House of the Day: 202 15th Street
This ole South Slope woodframe is very cute and looks to have been lovingly maintained. It last changed hands back in August 2004 for $920,000 and is on the market for $1.2 million. We’ve got no idea if the current owner made any significant improvements but at $600 a foot, this has to be pushing…
This ole South Slope woodframe is very cute and looks to have been lovingly maintained. It last changed hands back in August 2004 for $920,000 and is on the market for $1.2 million. We’ve got no idea if the current owner made any significant improvements but at $600 a foot, this has to be pushing the upper bounds for the area. That said, we all know the square foot metric isn’t always the more useful when looking at smaller houses, where layout can play such a crucial role. What do the South Slopers think of this price?
202 15th Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
I live in Windsor Terrace and have for the past 20 years. I dont drive and can do all my grocery shopping, dry cleaning, and local errands within a 5 minute walk and Im zoned for one of the best elementary schools in Bklyn.
Its not a cheap area but you get a lot for your money.
Anyone who thinks you have to live in a bad nabe or send your kids to private school b/c you live in brooklyn, doesnt know enough about brooklyn. Not surprising since most of todays brooklyn residents look down on any neighborhood that doesnt have a starbucks…but a shame just the same.
The zoned NYC public elementary school for this house is P.S. 124 Silas Dutcher School / 515 4th Avenue
It gets high marks (and has high test scores) from insideschools.org
I’ve been teaching for about fifteen years. I’ve taught at both public and private schools. I’ve seen poor schools produce extremely bright and well-prepared students, and I’ve seen excellent schools produce poor students.
AT LEAST as important as the school itself, in my opinion, is the parents’ attitude toward education. If you are enthusiastic about education and your child gets to participate in your intellectual life, nothing will spur his or her intellectual growth more than this. Many of you will pooh pooh this, and I myself would never have expected the parents’ attitude to be so influential in this respect, but it is. This is the one thing that my years as a teacher has confirmed at every turn.
4:42 here…
Jess, I have to say that I think you are being a bit dramatic with the talk of “gambling on my kids education” by sending them to the zoned elementary school in park slope.
Of course I did my homework. Not only did I peruse http://www.insideschools.org, I visited many schools, met the administration, talked with other parents, etc. I weighed all of the data very carefully, and we went for it.
Were we a bit nervous at first? Yes! Was this even a semi-decent school five years ago? Probably not! But our concerns and fears were assuaged within the first few weeks, and this is now our third year at this school. We are extremely pleased with the education that our kids are getting. And, for the most part, we like the other schoolkids and their parents too.
I personally don’t think that a child will necessarily have less of a chance at an Ivy-league type education by attending a NYC public elementary school. You are implying (actually stating) that it is “risky.” Well, I respectfully disagree.
Now, the middle schools and high schools are a different deal, but that’s another debate. And we are now doing heavy research on middle schools, and we have three to choose from within our zone that will probably work out just fine.
I’m reluctant to single out our school because I’d love for everyone to think that it’s their local school that’s improving and worth checking out, but it’s PS11 on Waverly in Clinton Hill.
That’s very nice of you to say, but if I accept the compliment I’m doing a disservice to the parents who spearheaded the effort and rolled up their sleeves a couple of years before our kids were old enough for pre-k. I’m embarrassed to say that I did very little in comparison with about a dozen other parents who really took charge, but I did what I could by supporting them and staying at the school when things were looking pretty bleak.
When my son was a baby I went to a speech given by Carmen Farina (who recently retired as deputy chancellor after 40 years working in the public school system), who said that all it takes is 15 committed parents to turn a school around. I didn’t really believe her at the time, but she was absolutely right.
Amy,
which school is it that you are referring to. i would like to be part of this transition. I have a 3 year hoping to apply for pre-K this march for sept.
TY
Amy, you are an inspiration to me. Truly. When we have a child, I hope to find like-minded parents in our neighborhood to partner up with in the way you did with your friends. But then I care as much about my child developing a strong committment to public service, as I care about their intellectual development.
I don’t think that’s the way to go. Based on the facts and statistics of my son’s school as they were before he was there, I would have stayed away. It was an uninviting place where many teachers were unhappy and the students were getting shortchanged.
It’s also a gamble to let your local school remain so-so and stand by as it churns out uninspired students. The best way to keep the haves and have nots of Brooklyn separate is for the more affluent, educated parents to send their kids to private schools or schools in other neighborhoods, so that the neighborhood parents and kids don’t know each other and don’t interact.
I’m not going to try to plug public schools over private; I think it’s an apples-to-elephants kind of thing. I just think that many opportunities are lost when a large group of parents all compete for a small number of spots in crowded elementary schools outside of their own neighborhoods, when there are so many schools just waiting for attention.