Best School Districts in New Jersey (Union, Westfield: mortgages, house, to buy)

[MNlady]

My husband is considering accepting a job offer in Manhatten...somewhere near Union Square. I am trying to figure out where we would live if he does indeed pull the trigger. I am basing my search on school districts and wish to know what school districts are the absolute best in New Jersey. I recognize that in the end we will need to make a housing decision based on schools, commute, cost of housing, feel of the community and whatever juju we feel necessary but I want to start with schools to give this whole search a framework. I have posted a similar question on the New York board as clearly Long Island and Westchester are other options.

Thanks, in advance, for any help you may be able to provide.

[mike0421]

Berkeley Heights, New Providence, and Mountain Lakes are some of the best. But you have to be making about 175k a year in household income to buy modest homes and qualify for mortgages for these places. A good school system in a town that is more affordable might be Butler, because you get access to the Kinnelon school system there. I believe the same is true of Bloomingdale or Riverdale.

[MNlady]

Mike: Thanks for the reply. We are very fortunate in that I think we can afford pretty much any school district (thou certainly not every house in every school district) so I want to know what the absolute best ones are. I appreciate your suggestions and will do further research on them.

[christina0001]

Here is a lot of info, in a not very user friendly database:
http://education.state.nj.us/rc/rc05/index.html

[emily31]

You might want to do a search for similar posts on this forum - there are some great discussions. Otherwise, I can tell you about the best school districts in Union and Morris county, which are the two areas I have done most of my research (both have towns with a short to medium commute to Manhattan):

Union:
- Westfield (shorter commute, higher housing costs)
- Summit (shorter commute, higher housing costs)
- New Providence
- Berkeley Heights
- Mountainside
- Cranford (although maybe not as strong as the others listed, at least based on test scores)

Morris:
- Chatham
- Madison

Also, Millburn/Short Hills and Livingston have top schools (Essex County?). Check out http://www.njmonthly.com/topschools/hssearch.html for the top NJ high school list - this is where I started. There are also several great school districts in Bergen County, which I don't know as much about.

Good luck!

Emily

[ira]

Glen Rock, Ridgewood, Ho-ho-kus, Wyckoff, Allendale, Ramsey, Mahwah, Alpine, Tenafly, Hillsdale, Saddle River, Upper Saddle River...and the list goes on. Not all offer good commute to the city but as far as schools, they are all top notch!

[Obrero]

Do a search on google using keywords "nj monthly best schools" and the 1st result will be the most recent rankings of schools in nj.

[njchick]

Yes, Bergen has excellent schools almost across the board! (Especially Northwest BC).

[RODOULTON]

Hello, Somerset county and Hunterdon are blue ribbon school couties. They were voted the best counties to live in for children in NJ. They offer a lot for children. 50 minutes to Manhatten. Country and upscale living with many schools to choose from. Good Luck!

[slyrofbmx]

i would say bernards town ship at bernardsboe.com its in basking ridge its a great place lots of things to do many people go to nyc for work great schools shcools are in usa top 100