can wayne schools compare to glen rock, mahwah, ramsey or Movntvale?? (Clifton: houses, landscaping)
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We are looking to relocate to Glen Rock, Mahwah, Ramsey or Montvale mainly for the schools. Our price range is in the 600's...so it seems from an outsider that those towns have the best schools in a towns where we could afford an average 3-4 bedroom home in pretty good condition. But I keep seeing references to wayne being an amazing place to raise kids. While we could get a better home for our money in Wayne, the schools do not look as good on paper as the other towns we mentioned. Again, we are outsiders from the city, aside from going into the parks and speaking with moms, all we can go by are the school ratings, SAT scores, US News rankings and the recent Washington Post rankings. Can anyone offer any insight on any of the towns I mentioned or how they compare to Wayne? On another note, yes, academics are the most important, but school sports programs, town pools and camps are also important to us. Thanks!
All are good places to live and will have good schools. Wayne is not on the Bergen line while all the rest are, so you get a lot less city commuters. Its a big town and has a good amount of business based there. It's also Passaic county while the others are Bergen.
Mahwah has a lot of nice parkland around that offers stuff like skiing, golf, hiking, skeet shooting, disc golf, etc. Glen Rock is pricey and probably isn't worth it unless you need a better commute to the city. Montvale is a nice town, but I find it a little bland and hate driving in that whole area as it takes forever to get anywhere on the local roads. Ramsey is nice as well.
Last edited by GiantRutgersfan; 06-26-2014 at 12:06 PM..
As a Wayne NJ resident who had the same budget, also looked in every town you listed a year ago and settled on Wayne I can share the following:
To compare and contrast with Glen Rock(Montvale, Ramsey, Mahwah):
Wayne is all about families.
Most Elementary Schools score an 8 or 9 on greatschools.com for Wayne and a 9 or 10 for Glen Rock. Wayne Hills High gets a 9 and is consistently ranked in the Top 50 High Schools in NJ by NJ monthly(Rank in 2012 was 35) whereas the others were 4,18, 30 and 55 respectively. That said you are still talking about a VERY good school system and getting a comparable top quality education is certainly available. Based on the data and statistics, anyone who would say that Wayne schools are not in the same league as the others listed would be severely misleading you.
Athletics(both boys and girls) in Wayne are definitely consistently better in just about every sport( aside from Lacrosse, which is actually on the verge of joining the elites) than all other schools mentioned. Wayne, as a community, has a big focus on sports with several junior leagues(YMCA, Police Athletic League, and Boys and Girls Club) prepping kids to excel later in their athletic careers. For perspective,Wayne Hills has been State Champions in Football the last 8 out of 12 years. They are one of the few public school systems in northern NJ that can hang with the private Catholic powerhouses.
Town facilities are better in Wayne than any other town in the area. This is a fact not an opinion. Other towns may have a park/playground or two and even a small pool, but they just can't hold a candle to the 1800 acres of parkland( that is the equivalent size of the entire town of Glen Rock) which include two swim facilities with playgrounds(one the equivalent of a water park), two large multi-component playgrounds and fourteen neighborhood playgrounds. 10,000+ street trees and additional trees located in township parks and on township property, 12 tennis courts, 2 platform tennis courts,; 6 baseball fields, 33 softball fields, 22 soccer fields; 3 football fields, and 2 turf multi-purpose fields. Not to mention 2 private lake communities and The Ice Vault.
Houses for the money: This was the biggest deciding factor for us, again there is no comparison, for the same budget you will get a nice center hall colonial, attached 2 car garage, 2600+ sqft., built in the 80s but recently renovated, a 1/3 of an acre lot, mature landscaping and possibly a swimming pool. That is just not available, trust me I've looked, at that price-point in any of the other communities listed or not listed with the caliber of schools in Wayne.
The Cons:
TAXES. Taxes in Wayne are much higher than in any of the towns you listed. Expect to pay $15K-$19K/year on a $600K-$700K house. Where in comparison you will likely be paying $11K-$14K/year in the other towns listed. Mahwah will have the lowest taxes of the other 3 while Glen Rock will have the highest.
COMMUTE: Wayne has a lot of commuting options into the city(Train Bus or Drive). None of them are as consistently good as what you will get in the other towns. Glen Rock with 2 separate train lines(Main and Bergen) it will be hard to find a better commute to the city from the towns you listed. Door to Desk commute from Wayne to NYC will be anywhere from 1:10 minutes-1:35 minutes on a consistent basis(The big range is due to the fact that it is a big town and where you live can have a big impact on commute time).
AFFLUENCE: While Wayne has its fair share of millionaires, the general level of affluence is lower than other towns listed(aside from maybe Mahwah) and the town itself gives off a much more blue collar/jersey vibe than any of the other towns listed. The panache/understated class of GlenRock, Ramsey and Montvale is nowhere to be found. I'm much more of a preppy type and this was one of my biggest hangups about Wayne. I jokingly refer to my neighborhood as the Blue Collar Beverly Hills. That said we've made lots of friends and there are tons of great people of all types.
NO DOWNTOWN: This is a bummer. Wayne has an abundance of shopping all of which are open on Sunday(including a huge mall) but there is no central downtown. You won't ever be able to get the postcard town pic you would get in the other towns.
FLOODING: It is highly unlikely that given your price-point that flooding will be of any concern to you. That said check the maps when/where you buy since there is flooding in some parts of the very large(25 sq. mile) town.
If you have any other specific questions about Wayne please feel free to DM me.
Last edited by Goldendoodle1969; 06-26-2014 at 09:50 AM..
The towns you are comparing are very different. Wayne is a huge (25sq mile), spread out suburban city. Mahwah (26sq miles) is also spread out but has less than half population of Wayne (25,000). Glen Rock (11,500) and Montvale (7400) are small 2.5 and 4 sq mile towns.
One negative not mentioned in the Wayne post above is the difficult traffic in Wayne. There are bottlenecks all over the town and bottlenecks getting in and out of the town. There are traffic lights installed with no rhyme or reason and never adjusted or removed for current situations. At rush hour it can take 25 minutes to get from one end of town to the other end of town. The train station is at the very south end of town and and it is not a walkable station for 99% of Wayne.
Wayne has all those wonderful sports facilities because it has 55,000 people. All those facilities cost money to build and maintain. The other towns have facilities that support their populations.
GR and Montvale have a small town feel and way less traffic than Wayne. They are easier to navigate at rush hour and have centrally located train stations and main street areas.
Mahwah is somewhat of a hybrid depending where you buy in the town. There is good train access in Mahwah and at the Ramsey 17 train station is nearby.
The towns you are comparing are very different. Wayne is a huge (25sq mile), spread out suburban city. Mahwah (26sq miles) is also spread out but has less than half population of Wayne (25,000). Glen Rock (11,500) and Montvale (7400) are small 2.5 and 4 sq mile towns.
One negative not mentioned in the Wayne post above is the difficult traffic in Wayne. There are bottlenecks all over the town and bottlenecks getting in and out of the town. There are traffic lights installed with no rhyme or reason and never adjusted or removed for current situations. At rush hour it can take 25 minutes to get from one end of town to the other end of town. The train station is at the very south end of town and and it is not a walkable station for 99% of Wayne.
Wayne has all those wonderful sports facilities because it has 55,000 people. All those facilities cost money to build and maintain. The other towns have facilities that support their populations.
GR and Montvale have a small town feel and way less traffic than Wayne. They are easier to navigate at rush hour and have centrally located train stations and main street areas.
Mahwah is somewhat of a hybrid depending where you buy in the town. There is good train access in Mahwah and at the Ramsey 17 train station is nearby.
Traffic wasn't mentioned because it's really a non issue if you actually live there. It takes 15 minutes to get across town and that's because it's 5 miles long and lots of lights. As for the facilities they are proportionately better both in number and quality...again this is not my opinion, it is fact. The only thing accurate in your post is the approx town population and size, bit about small town feel and Mahwah being a hybrid.
I really liked tdstyles's first post. Nice job! Very thorough!
But I really disliked tdstyles's rebuttal of 46H, especially the part about traffic. Rush hour traffic in Wayne is very difficult. I cannot imagine how anyone who travels in it would deem it a 'non-issue,' especially on Wayne's undersized, overcrowded, and often neglected county roads.
That said, OP's initial question focused on schools.
Yes, Wayne schools are superior to most. When comparing school districts that are all within the top ten percent, why try to split hairs about which one is 'better'? Quality educations are offered in all of them!
Consider the size of Wayne schools. Wayne's public high schools are 50% to 100% larger than those in the other towns OP is considering. If participation in sports is important, it should be noted that this means it's harder to 'make the team'. Unless your kid's abilities are exceptional, they may end up as bench warmers.
Wayne is a great town with fine schools. As a WHHS alumnus, I lived in Wayne for many years. I'd consider moving back there without question if not for the explosive TNT — Traffic 'n Taxes.
I really liked tdstyles's first post. Nice job! Very thorough!
But I really disliked tdstyles's rebuttal of 46H, especially the part about traffic. Rush hour traffic in Wayne is very difficult. I cannot imagine how anyone who travels in it would deem it a 'non-issue,' especially on Wayne's undersized, overcrowded, and often neglected county roads.
That said, OP's initial question focused on schools.
Yes, Wayne schools are superior to most. When comparing school districts that are all within the top ten percent, why try to split hairs about which one is 'better'? Quality educations are offered in all of them!
Consider the size of Wayne schools. Wayne's public high schools are 50% to 100% larger than those in the other towns OP is considering. If participation in sports is important, it should be noted that this means it's harder to 'make the team'. Unless your kid's abilities are exceptional, they may end up as bench warmers.
Wayne is a great town with fine schools. As a WHHS alumnus, I lived in Wayne for many years. I'd consider moving back there without question if not for the explosive TNT — Traffic 'n Taxes.
Yeh sorry, I was a little harsh in my response but I've just never experienced the traffic that I keep hearing about on here and it just kind of strikes a nerve. From the posts you'd think there were cars backed up for miles. I'm on Ratzer, Valley and Hamburg every single day during morning rush hour and sometimes during evening(rarely since I work late and usually miss rush hour by the time I leave the office) and have never experienced anything outside of what I would classify as very regular traffic( the same that would be experienced in any town). I mean, I make it to Clifton in 18-22 minutes during morning rush hour and that is over 12 miles away! Also the fact is that there is traffic in every town and from my experience. The traffic in Wayne, IMO, is no different from the traffic in Glen Rock, or the traffic in Hawthorne, or the traffic in Ramsey. That is why I classify it as a non issue, it is not out of the ordinary. Again the traffic opinion is subjective and I completely respect people's right to disagree with me on that.
Last edited by Goldendoodle1969; 06-27-2014 at 11:15 AM..
yeah Wayne has great schools. Huge library (actually went there to study for my MCATs). Students in the district (Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley) routinely get into top schools.
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Very thorough!
Unless your kid's abilities are exceptional, they may end up as bench warmers.
