New Paltz schools - what's the deal?

October 7, 2018 3:17 PM

Hi. I was poking around real estate in the Hudson Valley, specifically, around New Paltz. I keep seeing fairly low school ratings on GreatSchools.com. This is true not only of New Paltz but quite a few towns immediately above NYC. Is there anyone local can speak to this? Niche.com tells a different story. But, I'm not certain of the criteria etc by which either site makes their ratings. We have 3 boys ages 7, 11, and 13. I'm wondering what's the truth? What do local people think or hear about the schools? Thanks!
posted by Shanachie to Education (8 answers total)

The review-writing demographic of parents who are writing reviews are explicitly or implicitly comparing them to elite Westchester County suburban schools where virtually every kid has a graduate-educated professional parent and where poverty rates are statistically insignificant (0% to 1% free- and reduced-price school lunch rates), and to schools in the city where there are wide variety of gifted and talented options and a fair share of the poor are of the "PhD in the homeland, cab driver in America" striving demographic.

The Hudson Valley districts have ordinary rates of the ordinary sorts of poverty and the non-poor has a wide distribution of parental education and prioritization on education -- and the schools reflect that.

The US Department of Education has a statistics engine which is your friend for demographic data. New Paltz Middle School is 23% free- and reduced-price lunch ... which is suggestive of a school with plenty of resources and attention that can suit you. Even some of the schools with the toughest reputations in the Hudson Valley avoid the extremes of segregation (Newburgh, for example, has 35% of students who aren't free- and reduced-price lunch) in ways that imply that they maintain some good programming and resources.
posted by MattD at 4:55 PM on October 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

I can speak directly about New Paltz High School, which is where my son goes. I don't know about the other schools in the district for younger students.

The High School is pretty great. The facilities and equipment are modern and well maintained. The faculty is bright and happy to be there. Many kids appear engaged and uninhibited. These are very good fundamentals. My son conceded to me last year the the High School is "pretty good" which is high praise from a 15 year old.

I personally attended "bad" and "world class" schools in my K-12 education. New Paltz is one that I would choose for myself if I were a young person again, but I'm sure I'm biased by the benefits of the area, which I perceive to be many.

If you continue poking, MeMail me and I will do what I can to answer questions or connect you with people around here who can.
posted by Glomar response at 5:41 PM on October 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

I've lived in the area for a long time, and New Paltz has always had a very good reputation. Local real estate agents seem to consider "New Paltz school district!" to be a strong selling point.
posted by Corvid at 7:14 PM on October 7, 2018

Best answer: I live in New Paltz and my 4-year-old daughter will be a part of the public schools. The lower elementary school is excellent, and I've heard good things about the upper elementary and high schools. The middle school is undergoing a leadership change that I suspect was much-needed based on Things I've heard. The property taxes here are very high. Parents are very engaged. The schools are certainly better--and with a more liberal population--than Wallkill or Highland. It is not very racially diverse and I find some of the blowback I've heard against teachers of color to be troubling. There's no pre-k here, which is pretty horrendous considering the property taxes. Also, it is a small, insular district, and I've heard that bullying in the middle and high schools can be a problem. There is some real conflict between conservative families who have been here a long time and more liberal NY transplants/families of college professors. The last board of ed election was capital U-ugly.

Largely glad to be here, though.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:51 PM on October 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

I saw a good paper the other day which showed that great schools rankings loaded almost entirely on household income and whiteness, and actual educational outcome were pretty close to irrelevant.
posted by JPD at 3:26 AM on October 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

I live on the other side of the river and a little south from PhoBWanKenobi (who recommended New Paltz to me originally when I was looking for a place to move from down south). Candidly, I love the Hudson Valley and I think New Paltz is a great town, but we elected not to move to NP for other reasons. I have heard great things about NP schools from many folks in the area.

I live in Beacon and I would say that as these things go, your choices for great schools are probably Cold Spring, New Paltz and Rhinebeck (and possibly Red Hook) if you're not interested in Westchester. If I had to pick where to have my kids grow up, any one of the three would be ideal; my personal pick would be Rhinebeck, Cold Spring and NP in that order but not just for the schools. I think New Paltz has less for kids than the other towns, but I haven't done the work required to have a truly deep opinion. I personally think our side of the river (east side) has more economic development and is nicer, but the west side has more economic potential for growth.

The only other thing I'd say about living up here that I've found surprising, not necessarily relevant to your question, is that I haven't been impressed so far with the quality of my healthcare or the quality of restaurants to eat out at, but other than that, the Hudson Valley is one of the most beautiful and charming places I've ever been and the convenience of taking a train an hour and a half south to the big city cannot be understated. In NP, that convenience is lessened, but the tradeoff is nature and peace and quiet, which is worth it IMO.

Good luck!
posted by arimathea at 12:39 PM on October 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think New Paltz has less for kids than the other towns

Eh, disagree on this generally. We're surrounded by nature trails, farm shares, movies in fields, farms with giant bouncy pads and corn mazes and petting zoos and ice cream, enrichment classes at SUNY New Paltz, LARP-based summer camps--just a ton of stuff. Rhinebeck, particularly, skews older culture-wise (though it does have Oblong books, the best bookstore in the area).
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 1:39 PM on October 8, 2018

Yup, understood, we just have slightly different opinions. Depends on what you want.
posted by arimathea at 5:44 PM on October 8, 2018