which school district: Council Rock or Lower Merion? (Philadelphia, Horsham: 2013, how much)

[tuffCookie]

hi everyone, first time posting here.

my child is going to start kindergarten next year. the child's mother and i are trying to decide which school district to enroll her into. as with most parents, we're looking for great education system, safe, high graduation and college enrollment rate, etc. So far, some possibilities include Lower Merion and Council Rock. both are highly ranked within PA and nationally and statistics-wise, seem to be comparable.


besides the publicized stats and rankings, below i've listed some thoughts for each. i'm fairly familiar with both areas, but looking for feedback on which would be better, personal experiences, etc


Lower Merion
+ working in center city, this would be a very close commute to work...maybe 10-15 minutes
- no relatives close by in case of any emergencies
~ i have various friends who graduated from this school district. while they say education is great, many were quick to point out that the general social culture in the area is full of rich, stuck up people. segregation between rich and poor. take it for what it's worth...
~ child's mother also works very close to this area and has been high on this school district due to a lot of positive feedback from her clients who have children in the school district


Council Rock (North)
+ i have close relatives that lived in the area for about 15 years. they currently have 2 kids in school, while another 2 graduated and are now in college
+ one of my close relatives is a teacher in the school district, knows many of the teachers, and is very familiar with the school system. has been trying to sell me on the idea that this is the place to be and that they know who the good/bad teachers are, etc.
- far commute to work. Septa train ride out to Woodbourne or Yardley is about an hour. i've taken this trip on multiple occassions and i think it's manageable as i've used that time to catch up on sleep or work
~ biggest obstacle here is convincing child's mother since she doesn't want to relocate so far


in both cases above, i and/or the child's mother would have to relocate from current location to the respective school districts.



as a fall back option, there is also the Hatboro-Horsham school district.
+ i currently reside in the Horsham area, graduated from here, and moved back here after college
+ my parents and brothers live in the area and are there to help for any emergencies, picking up my child from school, etc
~ while it's not a bad school district, it does not rank nearly as high as Lower Merion or Council Rock
~ from personal experience, i don't think this school district is bad or great...let's say above average.
~ commute to work is within 30-40 minutes on Septa


thanks for any feedback!

[ElijahAstin]

These districts are so infredibly far apart from one another...

The Philadelphia area has no shortage of good to outstanding school districts. Working in Center City, I would take Council Rock out of the equation. Aside from LM there's Radnor, Colonial, Haverford, Rose Tree Media, Wallingford-Swarthmore, and countless others convenient to Center City Philadelphia. Moorestown, Haddonfield, Cherry Hill, and Voorhees/Eastern Regional on the other side of the river as well.

Give us a budget and aesthetic/other, non-school district-related preferences and we can serve you much better.

Also, I'd recommend reposting this in the Philadelphia forum.

[tuffCookie]

thanks for the response HeavenWood.

i don't have a set budget. i am saving up to buy my first home, so thing such as property value, taxes, etc are things i'm looking into.


some non school related pref (i'll add more if and when i think of them):

- clean, safe, active, friendly communities
- good quality of life
- well maintained public buildings, properties, etc
- public transportation is a plus


i'll repost this in the Philadelphia forum as suggested.

[ElijahAstin]

If I were in your situation, I'd look to Colonial or Upper Dublin. Well-ranked districts close to your family in Horsham without being terribly far from the city via rail.

[tuffCookie]

Upper Dublin was in the mix as a fall back option as it borders Horsham, but more research to do. i'll also look into Colonial.

thanks for the feedback so far.

[Angus215]

Sounds like you need to figure out how much you can afford to spend, and what type/size of house you want to buy. That will limit your options right off the bat. Aside from the two you have mentioned, there are dozens of other good school districts in the area, including Hatboro Horsham, all with their own unique pro's and con's. I would not live in CR if I worked in Center City, however. UD may be a consideration, although much of it is comprosied of relatively expensive 60's split-level type homes. Wissahickon may be another consideration for you, as well as Abington.

[NovaDragon]

I went to Council Rock (and currently live in Horsham) and while I didn't go to Lower merion one of my best friends who I met at Villanova graduated from Lower Merion so I'll give you what I know.

1. If you are choosing Council Rock, choose North (Newtown, Upper Makefield, Wrightstown). I went to South (and worked at both those schools as teachers) and South, while not bad, seemed to be a step or two behind North.
2. Both are going to have tons of resources available, top-of-the-line technology and great teachers. LM might have the edge as I remember hearing about students (in high school) having laptops and other technology.
3. At the same time, I remember this because LM was being sued for using the laptops to take pictures of students. When I was at Nova, it seemed like there was at least one new lawsuit or issue that came up every year with LM, though this may have been because of the overly-litigious parents who sent their kids there. CR has had their scandals too, though I don't think it's that many (in the end, I don't think it really makes a difference).
4. Both are going to have their amount of snobbiness. LM has some of the old money snobs but CR has tons of new money so you're going to see a lot of that too. When I lived there, you heard it and saw some of it but I never thought it was a problem or was offended by it (I lived in the not-new money neighborhoods so I was not one of the new money people).
5. As someone who was also looking at districts when they were buying their new house, I would definitely recommend look at Upper Dublin. Similar make-up as CR but closer to the city (via Septa & 309) and in between both places. Can't speak to financial resources or teachers but has similar reputation but is a smaller district so not as much pub. I drive by their HS every day and it's gorgeous. Upper Dublin is much better than Colonial. A better comparison would be between UD & Wissahickon.
6. Central Bucks is just is good, if not better, than CR. It's farther away, but would be a better district. Larger area covered and tons of different housing available for different types of budgets. My wife is a teacher there & loves it. Biggest issue would be commute.

Hope this helps.

[tuffCookie]

Originally Posted by NovaDragon

I went to Council Rock (and currently live in Horsham) and while I didn't go to Lower merion one of my best friends who I met at Villanova graduated from Lower Merion so I'll give you what I know.

1. If you are choosing Council Rock, choose North (Newtown, Upper Makefield, Wrightstown). I went to South (and worked at both those schools as teachers) and South, while not bad, seemed to be a step or two behind North.
2. Both are going to have tons of resources available, top-of-the-line technology and great teachers. LM might have the edge as I remember hearing about students (in high school) having laptops and other technology.
3. At the same time, I remember this because LM was being sued for using the laptops to take pictures of students. When I was at Nova, it seemed like there was at least one new lawsuit or issue that came up every year with LM, though this may have been because of the overly-litigious parents who sent their kids there. CR has had their scandals too, though I don't think it's that many (in the end, I don't think it really makes a difference).
4. Both are going to have their amount of snobbiness. LM has some of the old money snobs but CR has tons of new money so you're going to see a lot of that too. When I lived there, you heard it and saw some of it but I never thought it was a problem or was offended by it (I lived in the not-new money neighborhoods so I was not one of the new money people).
5. As someone who was also looking at districts when they were buying their new house, I would definitely recommend look at Upper Dublin. Similar make-up as CR but closer to the city (via Septa & 309) and in between both places. Can't speak to financial resources or teachers but has similar reputation but is a smaller district so not as much pub. I drive by their HS every day and it's gorgeous. Upper Dublin is much better than Colonial. A better comparison would be between UD & Wissahickon.
6. Central Bucks is just is good, if not better, than CR. It's farther away, but would be a better district. Larger area covered and tons of different housing available for different types of budgets. My wife is a teacher there & loves it. Biggest issue would be commute.

Hope this helps.

thanks for feedback. i spoke to my relative and they agreed that Council Rock North was better than South.

i agree, Upper Dublin's HS is very nice (so is the area). i drive by it once in awhile and see it whenever i take 309. i still remember it before they expanded and built new buildings.


one question, what was deciding factor for you to move/live in Horsham?

i would think you would live closer or in Central Bucks since you mentioned Central Bucks is just as good, if not better, than CR. plus the fact that your wife is a teacher there. i'm assuming there were other factors besides school district in your decision, but i would have to think Central Bucks ranks higher than the Horsham school district.

[Angus215]

Horsham is a great suburban area. It consistently shows up on rankings of best places to live, such as the 2013 Money magazine ranking.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/best-places/

It has a very good combination of affordability, location, safety, highway and public transportation access, and public schools. Does CR or CB "rank" higher? Depends who you ask, I guess, but it's surely in the top 10% in the state. Maybe not the place for "public school snobs", but very good. For elementary schools, Blair Mill in particular always seems to be rated very highly and there are others that are very good.

http://www.schooldigger.com/go/PA/sc...k.aspx?level=3

In any event. CR and CB are no place to live if you work in Center City. I don't live in Horsham, but I work there and I ruled out CB even for a commute down 611 to Horsham. Upper Dublin is probably better than Horsham in terms of commuting to CC (and schools are considered marginally better), but it is more expensive, the houses are generally older/uglier and property taxes will be significantly higher since they spent so much building a new high school during the housing boom.

Added: by the way, the new school performance profile site from the PA Dept of Ed is a very good resource for comparing schools, although not all districts have data uploaded yet.

http://www.paschoolperformance.org/

[NovaDragon]

Originally Posted by tuffCookie

one question, what was deciding factor for you to move/live in Horsham?

i would think you would live closer or in Central Bucks since you mentioned Central Bucks is just as good, if not better, than CR. plus the fact that your wife is a teacher there. i'm assuming there were other factors besides school district in your decision, but i would have to think Central Bucks ranks higher than the Horsham school district.

For us, it was a couple of things. Big thing was the commute. I work in university city so I didn't want to be doing a one-way 1.5 hour commute every day from Doylestown (or Newtown). Horsham was a little more accessible, close to 2 Regional Rail lines, 309, etc. It was also one of the better school districts in the areas we were looking at. While not top of the line like UD, CB, & CR, we found that it was generally regarded as better than Upper Moreland, Centennial, Neshaminy & Abington. Also, and probably the most obvious, we happened to find the right house that was in Horsham. If we had found another house in a neighboring district, we might have moved there too. We were basically looked at certain school districts to look in and H-H was one of them. While we don't have kids yet so I can't comment on the schools, we have been very happy with our choice so far.

But yes, I would definitely regard CB is better than Hatboro-Horsham.