There were two things that my wife and I noticed when we were first checking out the schools. The first was kids of all ages walking together on their way home from school. Having come from New York City, where children are never left without a guardian, it was delightful to see all of the kids walking home together. It was a real "Mayberry" moment for my wife and me.
The second was when we brought the kids into the schools for a tour, the administrative staff was downright effusive about what a great school this was. Wow, no other school was as friendly or invested in their school the way that everyone we met from Mountain Lakes was. We couldn't help but feel that this was a special place.
Each grade has about 120 children in it until high school when Boonton Township children join them to make a class size of around 160 (I'm not including the deaf students who share some classes). This smallish size means that every child knows all the kids in their grade. Our kids were singled out right away during orientation as being new and made to feel right at home by the other curious kids.
In hindsight, it is clear that it is the parents' investment in the schools and their kids which keeps the bar high and drives excellence in the schools. I will say that Mountain Lakes school system is far from perfect and has not been immune from the Great Recession which has taken its toll on some really great teachers who sought early retirement or were forced out through cuts. But, so far as I can tell, opportunities for the kids to play sports, act, make music and art hasn't been affected.
If you are interested in rankings and statistics of how well the Mountain Lakes children do relative to other areas, then check out the newspapers and magazines which publish this data. Year after year, Mountain Lakes falls into the top 10 of public schools in the state.
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