conuly: (Default)
conuly ([personal profile] conuly) wrote2011-09-04 11:20 pm
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Interesting note....

In my earlier post, when I mention "PS 70 in Queens", I'm not just giving more information for the sake of giving more information. In NYC, different public schools can share the same number, so long as they're in different boroughs. So it's important to state which PS 70 or whatever it is. The administrative code for PS 70 would be ??Q070, if it were in Staten Island it'd be 31R070 (R for Richmond), in Brooklyn it'd be ??K070 (for Kings County) and so on. As it happens, the only other 70 in the city is in the Bronx, so that'd be ??X070. (The question marks refer to the district number, which I only know for Staten Island.)

You go to elementary school and typically middle school in your district with a few exceptions: If you're in the gifted program, you can go to any gifted program school in your borough (and it's several districts per borough with the exception of Staten Island, we all have the same district and it overlaps into Brooklyn as well), and all the self-contained special ed classes are in the same district (district 75, even on Statne Island) instead of being regional.

You can get to go to a public school out of district if they have space available OR if your school is seriously low-performing (and the school you want has space available, they register children in their district first.

And sometimes two or more schools will share a building. This can work out well, or it can work out very very badly.

This all excludes discussion of charter schools (a whole freaking can of worms!) and the high school admissions process. (Not to mention non-public schools.) All of you living outside of NYC should thank your lucky stars (individually and by name) that you never have to deal with the NYC high school admissions process.

The other day, passing by Stuy towards this awesome playground, Ana went "Could I try that out and change if I don't like it?" and I said "Yes... maybe." The truth is that Stuy can be a crazy pressure cooker in the best of circumstances, and already I'm thinking maybe not the best choice for Ana. (Plus, honestly, the quality of the teaching isn't any better than at any other school. In some cases it can be worse, if the teachers expect the students to teach themselves everything.)
crystalpyramid: (Default)

[personal profile] crystalpyramid 2011-09-03 12:40 pm (UTC)(link)
This is a silly nitpick, but the Bronx is ??X###. Four years ago I taught at 10X434. When I left there were five schools sharing that building, which used to be Roosevelt High School.

Manhattan is M. And this map will show you all the districts — it seems really weird to me that Staten Island is the only borough that only has one.

crystalpyramid: (Default)

[personal profile] crystalpyramid 2011-09-03 03:03 pm (UTC)(link)
But Brooklyn's buses are just plain B. I wouldn't have guessed that Brooklyn's schools were K — that was news to me.

Yeah, I guess it is in fact obvious. Sorry for being anal!

Interesting--

[identity profile] marveen.livejournal.com 2011-09-03 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
--your schools don't have names?

I went to Tenino Elementary, graduated from Tumwater High. Granted, those are easy: one school in the town, name it after the town.

My ex-husband graduated from W.F. West High--named after a community founder. My current husband graduated from Charter Oak High.

[identity profile] sporks5000.livejournal.com 2011-09-16 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
I've always wondered: what are school buildings like in New York?

I'm used to south-western michigan where schools are generally built on a plot of land outside the city so that they can be single story structures made of corridors lined with class rooms stretching in every direction, generally with a gymnasium / cafeteria / office area functioning as a hub surrounding this is usually a parking lot (small for elementary schools and middle schools, but much larger for high schools) and other land dedicated to general purpose / sports related activities.

I've always had trouble imagining what changes would need to be necessary to fit the equivalent in a city such as New York.