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Now if you happen to live in a zoned area with a great kindergarten (such as P.S.6 on the UES) many local parents find that is an acceptable choice.
There is no guarantee their kid will get into PS 6 even if their neighborhood is zoned for that school. Imagine paying so much to move into the UES only to be put in the waitlist while a bunch of bureaucrats decide whether their kid should enroll somewhere else. I know a lot of families who learned this lesson the hard way after moving to Battery Park City.
There is no guarantee their kid will get into PS 6 even if their neighborhood is zoned for that school. Imagine paying so much to move into the UES only to be put in the waitlist while a bunch of bureaucrats decide whether their kid should enroll somewhere else. I know a lot of families who learned this lesson the hard way after moving to Battery Park City.
For an elementary school, it's rather large - 800 students (Roaring Brook in Chappaqua has 500) with average class sizes of 23-28. So yeah, that is how the DOE fixed the waitlist in PS 6, by enrolling more kids into the school, then leave it to the rich parents to pay for tutoring and after school "enrichment". Can't blame the DOE though. Demand for seats has grown faster than available spots. Someday DOE may fix the problem, but that does not help parents who need to enroll their kids today.
Your talking about the elite private schools. That I understand. I was responding to a post about sendingkids to sub-elite schools.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BugsyPal
Well for a certain demographic the answer to your query is "yes" certain private kindergartens are better than public.
We went though this on another thread several months back; for certain parents (especially the prep-school to Ivies set) the choice of nursery and kindergarten schooling is just as important as say high school level. Getting your kid into Convent of the Sacred Heart, 95th Street Y and the other top kindergartens is just as competitive as higher grades. Some feel by starting their children off right at such an early age it sets the stage for what is to come; the chaos of getting admitted to private elementary and prep school. No end of parents in Manhattan would kill to have their daughters wear that distinctive pinafore from CofSH kindergarten.
Now if you happen to live in a zoned area with a great kindergarten (such as P.S.6 on the UES) many local parents find that is an acceptable choice.
For an elementary school, it's rather large - 800 students (Roaring Brook in Chappaqua has 500) with average class sizes of 23-28. So yeah, that is how the DOE fixed the waitlist in PS 6, by enrolling more kids into the school, then leave it to the rich parents to pay for tutoring and after school "enrichment". Can't blame the DOE though. Demand for seats has grown faster than available spots. Someday DOE may fix the problem, but that does not help parents who need to enroll their kids today.
Yes, P.S.6 did get creative to solve their over crowding problem. However it also became more aggressive in making sure students who enrolled actually lived in the zone.
For years it was an open secret that P.S. 6 was not only a gem among NYC public elementary schools but often had a good number of empty seats. This was mainly but not totally due to many local parents sending their children to private schools. However as the local UES families with children population has boomed over the past decade or so *and* many discovering P.S. 6 is perfectly acceptable things have gotten tight.
So parents who live outside the district that once were able to slip in and or get waivers now are finding it difficult I shouldn't wonder. Local building help (supers, doormen, etc...) maids and others who worked in area were often easily able to come up with the rather puny demands for proof required.
Now your are, Forest Hills seems to be really having problems with over crowding/wait lists.
Now your are, Forest Hills seems to be really having problems with over crowding/wait lists.
Yes, but this is why I don't live in NYC anymore and send to private school. It's not just FH that's having a population issue. The same is true for the famed SD 26, Battery Park City, Park Slope as well as UES and UWS. One of my kid's classmates started in Rego Park (although she lived well within FH) and in her first day was sent to the principal's office by the overwhelmed teacher tending to 27 students when she cried on her first day. Sometimes, PTAs of rich neighborhoods can collect "miscellaneous" fees or hold fundraisers to pay for good TAs or another reading room and these costs run up to the thousands/ten thousands which is almost like paying tuition.
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