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I went to West Genesee School District (Camillus area). It was a postive experiance and education with a number of after school activities. There are several older posts here as well and you'll see how often West Genesee and one other one Westhill (same general west suburbs area) are the two many folks recommend.
Last edited by gandalf222; 02-20-2007 at 12:17 PM..
Reason: spelling error
Well, the best district by test grades is Fayetteville-Manlius, an upscale area southeast of Syracuse. The northern disticts of B'Ville, Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool also do very well, as does the West Gensesee, near Camillus. Some of the small districts that perform well include Skaneateles, E.Syracuse-Minoa, and Tully.
whatever you do, stay away from city schools, unless you plan on utilising private schools.
I have also done an extensive search on the school districts in Syracuse. We are moving there this summer and have a young child to enroll in school in the fall. I have also found great information on schools in previous posts. I also have a couple teachers in my current school district who used to teach in syracuse and they highly recommend West Genessee, Westhill, Jamesville-DeWitt and Fayetteville-Manlius. I personally am leaning toward Westhill because of the low number of enrollment. It sounds like Camillus is a great school for sports, band and other activites. I also heard from previous posts that Baldwinsville is good.
Take a look into the Chittenango Central School District! Chittenango is in rural Madison County and is about 20 minutes from Syracuse. Taxes in Madison County are much lower than in Onondaga County. The schools are excellent! Friendly people, good community churches, and close enough to Syracuse to work there - far enough to escape to the country!
I would highly suggest looking into the Cazenovia School District too. It's a small lake town approx. 30 miles east of Syracuse. It's an easy commute in a quaint lake town with a rural feel. Cazenovia College is also located here which isn't too big of a school to make it a college town, but big enough to provide some good energy! The school district is small and seems well-rounded. Cazenovia is also more affordable than Skaneatelas. If you're into skiing, there's a ski hill 20 minutes down the road called Toggenburg which is a great place for the kids to learn. You also might want to keep in mind that there is a brand new and fabulous YMCA in Fayetteville (about 15-20 minutes from Caz) that provides a lot of things to do in this snowy area!
As the mother of children in the Fayetteville-Manlius district, I suggest you visit the school district websites to get information about facilities, services, and the physical plants of the schools - FM has a large art wing with computer graphic studio and ceramic studios, a large music wing with three separate orchestra, band and choral rooms, and a large science wing.
You might also want to check for things in music and arts - for example, FM has an orchestra program, which some of the other disctricts don't have - or haven't yet fully developed.
The Best 5 School districts in the Syracuse area are
-Fayetteville/Manlius or FM (covering the southern town of Manlius and northern Pompey
-Jamesville/DeWitt or JD (covering the southern town of of DeWitt)
-Westhill (covering the northern eastern part of the Town of Onondaga)
-West Genesee (covering the town of Camillus)
-Baldwinsville (covering the town of Lysander and part of Van Buren and a small slice of the town of Clay)
Other suburban School districts which are good, just not in the top five
-Liverpool (covering the western part of the town of Clay and the western part of the town of Salina)
North Syracuse or NS (covering a huge part of the town of Cicero, eastern town of Clay, and eastern town of Salina) this is a very large school district, the 5th largest in Upstate New York. Over 2,000 students are at CNS, which is the 10th, 11th and 12th grades alone.
East Syracuse/Minoa or ESM (covering northern town of DeWitt and northern town of Manlius)
Central Square (covering the northern part of Cicero -Brewerton and the towns of Hastings and West Monroe in Oswego County)
I used to teach in the area and I feel like I know (from the insider's perspective) where I want my kids to go- if we don't leave the area. I want them to attend B'ville schools. That is NOT where I taught, though. I don't want to slander or anything, but feel free to contact me for more details. I actually left teaching because I felt it was far too political and unhealthy. Now, I sell houses! WAY more fun! Good luck!
"Best" will mean different things to different people. I love the schools in Skaneateles (I have 4 kids), the teachers and the actively involved parents. Almost all the kids (I think 96%) go on to higher education, and we have great theater and sports. Our chorus and band performed at Disney in the spring. It is a great system for my family.
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Schools in Syracuse area
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