East Penn and Parkland SD (Emmaus, Milford: house, neighborhoods, school districts)

[kmom]

Which is the better one of the 2? I went into both website. East Penn seem to have lots more such as anti-bullying, tip-off hot line etc....

[Matt_PSU]

I went to parkland and have friends that teach at both. Honesty I think it is a tossup and depends largely on which elementary and middle school your kids will go to. I would give Parkland the edge because of the newer high school and greater resources. Some say that the honors program is better at East Penn. Some of the east penn elementary schools are not as good as others either (like alburtis). Parkland might be a hair cheaper too, although east penn has a larger number of affordable homes in the lower ranges.

When I was in school I honestly thought the drug culture at east penn was much worse than parkland, but things may have changed since then.

[toobusytoday]

I don't think you can go wrong at either one. Perhaps I'm remembering wrong but don't you just need a place for a few years and your kids are elementary school age? If that's the case, just find a nice house within the boundaries of either district and go with it. There really is no "the best". You could go to a really great elementary school and have a great teacher that goes on maternity leave....

[kmom]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

You could go to a really great elementary school and have a great teacher that goes on maternity leave....

You have great memory. Yes, my kids are going to elementery school

[graysmom8]

Well, I taught First Grade in PSD (before becoming a SAHM) and thought they had a lot of quality programs.

We chose to live in Upper Milford Twp (EPSD) because our taxes were lower. My husband also grew up in the EPSD and we like the town of Emmaus better.

Parkland and EP are both excellent school districts. It's a "6 in one, half dozen in the other" kind of question if you ask me.

Some things to consider:

1. EP is mostly centered around the town of Emmaus (recently named one of the top 100 best small towns to live in) whereas Parkland is not really in a town, mostly parts of townships, so there isn't a real sense of "community" that we find here in Emmaus.

2. Yes Parkland has a very nice newer HS, but it is almost at capacity again, so they are looking at the possiblity of redistricting, which means your taxes might be going even higher to help pay for a second new HS.

3. From my experiences, PSD students (MS/HS) seemed to have a more snooty attitude.

[jeffvivian]

kmom

You can't go wrong with either School District.

[iamcoko]

Is East Penn also having similar issues with needing to build a new high school to accommodate all the new neighborhoods?

[Matt_PSU]

Originally Posted by iamcoko

Is East Penn also having similar issues with needing to build a new high school to accommodate all the new neighborhoods?

They chose to overhaul/remodel their high school in the 90's rather than build a new one. I believe they're pretty full right now. Time will tell if that was the best strategy. East penn prob. grew a bit more because of their proximity to I78. And yes, parkland is already full.

As the mod said, you can't really go wrong except for a few elementaries in east penn. Also steer clear of alburtis.

[SmithsonGA]

How do these districts compare to Southern Lehigh?

[toobusytoday]

Parkland and East Penn score better then Southern Lehigh, but not much better. SL is a much smaller school district and has smaller schools. The advantage to the larger schools is there are more classes for the kids to choose from in HS but it's probably harder to make the sports teams/ performing arts, etc. OTOH, our soccer team, basketball team, hockey team and lacrosse are very good. You can compare the numbers for yourself on schoolmatters.com. We just renovated our HS in the last few years building a new wing, new gymnasium and new cafeteria. In 2009 a 4-6 grade building will be complete.

Demographics will probably be similiar with SL showing slighty better stats.