Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions Westchester / Southern CT - really need help

I am seriosuly considering a move back to the Westchester / NYC / Southern CT area after several years in Charlotte. We had planned on staying in Charlotte for several more years and are looking at gifted programs, but since the boys are leaving their old school anyway I am now reconsidering and thinking that it might be less disruptive to have them only change school once.

I am under the impression that most of the "good" school districts in Westchester County do not have extensive gifted education programs. However, as my kids are not "off the charts" (139 SB and 148 WISC) mainstream school in a competitive district like Scarsdale might be very appropriate. OTOH, if there is a bigger, less prestigious (less expensive!) district that does offer a more comprehensive gifted program then I would like to know about it.

I have been doing research and normally I am very good at finding information, but I am having very little luck. Obviously, I don't want to be moving my children in and out of schools, so I'd like to get it right the first time.

I would love to hear any opinions.

Bump

Thanks for the bump matmum. I am still looking for this info. As far as I know, there are very few gifted programs in Westchester. I have seen references to programs in New Rochelle and Yonkers, but I am still unclear on what they consist of. The New Rochelle district site is difficult to navigate and I can't find any info. Maybe they used to have a program and it's been cancelled. Yonkers has a program called PEARLS, but the qualifying standards aren't spec'ed out. Yonkers school aren't great and if they are taking every child with a 120 I.Q. it might not be optimal for us (it would probably be OK, but to move to Yonkers for it probably isn't justified).

Greenwich has a program that sounds pretty good, the kids are partially mainstreamed but it seems like a good, structured program. Greenwich is just so expensive, though. We could swing something very modest there, but I am afraid there is a real culture around money and my kids (who by all normal standards are very privledged) would end up thinking they are not. I want them to approciate what they have. Also, I have first hand knowledge of a child in a Greenwich school who couldn't read and had some real and significant issues who consistently received A's and B's. The parents didn't realize anything was wrong (they were told by other people, but not the school and they didn't want to see it) until he scored < 10% on everything on a standardized exam.

Stamford kind of claims to have a program but, again, I can't find any info.

So any little bit of info would be very helpful, even if it's just about a school system in general and how they handle differing abilities.

I'll put this out there since you haven't gotten many replies. I know of a few HG kids that were in the Pelham school district (but this was 10+ years ago). Um, the parents were very happy with the schools and I know they have some joint stuff with Columbia (as in the can take classes there or something).

However, I also know the kids (not kids anymore!) and from what they've said the classes were still boring (although better than most) and there was a huge issue with being "poor" (this is coming from upper-middle class families) because of the ridiculous amount of affluence there.

I wish I could be of more help but I do know the parents specifically went there for the school district because that's the best one they could find.

I know nothing about this school, but it looks good on paper and Westport is beautiful. http://www.pierrepontschool.org/overview.html Most private schools offer financial aid. Might be worth a look.

Thanks all for the advice.

Pierrepont is 30k a year and $30k x 2 after taxes is out of reach for us. But probably not far enough out of reach for us to qualify for significant aid. I think that one is a non-starter.

newmom21C, I am familiar with Pelham. Several years ago I happened to run across a list of the colleges and universities that the HS grads were going on to and I was very, very underwhelmed. Not that attending a "name" school is the end all, but it was just a very CONSISTENTLY mediocre list. But after reading your post I will look into it. Thank you.

Hmm... I should say there are 2 schools there. I know one is significantly better than the other one. I can try and ask my friends and find out which is which. Maybe you were looking at the worse school?

The people I know there didn't go on to Ivy league schools (correction one is at Columbia) but are very, very successful in their careers. I know property taxes are horrible there but it doesn't hurt to check it out at least.