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Originally Posted by servicecounts
We are a family of 4 with 2 children ages 9 & 4. There may be an employment opportunity for my husband at Shore Medical Hospital in Somers Point. Looking for a great family friendly community near there that would be a great place to live. A great education is important to us and access to a lot of fun outdoor activities. I know that the property taxes are incredibly high, what else should we know about southern New Jersey.
We have spent many years vacationing in Stone Harbor, Avalon and visiting the boardwalk of Ocean City, but while we were there we never looked at that area as a place to live. Appreciate your honest feedback and insight.
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Welcome to the forum! In general schools in South Jersey are not very good. The town of Somers Point has their own k-8 district which then sends to a regional HS, Mainland Regional. Mainland Regional is better than most HS in the South Jersey shore area, though it's performance is "meh" at best. (the Average SAT score at Mainland is 1554, just barely over the statewide average of 1550. Good schools in NJ will have average SAT scores over 1700, some nearly 1800) There is a magnet Tech School for the county, but that is primarily a vocational school/not college prep. To find a town with good schools you are looking at a pretty far commute, west towards Cherry Hill or Morrestown. I am not sure how bad the commute is on the AC expressway. This link will take you to an interactive map with great objective information and statistics on the states high schools
Interactive Map: High School SAT scores - NJ Spotlight
As far as the elementary schools in Somers Pt, the good news is they offer free, full time (~5 hrs a day) Pre K, the bad news is that the schools are not good. According to the State Dept of Ed performance report, "is school's academic performance significantly lags in comparison to schools across the state. Additionally, its academic performance lags in comparison to its peers. This school's college and career readiness lags in comparison to schools across the state." For great unbiased information about the schools a great resource is the State DOE Performance Reports which are found here:
New Jersey Department of Education | 2012-2013 Performance Reports You can use that site to check out the schools in nearby towns to see if you can find a town close to the hospital that has better schools, though clearly you the best HS in the area is Mainland Regional, so be sure the town sends its HS kids to that district.
You may also get more local info and the commute on the AC expressway if you also post your query on the South Jersey forum, located here
http://www.city-data.com/forum/new-j...-philadelphia/
HTH
KoalaNJ