Ossining SD... Any info will help (Highland: house prices, school district, college)

[Mvillegrad]

We currently live in a nice section of the Bronx and our daughter will start Kind in the Fall. We will pay tuition for a parochial school, but are in the process of looking for a home in Westchester County. Besides the usual 'hot spots' where we could not afford even .01 acre of the land, I wanted to know if anyone knew anything about the Ossining school district? The house prices seem reasonable, for a starter home, and the taxes are not over the top.
The commute would be tolerable to Queens, NY, where I presently work. If the commute starts to wind me down, I can easily switch jobs, as I work in Education and am bilingual Spanish.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We really didn't want to move further North than that.

[Whattaplace]

I grew up in Ossining and my mother still lives there. There are two municipalities in Ossining: the village of Ossining, and the Town of Ossining. The taxes in the town are lower than the village. The population mix has changed over the years with a lot of spanish moving in and blacks seem to be moving out. So teaching in Ossining would be right up your ally since you speak spanish. The dividing line in Ossining is Highland Ave (Rt 9). Below that is known as the bad part of town, above that, the good side of town. That would be a long commute to Queens though. UG. I don't know about the schools and I went there 25 years ago so I won't be able to help you there, but once again everything is better up the hill away from downtown. By the way, J. Lo's mother lives off S. Highland Ave in Charter Circle.

[jyyanks]

My brother lives in Ossning and he's planning to send his kids to parochial school. Based on this month's copy of Westchester magazine, here are Ossning's stats
1) 35% of HH have at income of over 100K
2) 29.2% pf adults have a BA
3) groos per pupil expenditure $20,238
4) School enrollement 1352. Senior class size 290
5) average class size 25
6)% limited english proficiency - 10
7)Avg Sat/Math/verbal/writing - 1563/528/523/512
8)% of sweniors taking AP courses - 20
9)% of 4 year graduation rate - 90
10)% of graduates who go on to college - 90
11) % of teachers with MA or pHD - 57

It is ranked above peekskill, mount vernon, yonkers, portchester, new rochelle, white plains and sleepy hollow
I know thsst doesn't tell you much since you don't know their criteria for ranking (I think its based on income) but its an ok school district. I do think the commute to Queens would be quite a treck. You're almost better off considering somthing further South and sending your kids to parochial school. Good Luck.

[bcesprit]

Ossining elementary school is good. There is a good and bad side to the middle and high schools. It offers an experience in diversity but some parts of it I would take a pass.