Is there Universal Pre-K in PA?

[KristyLiz]

Originally Posted by ambrazee

KristyLiz,

I had the impression that Parkland and East Penn were full of bedroom communities/developments, which we want to avoid. We prefer to be in a neighborhood where we can walk to essentials (like library, post office, grocery store, parks, etc) and not have to use the car to do everything. We also prefer old houses in a town/city with a town center/downtown area. To complicate matters, my husband's job is in Whitehall and he doesn't want to be south of Allentown because he doesn't want to commute across Allentown. Sigh. I really hope we can find what we're looking for.

Yes - Lower Mac is pretty much a sea of houses, so if that's not what you're looking for, then I would skip it.

My vote would be for Bethlehem - I really like their downtown.

Good luck!

[ambrazee]

Bethlehem, really? I thought I read on this forum somewhere that it didn't have a good school district? I am totally overwhelmed looking at school district stuff. I read the district/school sites for Nazareth, Parkland and a little of Whitehall-Coplay. The schools all seem so huge--6 K classes! Here in Albany there are....8 elementary schools (at least, I think I'm forgetting some) and the ones I looked at each had about 2 K classes.

[toobusytoday]

I think Kristy is mentioning Bethlehem because it really does have a nice downtown. You are right about the school district not being the best. Also, it is a city and it sounds like you would rather have a small town. Nazareth has 6 kindergarten classes? Since they only have two elementary schools, that could be possible but I can't imagine 6 at each. Oh, maybe they mean three morning and three afternoon. That would make sense.

[KristyLiz]

I really don't know of an area with a good school district that has a downtown that you can walk to. Emmaus - which is in the East Penn SD - but the housing within walking distance is limited.

What areas are in the parkland SD that would put you in walking distance of a downtown? Just curious.

[toobusytoday]

Emmaus, Macungie and Nazareth all have walkable downtowns - They're not going to be new homes but I think Ambrazee is looking for an older historic home. Coopersburg also has a walkable downtown, but I think we're also out of the commuting area. Parkland does NOT have a downtown area, although some part of Whitehall and some parts of West Allentown is in Parkland school district.

Let me know if I'm wrong Ambrazee, but your priority is a home with a good school district within short commuting distance for your husband and you would prefer a small town. I really don't know the boundaries of Whitehall-Coplay. There's a town of Whitehall (walkable) and then there is the mega shopping area that is also Whitehall - not really a place you would walk to. It really is a bit confusing but I hope your relocation person will help show you the boundaries on a map.

I think that Nazareth should work.

[ambrazee]

Yes, we love older, historic homes. When I say we're looking for a walkable neighborhood, I'm not necessarily saying a "downtown" if you know what I mean. Here in Albany we are not near downtown, but in our section of the city there are a lot of amenities that we can walk to (restaurants, the dry cleaner, banks, movie theater), so that I only use my car a couple of times a week, but we get out every day (walking to school, library, grocery store, park, etc). So, we want to be able to walk to some things, and we do prefer a town that has a town center, rather than a bedroom community. Oh, and we don't mind living in a city (we do now), but it just seems like living in a city is not really an option in the Lehigh Valley b/c of the SD's, so what we prefer is a town with a dedicated town center rather than a bedroom community or development.

I was looking at the Nazareth website, and there are 3 elementary schools. I looked at the website specific to 2 of the elementary schools and Shafer for instance (which is the elementary school for the houses we're interested in) has 6 K classes (as does Bushkill another elem in Naz SD) and they appear to offer full-day K according to the K schedules laid out by the teachers.

There seem to be some nice, older homes in Whitehall, so we plan to check those out, too. The guy who my husband is replacing lived in the Northampton SD, I think, and had positive things to say about Whitehall and its SD. We did see on a map that a nice park was nearby some of the houses we saw listed. I think it will all be clearer once we go down for a visit, which we hope to do next week.

[KristyLiz]

Isn't relocating fun!

It's so hard to get the scoop on an area before you visit. Good luck with your trip down here and let us know if you have other questions.