Looking for advice on good public school districts within a 40 minute radius of Wilmington (Newark: taxes)

[new2wilmington]

Hi - I am looking to move to work in Wilmington this summer. I am looking for advice on good suburban areas within a 30-40 minute drive with great public schools (my children would be going to elementary and middle schools). I will be moving from New York City. Please help as I do not know the area well at all. Thanks in advance!

[doctorjef]

In DE, probably Appoquinimink School District, more or less centered around Middletown (an historic old town that has morphed into an exurban bedroom community -- I personally am not a fan of the town itself, although the older bit is quaint).

In PA, just across the state line, probably the Unionville School District. Higher taxes across the state line, but some people who work in Wilmington choose to live over in PA so their kids can go to school there, rather than the very expensive private schools in Wilmington and its immediate suburbs that they would otherwise feel compelled to choose. That does not mean that some of the school districts serving the Wilmington suburbs aren't decent -- Brandywine and Red Clay both include some good schools; it's more a function of the particular parents who would not choose the public schools, but who feel that the nearby PA public school districts are acceptable and far less of a financial burden than the private options in and around Wilmington.

[Kristin730]

And there are parts of the Appo school district north of the canal -- parts of the Newark/Bear area -- that are significantly closer to Wilmington than Middletown. I live in that part of the district, and assuming no traffic, can be in Wilmington within about 25 minutes.