lake mohawk -- good to relocate? (Dover, Sussex: private schools, community college, property taxes)

[keripc]

My husband and I are considering a move to Lake Mohawk because we like the resort-ish feel and we think it would be fun for our young family (girls ages 9,3,7 weeks!). But I'm curious about schools -- public and private -- in the area. What are the best/worst things you can say about them? What about the area itself? Be brutal -- I need honest opinions!

[stmaarten]

Lake Mohawk is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! However, the town of Sparta just passed a $74,000,000 referendum needed to renovate/add-on to it's high school. Property taxes are very high in this area. You might want to look into Byram. (Just a suggestion.) Byram has top-notch schools with not-so-insane taxes. PM me if you need any additional info.

[Gail59]

The taxes are going through the roof here in Sparta/Lake Mohawk and you don't get much for them from the schools. I have lived in other communities in NJ with similar taxes and the schools are much better. Our BOE is always fighting with the Superintendent, the BOE is generally filed with a bunch of micromanagers. As a result of the fighting there have been law suits, which are further wasting our tax dollars. The fighting also seems to be a road block to improving the schools and I don't see an end in sight.

Also, you don't get much for your tax dollars in the way of sports activities. There aren't enough sports fields and the ones we have are sad in comparision to other communities with a similar tax base.

The police seem to abuse their power here. For example we had a skate park where the kids were regularly harrassed by the police and one officer in particular would bring his son and his son did not have to adhere to the same rules the other kids had to adhere to. Also, the officer used to sit on the ramps and block the kids from skating and would challenge the kids to say something to him. My youngest son had a friend who's father is a police officer and he used to say to my son that he could do certain things and get by with it because his dad is a cop in town. I could go on for ever with the list, but just wanted to give you a flavor.

Also, the town is very cliquish. A lot of the people are life long residents and they don't like outsiders. The outsiders are usually very wealthy and they don't like the life long residents because they aren't in the same class. This clashing is done in a very passive aggressive manner.

As for the schools the grade schools are okay, but I was not overly impressed. The High School is sad in terms of the lack of choices. We had an excellent math teacher a few years ago at the 5th grade level, he was new to teaching and had a very progressive way of teaching. My son had this teacher and learned more about math with him than any teacher before or since. Unfortunately, a year later he was literally run out of town by the parents and the principal because of his progressive ways. Progressive or different thinking is not acceptable in this town.

Frankly, if I had it to do over again I would not have moved here. I would have stayed in Randolph, NJ because the schools are much better. Also, the community college is far superior to the community college here. There was a more of a progressive way of thinking in Randolph, Sparta/Sussex county are rather backwards in their thinking.

As for the private schools you have Rev. Brown Catholic grade school. It's supposed to be good. The Catholic High School, Pope John, is supposed to be superior, but the kids in town all joke that the drug use at Pope John is as bad if not worse than at Sparta High School. Pope John's nickname among the kids is Pope Dope.

If you are happy where you are at stay there, the grass is not greener here.

[me3tv]

That post was pretty negative. I'd have to say, being here 25 years and looking to leave in another year --- the comments generally reflect on any small town in NW NJ.. and most small towns in general. True about taxes. The industrial/commercial tax base is small here - so the homeowners pick up the tax slack. But in comparison to high tax NJ, Sparta is probably par for this type of locale. The issue of school facilities has been a sore point for some years. Poor trans-communication between town, school board, superintendent, and the residents led to 10 plus years of bickering over where and how to expand school facilities. Soon to be completed upgrades at the High School may be the end of that phase and the static will die down. For years the town has been a laggard in local shopping , chain food sources and grocery options, but some hard work in planning and promoting is gradually paying off. Things should be nicer for local shopping in a few years. It is a New Jersey thing that makes school costs so high. In this county there are 27 public school superintendents - and the staff to go with them. I extrapolate about 1 Billion dollars to this overhead in this county every 10 years. AND that is just THIS county. The inefficiencies are mind boggling. New Jersey's high taxes (highest in the nation) are driving business and residents out of the state. The good side for Sparta is that it is a rural area all around and it is great for kids. Two other key elements that affect good infrastructure are the monopoly local landline phone company, Embarq which does not invest in the high speed optical systems as Verizon does in the rest of the state. AND - the cable company is as a rule about five years behind the rest of the state on any upgrades in cable values and speeds for internet use. Mass transport is a bit distant to reach (Dover - Mt. Olive) or ... an alternative is to use the bus lines to NYC. Sparta is a great town to live in. The old timers and the newcomers are different breeds, but you can find yourself enjoying both kinds of folksk, even though political agendas sometimes raise tensions. Is that normal,or WHAT?

[stevemorse]

my only complaint is there are no good supermarkets in the area. Now they are building a kings I heard so that will help but for the amont of people choices are limited, your driving a lot!!!