Newburyport schools (Amesbury: homes, high school, living)

[Toomey]

We may be moving to Newburyport. My questions are:

1) how are the schools -especially the high school?
2) is it true that you can live in Amesbury and go to the Newburyport schools?
3) what's the housing market like in Newburyport ? I know that it is usually quite pricey. Is the economy affecting it at all?

Thanks!

[Valerie C]

Newburyport schools have had their issues (as usually happens when a city or town suddenly becomes the hot destination, or in Newburyport's case, changes from a small fishing/port town to a buzzing arts community) but overall have retained a good reputation. One thing that you should be aware of is that Newburyport's HS runs on '2-day block cycle, which = 4 (longer) classes per day, rather than 6-7 (shorter) classes per day. Some folks love block schedules, others hate it, so it really depends on what type of learning style your kids are....


It is NOT true that Amesbury students go to Newburyport High. Amesbury High has it's own high school, which South Hampton NH students attend.

Newburyport practices "school choice" on a varying basis, and various grade levels may fill up with Nbpt. residents while other grades may have availablilty for out of towners to apply for a spot. Some years they don't accept ANY students from outside Newburyport. Also, parents of school-choice students are responsible for getting the kids to school (no bus service provided out of town) so if you are set on sending your students to Nbpt, I would recommend living there.

Like everywhere else, the market has been affected in Newburyport, and prices are signifigantly lower than they were a couple of years ago. But looking at SOLD data for the last 6 months, I've noticed that most property that has closed is selling close to list price, much moreso than other nearby communities. Being Newburyport, many people wait for something affordable to become available, and well-priced homes tend to move fairly quickly.