Pearl River vs Nanuet Schools (Nyack, Orangeburg: fit in, house, buying)

[rocklandcounty]

Hi - i am looking to purchase a house that is in Pearl River, but is the Nanuet School district. I have heard great things about PR, but do not know much about the Nanuet schools. Are they comparable? is it bad to be in the nanuet school district? Since i live in pearl river is there any way to send my child to the PR schools instead?

[987ABC]

Pearl River and Nanuet are both unincorporated hamlets, which means there are no political subdivisions such as a town, village or city called Pearl River or Nanuet. If you have a Nanuet or Pearl River postal address than you will be in either the Town of Orangetown or the Town of Clarkstown.

School districts, as you may know, have their own defined borders and own governance (an elected school board). You can only be in one school district. If your prospective home is in the Nanuet School District than that is the only option for you school-wise (other than private school, of course). It matters not what your postal address it. While some school districts permit out-of-district kids to enroll and pay tuition, I am fairly certain that PRSD does not allow this. The only way to attend PR schools is to live in the PRSD.

As far as the districts are concerned PR is great, as it seems you know. Near 100% graduation and college attendance rates. Nearly 100% stable mature two parent households that are financially secure. Nanuet is also very good. I would not tell someone to avoid that district. The districts border each other and are rather similar. Over the past few decades PR has become a bit more upscale than Nanuet (benefiting by a lot of high end housing stock added since the 80s - much of which has postal addresses in Orangeburg, West Nyack and Nanuet), while Nanuet has become more diverse ethnically and economically, although it is not all that diverse compared to some other places. Pearl River also has an Irish Catholic identity, which has attracted wealthy Irish American families who could live anywhere but chose Pearl River for this reason. In practice though, families from other backgrounds fit in just as easily, although the PRSD is largely Catholic.

Also keep in mind that if you do move to a Pearl River address in the Nanuet district, you will effectively be living in Nanuet. Your kids will say that they live in Nanuet when asked. Your kids friends and your friends will live in Nanuet. Your kids will play Nanuet Little League, Nanuet Youth Lacrosse, etc. No one pays attention to the postal address. The only real difference is that you will likely be in the Town of Orangetown, when most of the Nanuet district is in the Town of Clarkstown, but even this means nothing other than where your taxes go and which police department shows up at your house if you ever need to call them.

[leaving queens]

When I was looking in that area, my friends in PR (with children in PR schools) advised me that either district was fine. For what it's worth, Greatschools.org rate the schools in the districts within a point of each other (9s and 10s for PR; 8s and 9s for Nanuet) and a recent NY Times interactive school district comparison map shows sixth grade achievement in both PR and Nanuet at 1.7 grade levels above national average.

I ended up buying in Nanuet and have been very happy with the school so far (and child loves it and is excelling), but it's only been one year so too early to offer a solid opinion.