Best place for raising a family near Sayre / Athens? (Bradford: best school districts, college)

[Rapunzel]

Our family is considering a move to Bradford County for a job at the Guthrie Clinic in Sayre. We have a daughter who will be starting school soon and I am interested in the BEST SCHOOL DISTRICTS within commuting distance of Sayre. Any specific info you can give on WHY you reccommend a particular district would be much appreciated.

Also, is the area in general a good place to raise a family - are there decent public libraries? recreation facilities? any cultural events? (we're from a small town in central PA, so we're not expecting big city amenities, but we would like a few family-friendly basics)

Thank you.

[Chad2002]

I hope this hasn't caught you too late. When you're talking about, within 10-15 minutes of Guthrie, your school options are: Sayre, Athens, Waverly, and Tioga Central. The last 2 are in NY and come with its statewide, college-prep oriented Regents curriculum. PA schools have much more leeway in setting their standards and requirements.

Sayre: closest to your proposed employer, smaller and more personal, has had a declining enrollment due to population changes - Sayre tends to be a mix of senior citizens and some people who work for the hospital but don't have kids. The facilities are older and class choices are more limited than what you get across town in Athens. Your child may be shipped out to Litchfield for elem school since Snyder Elem is at/over capacity while the district's outlying elem school is well under capacity. Graduating classes are usually in the high 80's to mid 90's range.

Athens: largest enrollment in the region on the PA side of the border. graduates 180's to a little over 200. Unlike Sayre, Athens draws from a larger surrounding area and has a broader economic range among its students. For middle school, your kids would also be bussed out to the school in East Smithfield, but would attend elem sch right in Athens. More academic & sports offerings, sport programs have also been more successful, if that's important to you. Teacher quality is essentially the same between Sayre & Athens.

If you're willing to commute a little more, you have more options, particularly the Northeast Bradford School Dist., which was recently ranked among the top 100 schools in PA. It's small, but kids get a lot of personal attn. It's also notable that for the district having a significant proportion of kids from limited economic backgrounds, the number that go on to college or other post-secondary training is impressive. Sports options are very limited in comparison to other schools in the region. Kids attend school at the same campus for K-12, but K-6 are in a separate bldg from the secondary level. The school is inconveniently located for someone who would be working in Sayre is a drawback.

It'd be easier for me to make suggestions if I knew if your preference is large school vs small school, or if sports/wider offerings are a major concern.