Best School District in PA

[jimmyrocks]

If you're really looking to commute to NYC every day, you should consider taking a bus into the Port Authority or something... I work in New York sometimes on weekends (concert photography), and I would never be able to make it there without the Buses!

Your best bet for transportation would have you in Hellertown or maybe up on the Hill in Easton or maybe Bethlehem township.

The traffic is definitely better at night though, so that might make it easier. Parkland and Emmaus are still a 30 minute drive to the NJ border though.

As far as school districts, yeah.. East Penn and Parkland are the best in the area, I have family teaching in both of them. I'm from Bethlehem, and I really liked the fact that Bethlehem had such a huge school district (4th largest in the state), although the population is more varied, and your kids will meet kids from families that are not economically well off.

I would not want to commute to new york daily from the more western areas. I think that with enough parental involvement, all the school districts in the Lehigh Valley are very good. (Opinions on Allentown SD may vary though)

There are a lot of more snobby kids in the Parkland schools too, a lot of the parents drop their kids off in their Mercedes with designer kid's clothes and the kids already know the brand names they like and stuff. It really an odd world. Although we did have people like that in Bethlehem schools while I was growing up.

[king91274]

What about Nazareth SD? Anybody have any info on this? How is Northampton County (housing, neighborhood)?

[jimmyrocks]

Originally Posted by king91274

What about Nazareth SD? Anybody have any info on this? How is Northampton County (housing, neighborhood)?

Don't know about the SD rankings, but I know a lot of people who went through the SD there, and they seem to have decent jobs now. Nazareth is close to rt 33 (connects to 78 and 80). There are tons of new houses going up in the area, and it's quiet, yet close to stuff in the Lehigh Valley.

[EAMP]

Which school district and area did you decide on?

[boocasey]

We are moving to the Allentown/Lehigh Valley area from Cleveland and are looking for a catholic school (both middle and hs) any suggestions? I would prefer a single sex HS but academics is the priority. Also, which public school district has the best academic ranking?

[toobusytoday]

You can look over school rankings here Search for Pennsylvania public schools. or here http://www.schoolmatters.com/schools.aspx/q/page=sr/txt=Lehigh$sp;County/ust=PA/p=1/fp=1 There are two Catholic High Schools in the area - Central Catholic in Allentown and Bethlehem Catholic in Bethlehem. Both have pretty good reputations but the best High schools in the area are public with the exception of Moravian Academy, which is a great private. There are more choices for K-8 schools. If you google Catholic schools, Lehigh County PA or Catholic schools, Northampton County PA, you'll come up with all the names and then you can plug them in. In my area (Southern Lehigh School District) the kids often start at St. Michaels in Limeport and then go to St. Ann's in Emmaus and then to Central.

To save you some time, the best publics (number wise) are Parkland and East Penn school districts. Both are large school districts and have large High Schools. We wanted a smaller HS for our kids and chose Southern Lehigh partly for the size. The academics and vibe are just right for us.