Westmont Junior High (Chicago, Naperville, Arlington Heights: low income, apartments, to rent)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Can anyone give me their input? We are considering the Blackhawk area of Clarendon Hills.. I see mostly younger kids in the hood there.. wondering if people tend to move as the kids get older because of schools.
I live very close to the area you are considering. I would not worry too much about not seeing older kids -- the way high schoolers spend their time at school for things like band or sports one rarely sees high schoolers in front of their homes except when hopping on an early bus or getting dropped off regardless of whether they attend Westmont High, or one of the Catholic High Schools. Frankly even in the parts of town covered by Hinsdale High Schools high schoolers are not a common sight to just be milling about -- kids are in sports / activities ...
Westmont Jr. High is very convenient for kids in the Oakwood Subdivision but everyone else rides the buses. Schedule wise that may be something that adds on to their day and/or necessitates mom or dad providing rides.
I would be very sure that the value you are getting with a purchase in Blackhawk Heights has been compared to other sections in north Westmont. There is a fairly wide range of housing and you need to really evaluate the total value, including taxes.
I'm also curious about the schools in Westmont, so if anyone has any first hand knowledge (or general knowledge, I'm not picky) I would love to hear it. Actually, I want to know anything anyone can tell me about living in Westmont in general. I am not super familiar with the suburbs in that area; the most time I've spent in them was just driving through.
I found a house in Westmont that I love. It is in district 201; J T Manning Elementary, Westmont Junior High School and Westmont High School. I've noticed that the higher home prices in Westmont tend to be the houses in the Hinsdale Central school district. So, I wonder how much of a discount being in the Westmont district warrants.
In the past, my parents built a house in Bloomingdale only to find out that we were in the Glendale Heights school district, which is/was not well rated. Ironically though, my parents, my sisters and I agree that we got a better education in those "bad" schools than we did in St. Charles when we moved. My youngest sister was definitely ahead of her classmates and came home telling us that they were learning things she learned 2 or 3 years prior.
So, while "bad" schools don't really bother me, I don't want to be screwed on resale in 15 years because of them, either. When my husband and I move we want to buy our "forever" house and don't want to move again for a very long time. So, getting the location right is a big deal to us. I am pretty confident that parental involvement in a kids education is one of the most important things and I believe that can overcome a lot of minor issues with a school. I don't think my (future) kids need to be in the absolute best district in the state to get a good education. That said, I don't want to send them to schools I know are terrible either, and I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by purchasing one of the nicest homes in an area where it simply isn't worth it even though we intend to stay a long time.
I've tried looking at the school report cards, but I don't think test scores really tell much of the story. I was shocked that schools I was so sure were great don't meet the state standards. Heck, even St. Charles East has watch status, and that's the school we moved to attend. All of the middle schools in St. Charles are on the "bad" list as well. So yeah, those things don't hold all that much weight for me.
First, let me reiterate the point I have said hundreds of times when it comes to shopping for any home in the region -- make sure you evaluate all the immeadiate and likely costs of homes in the BEST area you can afford. Folks who do that will, in good markets and ore challenging times, do much better with hosing dollar than those that get buffetted by factors that could have been anticipated.
Ok specifics on Westmont High first -- it is currently undergoing a pretty extensive renovation, especuially for a building that was not really built all that long ago by public school standards. There are details on both the D201web site -- Spring Newsletter It ought to dramatically alter the apperance from both inside the classrooms and for neighbors. There has been a much improved emphasis to the current realities of college level readiness that reflects the need for greater success in AP level courses and responsiveness to the desire for students / parents to have appropriate support to tackle those challenges and still enjoy vacations / sports.
The similar Westmont Jr High, right across the street from the High School is similarly working to improve achievement. The results of the state mandated tests have not compared very favorably, especially when looking at the very solid performance of some of the surrounding areas.
Last edited by chet everett; 07-09-2012 at 11:53 AM..
Whoops forgot to address why the gaps in performance exist.
The results of the state mandated tests have not compared very favorably, especially when looking at the very solid performance of some of the surrounding areas. I suppose the standard "excuses" about performance following along with incomes are the bigggest factor, though Westmont is not "disadvantaged" so much as just surrounded by mostly VERY costly areas.
When it comes to the performance at Manning (or the other school, Miller) they are quite acceptable by mainstream suburban standards.
The issues that I suspect is a bit of a "hidden factor" for the poor performance at the high school level is the relative percentage of kids that really are trying to earn signficant money to help out their families or just "feel more grown up" in comparison to the kids in surrounding areas being more reliant on the parents. While the percentage of low income kids is actually higher at the Jr. High the fact is those kids can't hold a job, they go to class and truancy is basically very low. In contrastt at the high school level, where kids can legally hold a job, the truancy rate in several years has exceeded 2.5%, which I what I have found does have a negative impact on the school environments. Commbined with a mobility factor of over 10% (again, what I have found is a red flag...) that points to familes with some signficant hurdles. Now there are those that say having that kind of "diversity" is what they want for their kids but having been a teacher I gotta say it is heartbreaking to see kids that probably are equally bright give up on school becuase they see no way to bridge the gulf between feeling obligated to help out with expenses / move someplace cheaper / split households and the near necessity of going on for a college degree...
What would I do? As I will always say, if you can afford to rent (or buy) in a higher performing district and schools are important to you that would be mmy top choice even if it meant a smaller home. I think this is especially true for kids with special challenges. Maybe if my child was especially resilient and likely to do VERY well no matter what was happening around them I would push a little less hard for the best performing disrtrict. If one is inclined to go to the private school route anyhow then maybe the fact that you get more house for the money would be offset, though factoring property taxes and reduced liklihood of gains on resale I would not exactly rest easy.
What would I do? As I will always say, if you can afford to rent (or buy) in a higher performing district and schools are important to you that would be mmy top choice even if it meant a smaller home. I think this is especially true for kids with special challenges. Maybe if my child was especially resilient and likely to do VERY well no matter what was happening around them I would push a little less hard for the best performing disrtrict. If one is inclined to go to the private school route anyhow then maybe the fact that you get more house for the money would be offset, though factoring property taxes and reduced liklihood of gains on resale I would not exactly rest easy.
Thanks for the information, Chet! (I cut the post just to save on space)
What I am finding so hard about the whole thing is what you bring up in your last paragraph. My husband and I don't have kids yet, so we have no idea how they will be. If the two of us are any indication, our kids will be nerdy and very good at doing school work and getting good grades, but with little athletic ability. We're geeks and neither of us had to try very hard in school to make the honor roll/dean's list. But, just because we are that way is no guarantee of anything.
Ugh, decisions, decisions.
If anyone has thoughts about things other than the schools in Westmont, I would love to hear those. A friend of mine told me yesterday that Westmont is the ghetto of DuPage County. Hard to believe given that Glendale Heights, Hanover Park, Villa Park, etc. are part of DuPage County as well, but what do I know? Maybe there's some dark part of Westmont that I am not aware of.
It is not "ghetto". There are cerrtainly LOTS of nice homes and no real "trouble spots" but their is a legacy of more modestly priced homes and more folks with a bit of a more blue-collar ethic. Even among the folks that do work downtown and take the BNSF to work I would say it is more likely that they'd stop in one of Westmont's many "tap rooms" than folks in pretty much any other town in DuPage along the BNSF. It is maybe a little bit like Berwyn or Chicago's Pilsen area back when it still had signficant numbers of Eastern Europeans. I find some similarity to the parts of Lisle that are not served by Naperville schools or the areas south of Western Springs that are served by Lyons Township.
It really is not so much race as the sort of history of how the town has just valued things differently. Even the youth baseball field just south of the Westmont's Park District HQ is telling in that it is is plastered with the kind of "best wishes" ads from local businesses that sponsor kids teams as opposed to the more corporate type support that has become the norm in other areas.
If you don't have kids yet this is all VERY speculative, but the realization that even among folks that may themselves have gone to Westmont High that is just too hard to say "you can do alright in life without a solid base of college preporatory classes" and insist that more challenging classes / higher standards are needed point to a move that ought to be more encouraging.
Last edited by chet everett; 07-09-2012 at 02:51 PM..
I grew up in Oak Brook and Downers Grove, both of which border Westmont. Sure, the schools aren't that great compared to most of the districts around them. But your friend is absolutely way off about it being the ghetto of Du Page. It wasn't atrocious to begin with, but Ty Warner Park is lovely and has definitely improved the area, drawing a quality crowd. There was a hotel that absolutely drew seedy people and frequent police visits that no longer exists, and Standard Market has also been a nice addition. So good things seem to be happening there. But whether that bodes well for the schools long-term? No clue.
We live in Arlington Heights and a group of people from our church moved down to Westmont to start a church.. it is a nice blue collarish town.. much more down to earth than it's neighbors. Our friends are all educated "got their act together" people. And.. at this point only have young kids and are homeschooling.. but they'd be homeschooling if they were in Hinsdale too. We are also looking to move there and are considering Holy Trinity Catholic School for our 2nd grader.. we prefer he be in a Christian school setting.
Haven't had much luck finding anything house-wise.. all our friends live walking distance to each other and walking distance to downtown.. they have a great community there with each other.
My sister lived in Blackhawk and loved that the neighborhood was filled with young children. Many of her neighbors enrolled their children at Notre Dame down Chicago Ave about a mile. But just as many did move, not only for what they considered "better" schools but for larger homes. My sister moved to north Downers where she felt more comfortable investing double the money for a larger property because for better or worse those test scores effect property values. That's why often people skip Westmont, they buy a higher ranked school. I think that's a large factor in what Chet advised to " buy the BEST area you can afford"? But of course what you can afford may be relative too as well as how long you want to commute since there are higher ranked schools where there are many choices in the same price range as the homes in Blackhawk. If the 3 bedrooms in Westmont are at the top of your budget and you've determined that this is the furthest you want to commute, this may be the BEST you can afford but if you are looking there because the larger homes are considerably less then you may want to take a step back and figure out if you are buying the BEST area or the biggest house. The stakes are high as many who have lost so much in the housing crash can tell you. On the flip side, my son has a couple good soccer friends who attend the public schools and are bright young boys with parents whose feel they are getting a decent education and who get involved to assure it remains that way. School boards meet regularly as do PTO's so you can attend meetings, meet involved parents, and get that first hand knowledge. That would be my suggestion along with a visit to the school. We use Ty Warner park on a weekly basis, it is an amazing addition to the area. The Ogden corridor has evolved too as another post mentioned but there are factors such as the transient nature, also mentioned, that are very difficult to overcome. The downtown struggles to attract residents and retain businesses, it isn't the destination that other downtown centers in close proximity are. There is a large apartment presence in Westmont, a few surrounding schools have few, if any, apartments. They are a much smaller jr high and high school than most of the neighboring towns so a handful of children that may not have the same foundation if new to the area or just perform poorly on standardized test hurts their test scores more proportionately than larger schools. Every area has its pros and cons. Make sure you go into any purchase with your eyes wide open and feel right about any compromise you make to the wish list. You are obviously trying to do your due diligence.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
