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Originally Posted by tahiti
lorib - i found your post very interesting. from what I know, nutley is very much a "lifer" place - you're born there, and more likely than not, you remain there after HS/College. I have a friend who married a "lifer" and now lives there - she grew up in Passaic/Sussex counties. She, maybe because of her "outsiders" view, has a very different perspective on Nutley.
She finds the schools adequate at best - they are old and in desparate need of repairs (remember the ceiling collapse last summer? Thank God school was not in session at that time.). parents seem to be ok with the "status quo" and are not ready to adopt different things. It seems there is new astroturf being laid on the HS field while the school infrastructure is crumbing. To be fair, the field is funded by a grant, but you KWIM. Kids still go home at lunchtime (this *may* have changed), there doesn't seem to be much regard for families with 2 working parents. Technology has not caught on there - you can't email teachers, websites are woefully behind. There are no G&T programs and now they are going to be accepting students from other towns b/c they got a grant for an autism program - this when the schools are overcrowded - you've got some special classes being held in broom closets. All this after the reassessment last year - taxes in some cases doubled! From her perspective it seems people are resistant to change, and it's coming from those how have a long history there. If she had her way she'd move to another town, in addition to the school issues she sees, she just finds it a someone difficult place to be in, since she's 1) not originally from there, and 2) not Italian and 3) not Catholic.
I think it's a very cute town though.
Would be interested in your comments!
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I'm a transplanted New Yorker. My family and I have resided in Nutley for 6 years. (At Cambridge Heights). Our community itself is very well managed with excellent ammenities and much more open space that is typical of townhome complexes in Northern NJ. It's a great place to be for young families.
For stay at home moms, and there are quite a few, there is a very active "Mommy & Me Club". Our community also has a fair proportion of empty-nesters and retirees as well as young NYC professionals and some families of Non-European ethnicities. Overall it's more diverse than the rest of the town. The Association's Board of Directors are a very "hands-on", saavy and dedidcated team.
I'd like to dispel the rumors that Cambridge Heights was shoddily constructed. Of 600 homes in the complex, less than 10% have required expenditure from the association for repairs. I've never had a problem.
The property tax re-asessments were completed some months ago and our taxes increased 7% and is now aprox. $11,000. For a 2,000 sq.ft. townhouse. .... not cheap ! I understand that many other Nutley homes outside of Cambride Heights were asessed at even higher rates because the last time a complete re-asessment was conducted was in 1974.
I agree with the writer who commented that the public schools on average are adequate at best. In 2006 NJ Monthly magazine rated the elementary schools from 8 to 9 (on a scale of 1 to 10) but the middle and high school were rated 7. There appears to be an ongoing effort to physically upgrade the schools. But I must share with you the Star Ledgers report just last week which pointed out that the middle and high school for the second year in a row has failed to meet the (controversial) Federal standards of the "No Child Left Behind" Act. So I do agree that the town has quite a way to go the improve both the middle and high school.
Ny commute to NYC is good, although you're likely to experience traffic delays if you catch the buses that stop along the perimeter of the complex between 7:45 am to 8:30 am. However you can catch the express bus on the other-side of Clifton Commons Shopping Center at Rte 3 save 20 minutes. Thre is a train station a few minutes away, (Delawana Station) but I'm not sure of the schedule and I think it goes only to Hoboken where you may have to transfer for NYC mid-town trains.
Nutley overall, - Quaint, safe town with good NYC commute. Not so great schools given the property tax rate.