Pat-Med School District-Edited To "How to Determine A Good School District"

Can anyone share their knowledge of Patchogue Medford School District? Is it a good one to buy in...both for resale and for education?

Message edited 8/19/2008 8:46:09 PM.

Re: Pat-Med School District

I went to Pat Med. It is a good school district, but the 'atmosphere' has started to deteriorate in the past years-but that is mostly in the HS (my sister just graduated).

Over all, I would personally buy a house there (and we are looking in Pat Med), it is a nice area.

Message edited 8/18/2008 4:28:46 PM.

Re: Pat-Med School District

I'm in Pat-Med. My kids are little so I have no experience on the district yet. It is a big district like Sachem and I think it's middle of the road as far as districts go. My neighbors have all had good experiences and I have honestly never heard of a negative experience, besides it being very large.

Re: Pat-Med School District

I don't understand how schools get their reputation. Pat-Med student/teacher ratio is 16.5:1 and the amount of money they pay per student is higher than many other neighboring districts (ie Sayville/Bayport). No one I've spoken to has had or heard of negative experiences or sub-par education outcomes. The house I'm going into contract on has equal to or higher property taxes than the neighboring districts. So.....how do school districts get their reputation and what exactly is this based on if not the facts?

Re: Pat-Med School District

I just posted on the Parenting board in another post about Pat-Med.

I agree with Janine (and we graduated together ) the elementary schools and middle schools are great! The HS...there are excellent teachers and excellent programs...however some of the students are anothe story. As I wrote in the other post, there is a pretty big drug problem in the area which many people dont know about or ignore. There were several student who have died from drug overdoses or drunk driving accidents during and after high school. When I was in HS we had a few crazy instances of people bringing a gun into school and a couple of people getting stabbed/trying to stab someone. Pat-Med does great public relations.

I personally wouldnt buy a house in the area primarily b/c of the HS. Whether it has changed for the better of the past 10 yrs I can't say. I have friends who teach in the HS now who say it hasn't changed much.

Re: Pat-Med School District

Posted by jellybean1420

I just posted on the Parenting board in another post about Pat-Med.

I agree with Janine (and we graduated together ) the elementary schools and middle schools are great! The HS...there are excellent teachers and excellent programs...however some of the students are anothe story. As I wrote in the other post, there is a pretty big drug problem in the area which many people dont know about or ignore. There were several student who have died from drug overdoses or drunk driving accidents during and after high school. When I was in HS we had a few crazy instances of people bringing a gun into school and a couple of people getting stabbed/trying to stab someone. Pat-Med does great public relations.

I personally wouldnt buy a house in the area primarily b/c of the HS. Whether it has changed for the better of the past 10 yrs I can't say. I have friends who teach in the HS now who say it hasn't changed much.

Re: Pat-Med School District

Posted by KellyFG

Posted by jellybean1420

I just posted on the Parenting board in another post about Pat-Med.

I agree with Janine (and we graduated together ) the elementary schools and middle schools are great! The HS...there are excellent teachers and excellent programs...however some of the students are anothe story. As I wrote in the other post, there is a pretty big drug problem in the area which many people dont know about or ignore. There were several student who have died from drug overdoses or drunk driving accidents during and after high school. When I was in HS we had a few crazy instances of people bringing a gun into school and a couple of people getting stabbed/trying to stab someone. Pat-Med does great public relations.

I personally wouldnt buy a house in the area primarily b/c of the HS. Whether it has changed for the better of the past 10 yrs I can't say. I have friends who teach in the HS now who say it hasn't changed much.

Drugs are everywhere, the NCPD came forward recently to make people aware of the high use of heroin in the Massapequa/seaford/bellmore area.
When my son graduated from Connetquot in 2005, a handful of kids he knew well missed the graduation ceremony because they were in rehab.
Almost 20 years ago when I was in high school kids in my school drove from port jeff station to Ward Melville to buy drugs because the kids there had more money & better stuff. There are gangs in every school too.
Involved parents produce good children, the school district should play a very small part.

Re: Pat-Med School District

Re: Pat-Med School District

Longwood and Middle Country are both similar to Patchogue Medford in stats & demographics. There are many great, affordable homes in Selden, Centereach, Coram, Middle Island, Ridge.
School districts on LI are associated with property values, but if you paid less for your home because the district isn't on the top of "the list", you'd expect that the same savings would be passed on to the next buyer. KWIM?

My best tip for homebuyers considering areas they know nothing about is to drive through the neighborhood late on Friday night-are their people walking the streets, kids hanging out?, go to the shopping centers on Saturday-are you comfortable with the people you see as your neighbors? , drive around during the day on Sat or Sun-are people taking care of their yards, playing with their children? When school starts follow a school bus through your potential neighborhood, are parents meeting the kids at the stops, do you like the behavior of the children getting off the bus? Go to the library in the district, do they have good kid's programs? Are the young people of the community utilizing the library? School is starting & district offices are open, go in and ask to see their budget for the year, ask questions about services, sports and other things that maybe important to your family.
IMO as a mother of a 21 year old and 14 year old this information is much more important than anything you'll read in Newsday.
Good luck!

Re: Pat-Med School District

Posted by jellybean1420

I just posted on the Parenting board in another post about Pat-Med.

I agree with Janine (and we graduated together ) the elementary schools and middle schools are great! The HS...there are excellent teachers and excellent programs...however some of the students are anothe story. As I wrote in the other post, there is a pretty big drug problem in the area which many people dont know about or ignore. There were several student who have died from drug overdoses or drunk driving accidents during and after high school. When I was in HS we had a few crazy instances of people bringing a gun into school and a couple of people getting stabbed/trying to stab someone. Pat-Med does great public relations.

I personally wouldnt buy a house in the area primarily b/c of the HS. Whether it has changed for the better of the past 10 yrs I can't say. I have friends who teach in the HS now who say it hasn't changed much.

Re: Pat-Med School District-Edited To "How to Determine A Good School District"

Pat-Med, Longwood and Middle Country all have pretty decent preschool and school age special education programs. Just something else to consider when house hunting since you never know if your child will end up needed preschool/school age special education services.

Re: Pat-Med School District-Edited To "How to Determine A Good School District"

Posted by prncss

Posted by jellybean1420

I just posted on the Parenting board in another post about Pat-Med.

I agree with Janine (and we graduated together ) the elementary schools and middle schools are great! The HS...there are excellent teachers and excellent programs...however some of the students are anothe story. As I wrote in the other post, there is a pretty big drug problem in the area which many people dont know about or ignore. There were several student who have died from drug overdoses or drunk driving accidents during and after high school. When I was in HS we had a few crazy instances of people bringing a gun into school and a couple of people getting stabbed/trying to stab someone. Pat-Med does great public relations.

I personally wouldnt buy a house in the area primarily b/c of the HS. Whether it has changed for the better of the past 10 yrs I can't say. I have friends who teach in the HS now who say it hasn't changed much.

I have news for you, Smithtown School District, which is supposedly such a better district, has ALL the same problems in their high schools. EVERY SINGLE THING you posted about Pat-Med high school (the drugs, stabbings, etc.) happened in Smithtown schools, as well. I know, I was there.
This stuff goes on everywhere.

Re: Pat-Med School District-Edited To "How to Determine A Good School District"

I also went to school at Pat-Med. Graduated in 96. But my parents still live in Patchogue off of Roe Blvd my brother still lives in Patchogue the Village and also the town attorney and his office is also on South Ocean. My mother actually was born and raised in Patchogue so if anyone wants to know any history about Patchogue ask away!!

Denise

Re: Pat-Med School District-Edited To "How to Determine A Good School District"

Re: Pat-Med School District-Edited To "How to Determine A Good School District"

Comsewogue and Sachem are very similar to Pat Med. I went to Comsewogue (my youngest brother is still there) and worked in all three districts.

Re: Pat-Med School District-Edited To "How to Determine A Good School District"

My take on the whole SD thing:
IF you don't have school-aged children now, then what does it matter? Like Kelly said - if you bought the house for a "discount" because of the SD, then when you want to sell, you will pass on that same "discount." Just because a SD doesn't have a "stellar" reputation (and I don't even really know where these reps come from) doesn't mean its a bad SD. For the most part, all SDs on LI are excellent. And like I said in the beginning of the post - if you don't have school aged children, why does it matter, as long as you like the neighborhood you are looking at? Even if you had a kid tomorrow - it will be 5 years until that kid is in school - and who knows what your situation will be like in another 5 years. Also - as you can read from this thread - most people are concerned about high schools, not elemenary - so it will be over 10 years until that hypothetical child is in HS and you have no way of knowing what the state of ANY school district will be in that time frame. I think people place way too much emphasis on SD around here.

I went to one of the "stellar" SDs and I don't feel I got any better of an education than my peers who went to one that was considered "subpar." In addition, there were drugs, alcohol issues, and violence issues in my school. I also felt that it was WAY too competitive and parents were up the school's azz ALL the time, which doesn't necessarily make a great education.

Message edited 8/21/2008 9:53:35 AM.