Looking for info on Colfax and/or Minadeo schools in Squirrel Hill (Pittsburgh: new home, neighborhoods)

[lori00515]

I am moving from Boston to Pittsburgh with my husband and 3 kids (ages 7, 5, and 2). My husband will be working at UPMC (Presbyterian) in Oakland. He wants to live right near where he is working - and I want great schools for our kids. I have been doing research on the internet and looking through posts on City-Data. If we live in Pittsburgh proper I think we will focus on Squirrel Hill. I think that there are 2 elementary schools that Squirrel Hill residents are assigned to - Colfax or Minadeo. I assume kids are assigned to one or the other based on address - is this correct?

And can anyone with kids currently enrolled at either of these schools tell me what they are like:
1. the facilities (is there a gym? cafeteria? how old is the school? does it look run down on the inside or has it been spruced up over the years? is there a playground? ball field/grass playing area?)
2. the classes (what is the class size? how many classrooms for each grade? how many students total? do the kids get music class? art? computer? gym? foreign language? any other special classes? is there a morning program or afternoon program? are there activities for kids to join - soccer? girl scouts? lego club? etc?)
3. the staff (are families generally happy with the teachers? the principal?)
Anything else people would say (positive or negative) about these two schools?
Thank you in advance for any insight/advice/opinions!

[robrobrob]

IF you want a quick answer you could do a search. I think a poster has kids that go to Colfax. From memory he/she is pretty happy. Might be scrapp?

[eschaton]

The line between Colfax and Minadeo runs roughly along Parkway. North of this is Colfax, which is also the school for a section of Point Breeze/Point Breeze North, Shadyside, and East Liberty south of Penn Avenue. South of this line is Minadeo, which also includes Swisshelm Park, Regent Square, the remainder of Point Breeze/Point Breeze North, and also segments of Hazelwood and Homewood (two fairly bad neighborhoods).

Minadeo is generally considered a worse school, as test scores are lower. However, this is entirely due to the demographic differences between the two schools. Minadeo is 46% black , 37% white, and 6% Asian, while Colfax is 48% white and 32% black, and 10% Asian. White and black children score identically at both schools (although as everywhere, there is a test score gap).

Colfax is a K-8, while Minadeo is a K-5. Minadeo students go to Sterrett for 6-8. Both schools have a lot of parents migrate their kids to the 6-12 magnets (CAPA, Obama, and Sci-Tech) at grade six, so there's a bit of a brain drain at that point. Sterrett is overwhelmingly black as a result (71%), but Sterret does about the same as Colfax on the PSSA scores for reading, and better on math, since black eighth graders there do better than at Colfax.

I do not have children enrolled, so the rest will have to wait. We do have a sometimes poster who subs at these schools, and has a very low opinion of the principal at Minadeo, but that's about all I know.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by eschaton

also segments of Hazelwood and Homewood (two fairly bad neighborhoods).

Did you mean Hazelwood and New Homestead? Homewood is a long way from Minadeo.

[Goodjules]

When I was thinking of moving to Pittsburgh in 2006 my kids were still in school. The school district provided me with detailed block by block info on neighborhood school borders. Very helpful if you're considering a home near the border of two different schools. If memory serves both schools you're considering are good ones. I ended up not moving in 2006 and my kids are young adults now. I'll be moving later this month. Good luck!

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by eschaton

The line between Colfax and Minadeo runs roughly along Parkway. North of this is Colfax, which is also the school for a section of Point Breeze/Point Breeze North, Shadyside, and East Liberty south of Penn Avenue. South of this line is Minadeo, which also includes Swisshelm Park, Regent Square, the remainder of Point Breeze/Point Breeze North, and also segments of Hazelwood and Homewood (two fairly bad neighborhoods).

Does Linden no longer count as a Squirrel Hill school (i.e., an Allderdice feeder school)?

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by jay5835

Does Linden no longer count as a Squirrel Hill school (i.e., an Allderdice feeder school)?

Linden is a full magnet school. On certain places on the website, it says that those in the "feeder pattern" get preference but have to apply, but the magnet guide says nothing about this.

[scrapp]

robrobrob is correct, we do have kids at Colfax (currently 2 there now, the oldest is now at SciTech). This is our sixth year at Colfax... I can answer your questions for Colfax, but I don't know enough about Minadeo to help with that school.

1. facilities: Colfax has two buildings joined by a bridge. The old building is a bit over 100 years old. The new building is about 5 years old and was built when Colfax was switched from a K-5 school to a K-8 school. The gym, cafeteria, instrumental music room, and middle school classrooms are in the new building. The K-5 classrooms, main office, gifted suite, library, general music room, and pool are in the old building. Both buildings seem in reasonable shape to me (there are a lot of 100 year old buildings and houses in Squirrel Hill). Colfax has a playground... the PTO had to raise money to pay for the lower playground equipment as Pittsburgh Public Schools has a policy not to use District money for that. Part of the playground is a turf that you can play some ball-type games on, but Colfax is land constrained so there isn't enough space to a full sized ball field. Frick Park is across the street, so sometimes the students get to walk over there as a reward (e.g. to Blue Slide Park).

2. classes: average class sizes this year is 25. The number of classrooms ("rounds") per grade varies between 3 and 4. Total students = 709 (according the the district web site). In the lower grades (K-2) the classrooms are "self contained" (meaning that you have the same teacher for all your normal academic subjects). At grade 3 they "departmentalize" and you get different teachers for each academic subject (i.e. communications, math, science, social studies). The "related arts" are Music, Library, Gym, Art, and Spanish (Spanish starting at grade 4(?), I think). Colfax got a grant last year, so they have an iPad cart for each grade this year... I'm not sure how that is working out yet, since they just deployed it a month or two ago. There are chess classes during lunch for part of the year (we have a local chessmaster who teaches classes at a bunch of schools in the area, not just Colfax). The higher grades (maybe 4th and up?) started a ski club this year. The middle school has athletic teams (e.g. swimming, cross country, soccer). Colfax has two Gifted Resource Teachers in the building that help with that (all that is left of the district's Gifted Pilot Program). I don't know of any morning programs. For after school care, there is a bus to the Sq Hill JCC after school program than many working parents in the area use. Most parents do Soccer outside of school, usually through the Pittsburgh Dynamo league ( http://www.pittsburghdynamo.org/home.php ).

3. staff: we are generally happy with the teachers. I really like the principal.

There is more info in the Parent Handbook on the Colfax PTO Web site ( Pittsburgh Colfax PTO ... click on "Parent Handbook").

Also, you should be aware of some of the challenges that all the public schools in the area are facing. A great source of information is the Yinzercation Blog here:

News | Yinzercation | Yinzer Nation + Education = Yinzercation

The parent who writes that blog is a Colfax parent.

The other thing you should look at sooner rather than later is preschool options for your 2 year old (if you are considering that). Most of the ones in the area have waiting lists, so it may be worth getting on those lists now.

[lori00515]

Thank you to all who responded! This information is so helpful to us and we appreciate that you took the time to answer our questions!

[Sideblinded]

Minadeo has hit some bumps, the PTO is super involved and refusing to let it go. It is a source of pride and the neighborhood really cares and is very stubborn!

Colfax is nice but it is very overcrowed. It thins out 6-8.

Minadeo's PTO raised money to build a playground also. It is on Saline behind the school.