lack of demographic diversity in the district, where only 4% of the children are Black or Latino, and only 10% of the students quality for free or reduced lunch. I'm not sure that prepares students well for the realities of the world.
Regarding the village itself, I think Williamsville retains a very nice historic village feel, with a more-or-less intact Main Street (although I personally think the traffic is much too heavy to make it feel comfortably walkable). Once you get away from the village core, you are surrounded by the same suburban chain sprawl that you can find everywhere in the country, but Main Street itself has a lot of unique local shops and restaurants on it.
Live in Williamsville and my kids attended (and some still do) all the schools you mentioned. We've found all the schools you listed as excellent, especially South Highschool. If any of them were "iffy" I'd say it would be Mill Middle school. Just that we had lots of bully problems and the school merely paid us lip service until my kid deceided he'd had enough and fought back...then he was the troublemaker.
Otherise Williamsville is an excellent community, centrally located, great houses in an area that real estate will actually appreciate as time goes on. Very easy to get downdown (take the 33) and near the 190, 290, 90 and 33. I highly recommend it.
I don't think test scores have much to do with the quality of the teachers. They all earned the same education degree, they all teach the same basic curriculum, etc. The difference is whether the kids have educational support at home, whether they have been brought up in a household that values education and learning.
I'm sure your children will get a fine level of instruction at these schools. Because it is a wealthy district, they will also have well-equipped classrooms, labs, etc. My main concern about sending my kids to a Williamsville school would be about bullying (which seems to be a very significant problem in many suburban schools, and this is the district in which Jamey Rodemeyer was bullied to the point of suicide). My other concern would be about the lack of demographic diversity in the district, where only 4% of the children are Black or Latino, and only 10% of the students quality for free or reduced lunch. I'm not sure that prepares students well for the realities of the world.
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NYState Ed. has a general curriculum and each district tweaks it and uses the books it chooses, so all teaching the "same curriculum " (even within a district) is not a valid statement. Everyone earning the same degree is also incorrect. Most teachers get a BSEd and MSEd, but this is not all of the time. It is dependent on the school they attend.
You also seriously are causing grief to the original poster about bullying and diversity. If you don't think bullying is everywhere, it is. [This, while very, very sad, would be over with if not for being picked up by a celebrity.] As to a district where few kids are poor and receiving free lunch? Or not all totally melded into a mixing pot of race? Let the original poster decide what area he/she wants to live in. You fail to add that there are many Asians in the area.
The world does not have to be mixed so every town is the same and every person is the same. Good grief, that would be boring. Let the original poster choose the town that they want.
You also seriously are causing grief to the original poster about bullying and diversity. If you don't think bullying is everywhere, it is. [This, while very, very sad, would be over with if not for being picked up by a celebrity.]
The original poster asked for both positives and negatives of the schools. Obviously, that is a subjective opinion. My opinion (admittedly as an outsider) if that if I were considering sending my children to Williamsville schools, my main concern would be bullying. There have been many well-publicized cases of bullying in Williamsville and other suburban districts. Sometimes sexual orientation has been the focus, other times race. Perhaps bullying is everywhere, but this particular discussion was about Williamsville schools, which have earned a reputation for being a place where bullying is a particular problem. The post after mine also singles out bullying as a problem at these specific schools, from personal experience.
As for my concern about diversity, that is also a subjective opinion. I think sheltering children and young adults in a homogenous environment does not prepare them well for living in a world where they will eventually have to interact with people of differing economic and cultural backgrounds. You are free to disagree.
The original poster asked for both positives and negatives of the schools. Obviously, that is a subjective opinion. My opinion (admittedly as an outsider) if that if I were considering sending my children to Williamsville schools, my main concern would be bullying. There have been many well-publicized cases of bullying in Williamsville and other suburban districts. Sometimes sexual orientation has been the focus, other times race. Perhaps bullying is everywhere, but this particular discussion was about Williamsville schools, which have earned a reputation for being a place where bullying is a particular problem. The post after mine also singles out bullying as a problem at these specific schools, from personal experience.
As for my concern about diversity, that is also a subjective opinion. I think sheltering children and young adults in a homogenous environment does not prepare them well for living in a world where they will eventually have to interact with people of differing economic and cultural backgrounds. You are free to disagree.
You can thank the media for this. It's only news because it IS Williamsvile - a bucolic suburban eutopia. Williamsville projects an image of perfect. When common flaws happen here, it's news. There is bullying in every school in America. If you don't believe that, you're are kidding yourself. That said, this is hardly an epidemic at any of the Williamsville schools. I asked my son, who is a Sr at South about bullying and he laughed. He said this is the friendliest school he'd ever been to. He's attended suburban schools in DFW and Austin and came up here for his Sr year.
With regards to diversity, I take exception to your theory "little diversity = sheltering the children" and I must ask you what is ideal? Would it be better if no more than 50% of the students were white? Should they bus inner-city minorities to the schools to get that mix right? I can't fathom this concept or how you equate it to sheltering. We will indeed disagree here.
Focusing on diversity seems a lot less important than having your child attend a great school, regardless of the racial makeup of said school. I went through K-12 all Williamsville and it was less "diverse" from 1979-1992 than it is now. I came through it ok. I have friends from a variety of races and walks of life as an adult.
Actually, I work in a school where there really is very very little bullying and snide commentary between students. In fact for the most part I would concur with JSmith. I will say that I did my student teaching at SweetHome and found those students to be fairly intolerant and immature. Granted that was a small slice at 6 weeks, but I much preferred the climate in BPS (at least with the students).
You can thank the media for this. It's only news because it IS Williamsvile - a bucolic suburban eutopia. Williamsville projects an image of perfect. When common flaws happen here, it's news. There is bullying in every school in America. If you don't believe that, you're are kidding yourself. That said, this is hardly an epidemic at any of the Williamsville schools. I asked my son, who is a Sr at South about bullying and he laughed. He said this is the friendliest school he'd ever been to. He's attended suburban schools in DFW and Austin and came up here for his Sr year.
With regards to diversity, I take exception to your theory "little diversity = sheltering the children" and I must ask you what is ideal? Would it be better if no more than 50% of the students were white? Should they bus inner-city minorities to the schools to get that mix right? I can't fathom this concept or how you equate it to sheltering. We will indeed disagree here.
Focusing on diversity seems a lot less important than having your child attend a great school, regardless of the racial makeup of said school. I went through K-12 all Williamsville and it was less "diverse" from 1979-1992 than it is now. I came through it ok. I have friends from a variety of races and walks of life as an adult.
Glad to hear someone who does not feel the world needs to be tossed in a blender for proper PC diversity. I fully agree with you. Best of luck to your son for his senior year.
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