School district help? (Newark, Elizabeth, Trenton: school districts, moving to, design)

[TravisO]

Looks like I'll be taking advantage of the base housing till my family and I get an idea of if we want to stay or not? One of the items we received in the email package that got our attention was choice of school districts.

North Hanover

Northern Burlington

Pemberton Township,

Those are the 3 choices, my son is going into 5th grade and my daughter will be 8th grade.
Daughter is 3 years of Honor role and advanced math classes for the last 3 years. So that does factor, she becomes very bored if it wasn't for the advanced classes.

Thanks for any input.

[Lucario]

Northern Burlington is by far the best ranked of the three districts.

[TravisO]

Originally Posted by Lucario

Northern Burlington is by far the best ranked of the three districts.

Thanks, curious any data that supports this? or your own interaction with the districts? I'll need something I can show the wife. lol

[NJGOAT]

TravisO, I responded to your poll question, but wanted to point out that there really are only "two" districts" per se.

At the elementary level there is only North Hanover and Pemberton. These schools, at the elementary level, are relatively equally ranked, you can research their rankings on a site like greatschools.org which gives you composite scores based on a scale of 1-10. Where Northern Burlington comes in is at the middle and high school level. Kids who go to North Hanover schools are sent to Northern Burlington Regional for middle and high school while kids who go to Pemberton stay in Pemberton for middle and high school. So, you really have two districts, not three, it works like this:

Elementary.............Middle/High School
North Hanover.........Northern Burlington Regional
Pemberton..............Pemberton

Northern Burlington is ranked MUCH better then Pemberton at the high school and middle school level. For this reason, you want to pick Northern Burlington for your daughter in middle school, but will want to pick North Hanover for your son in 5th grade, this would put them in the "same" district even though they have different names.

Here is the link for greatschools:

GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community

You may also want to start posting these threads in the "New Jersey Suburbs of Philadelphia" subforum as the area you are moving to is covered in that section and you will get some better responses. There are a couple threads about the base, housing and schools over there that you may find useful. Here is one that recently discussed the change in schools since the base merger:

//www.city-data.com/forum/new-j...town-nj-3.html

I will quote my response from that thread which backs up what I said above:

Just for those who are interested in the school side of it. Pemberton Township schools are classified as an "Abbott District". This is a special designation for the 31 NJ school districts that are considered the worst performers in the state and that serve a large portion of economically disadvantaged children. Others that share this classification are; Camden, Trenton, Newark, Elizabeth, Vineland, Hoboken, etc. The designation as an Abbott allows them to receive a large portion of their funding directly from the state which pays for expanded and upgraded facilities, extra teachers, additional programs like PK starting at 3 years old, etc.

The alternative school for the base which is North Hanover does not have this designation and does not receive this extra funding for the expanded programs as the district is able to competently stand on its own.

Based on test performance and rankings, the schools perform equally well at the elementary level, with some of the Pemberton schools actually having a slight edge. Where this goes away is when you hit the high school level. Kids who go to the North Hanover district roll up to the Northern Burlington County Regional Middle and High School, which are far and away much better ranked schools in terms of academics then the middle and high schools in Pemberton.

Basically, it's a toss up at the elementary level and I would probably pick Pemberton do to the extra services that the Abbott designation provides. HOWEVER, if your kids are approaching their middle school years, they would probably be MUCH better served in the North Hanover district where they will attend the Northern Burlington Regional Schools.

Maybe the previous poster could shed some light on the ability to change districts once a choice has been made. If you only have one chance to pick, it would have to be North Hanover, IMO. If you are allowed to change your choice down the road, then it might be worth it to try Pemberton and see how it goes because you will have access to things like free pre-school, but I wouldn't want to be stuck with that choice as my kids got older.