best school districts near Ft. Indiantown Gap, PA (Harrisburg, Lebanon: crime, buying a house)

[robinbrower]

We are relocating to Ft. Indiantown Gap, PA and will eventually be buying a house. We are looking for a cute, quaint little town with GREAT schools, but close to shopping. Thanks for any help.

[mreenrose]

Jonestown is a very cute town with a main street that has a town square. There have been a lot of new houses built in and around the town. I take my sons there every once and awhile to visit family. Northern Lebanon School District has a good reputation. The people in Jonestown are very nice. It's an easy commute to the Gap. Good Luck.

[openless]

dont live in lebanon city itself or harrisburg city. or steelton-highspire for that matter, they are not terrible, but they are not doing great either. they have probation and truancy officers, full time every day of the year. they constantly have fights, drugs and arrests on school property. central dauphin school disctric or lower dauphin in dauphin county (grantville, paxtonia, linglestown, colonial park, hummlestown are all good. they are average, as anywhere else in the country there are drugs (even in the school) if you look hard enough.

[Ateam]

Openless was incorrect with his reply. Lebanon School District does NOT fall in the same category as Harrisburg city or Steelton. There are not fights there every day or arrests every day. It is a very diverse school which is why there are many misconceptions. All of the schools in Lebanon County are very good schools.

[openless]

Maybe i should re-state myself. i live about 20 minutes away from lebanon. it is not a terrible city. many towns in the region lost a lot of people and are trying to rte-build with the help of young enterprising, hardworking families. i can not speak for lebabon schools. i was refering more to harrisburg city schools. i lived in the hebron section of lebanon city. i witnessed move drug deals than you can imagine. once a 15 year old on a bike came up to me to sell me drugs. i guess you could find that in any city in the country though. to call lebaon "ridden with crime" would be a fair statement.

there are gangs there from new york and every few months there is a homicide. sounds funny, but they advertised in the nyc area in the 1980's to have people move down there and fill up all the vacated houses. bad idea.

that being said, there crime in lebanon is significantly higher than the surrounding areas. i cant speak for the school system itself.