NJ public school question

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Friends of a friend plan to re-locate to NJ from Kenya to work in New York City. They are looking for a good public school district for their children. Ideally, it would be diverse, but the students of color (which their kids are) would be middle or upper class. I have sent them several lists ranking top NJ schools, but ethnicity data doesn’t tell the whole story about the African-American population, and that is a concern for them. Any ideas from you NJ folks?</p>

2

<p>Montclair or South Orange/Maplewood are the 2 districts that are most diverse with decent schools and nearby comutes to NYC. Both are in Essex County and property taxes are obscene.</p>

3

<p>Edison (larger community broken up by various boroughs/districts) and Metuchen (small town with a vibrant main street appeal) in Middlesex County, come to mind. Great Schools, Nice, Diverse, Middle & Upper class communities each with train stations supporting NJ Transit. Easy 45minute commute to NY Penn Station.</p>

4

<p>Thanks so much for the suggestions! Any opinion on Millburn or Basking Ridge? I know the districts are good, but am unsure of the diversity.</p>

5

<p>My SIL lived in Basking Ridge. It’s a lovely town but not diverse at all.</p>

6

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<p>I am very familiar with both school districts. Basking Ridge is not diverse. Millburn/Short Hills is more diverse, but still not a large African-American population. South Orange/Maplewood does have a large AA population, but the school district isn’t as good as some others.</p>

7

<p>I grew up in Tenafly, NJ. Excellent schools, much closer to NYC than the other places mentioned, and diverse – ~25% Asian, but only 1.5% African-American.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.tenaflynj.org/filestorage/7596/8036/2010_Municipal_Profile_Tenafly__2_.pdf[/url]”>http://www.tenaflynj.org/filestorage/7596/8036/2010_Municipal_Profile_Tenafly__2_.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Millburn would be good</p>

<p>Sent from my SCH-I535 using CC</p>

9

<p>I would echo Montclair or SO/Maplewood. To my knowledge, Milllburn, though a highly regarded school district, is much less diverse.</p>

10

<p>Millburn is a lovely town to live in. Diverse? I don’t think so.</p>

11

<p>Montgomery would be better for diversity, but not by much</p>

<p>Sent from my SCH-I535 using CC</p>

12

<p>We’ve been very happy with Summit. Significantly more diverse than neighboring towns, very good train schedule to mid-town, and very good school. We moved to NJ when S2 was in the middle of 10th grade. He’s now a college junior at a top 10 LAC. Demographics of Summit High School from what I can tell: 6% Asian, 7% Black, 17% Hispanic, 70% White. Compare this with Millburn: 16% Asian, 2% Black, 3% Hispanic, 79% White.</p>

13

<p>Try Morristown and Scotch Plains too. Property taxes may be lower than Essex County’s Maplewood and Montclair. Just do a wiki for the city to get the population by race as per 2010 census data.</p>

14

<p>Morristown taxes are surely lower than Essex county, but they’re certainly not low.
It’s a great place to raise the kids, absolutely.
The schools are good and there is nice diversity in the population</p>

15

<p>Millburn is about as un-diverse as you can get and is a cut-throat school district. We lived there when we first moved to NJ and I had no interest subjecting my kids to that kind of pressure.</p>

<p>Diversity does not come to mind when I think of Basking Ridge and it’s not an easy commute to NYC.</p>

<p>The South Orange/Maplewood school district is diverse and offers lots of opportunity. One recent class has 4 grads at Harvard, another one was accepted, but choose Yale instead. Generally 3-5 kids/year out of a class of 450-475 go to Ivys if that’s important to you. The music & art program is top notch and sends many kids every year to top music theater and other audition-admission programs.</p>

16

<p>I live in NJ near many of the towns being tossed about and my husband has commuted to NYC on the train for the past 30 years - so here is my take - Edison is mostly Asian (specifically Inidan), Millburn is the top school district in the state and is an extremely non-diverse elitist community, Basking Ridge is slightly diverse (the minority would be Asian) but as stated not easy to commute to NYC, Montclair is not diverse at all, South Orange, Maplewood and Summit are diverse and on the train line, Scotch Plains is a nice blue-collar type town but no train line, Morristown is very diverse (a broad range of ethnicities) and on a train line.</p>

17

<p>I can’t agree with you that Montclair is not diverse at all. The facts speak otherwise:</p>

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18

<p>Summit’s diversity in it’s school statistics comes from a pocket of older multi-family homes near the train station & Overlook Hospital that are rental properties. I would not consider it a diverse community with regards to home-ownership. (it is a lovely downtown and has very good train service).</p>

19

<p>Every town in NJ has its own personality and “look” so it is hard to choose. However, if commutablity is important, be prepared to pay way too much. I’m in that “cut-throat” place, and it been fine. I love my house and my neighbors, and the schools were really good. The cut-throat thing can be attributed to crazy parents. And I can be in the city in 35 minutes. The trade-off is that I’m in a small old house on a postage stamp lot. I have always loved Westfield and Cranford. Don’t know much about their demographics, but their schools have an excellent reputation and are on a train line. Also, New Providence. Good luck in the search.</p>

20

<p>Edison also has a large Chinese population. I agree with garland Montclair is a diverse town.</p>