Google Sturgis Public Charter School in Hyannis, Ma. It's one of the best ranked schools in the country. My daughter went there, it was wonderful. You could live in any of the Cape Cod towns as long as you didn't mind the commute. The only real downside is that admission is (or at least it was) a lottery system.

Beth p.

If I wanted a beach community, I would probably head south to get the longer beaching season, but I don't know anything about the schools.

I would imagine there are great schools in VA though given the proximity to DC....

Sadly, the schools near DC that are good are not near any beach! We are an hour from Annapolis (which may have good schools, actually-I don't know) and a good 3-4 hours from the ocean.

Greenwich, CT? Darien, CT?

But they are very expensive towns.

One of the problems you will run into is that property in a beach community is expensive, which leads to wealthy people buying up the properties. Then they send their children to private schools, and sometimes the public schools suffer. This is not true of all shoreline communities, but it does happen.

There's Boston Latin School. Boston is on the harbor, but doesn't really have a shore to go bathing. You have to go north or south of the city to find a beach.

Yes that's a good point about being expensive and the private schools. I guess I was hoping for a smaller beach community that wasn't so popular. But, like me, lots of people want to live at the beach! I'm not opposed to private schools, I was just hoping the increased cost of living would be offset with a better public school system.

I hadn't thought about going north. My initial thoughts were in the Carolinas. Especially the Charleston area. But I love the New England area.

St. Johns County, Florida. There are several small beach towns to choose from like Ponte Vedra Beach and St. Augustine. Our school district is #1 in the state. And you've got Jacksonville 30 minutes north and Orlando 2 hours south if you want big city opportunities.

I'm pretty familiar with beach communities in GA and SC and there aren't any that I am aware of that have great public schools. There are exceptions but public schools in small and medium Southern cities are usually not that great. Southern cities often have low taxes and don't have the money to spend on education. In the deep South, there is often a culture of anti intellectual sentiment and fiscal conservatism that doesn't see the value in spending on education beyond a certain level.

In my beach community in South Georgia we have a very good elementary school. Our middle and high school are in town and aren't that great.

As my kids have moved towards college age, I often wished that we lived in VA or NC. They have excellent reasonably priced public colleges.

This post was edited by deee on Mon, Jun 17, 13 at 8:51

I have a summer place in Virginia Beach - so my kids did not attend high school there but I know there are some very good high schools there and some of them have the IB program if that's something your son is interested in. First Colonial HS and Cox HS are the two that come to mind.

Barrington RI has nationally top ranked schools and is a lovely town. Madison, ct on the LI sound, tho not white sand and big waves is a shore town with a very good public school system.

Being a connecticutter, I can say this: For the most part, CT beaches are lousy. And they can be extremely expensive. They aren't my idea of beach, and certainly not for the $$$. Friend has a vacation home literally right on the beach, and it's fun to visit and listen to the waves, but the beach is lousy with rocks and breakwaters and such. And the Sound is so salty. But then again, I've been spoiled with FL beaches which are so wonderful....not a rock or mussel bed in sight...just watch out for the man o' wars. ;)

Does the water need to be salty, that is, would an "inland sea" work for you? If so, VT and NY have areas that meet your qualifications of great public schools and great beaches. In VT try the Burlington area (Lake Champlain) in NY anywhere from Clayton (St. Lawrence Seaway) to Buffalo, between the two are small, hip towns like Sacket's Harbor, college towns like Oswego and large cities like Rochester and Buffalo (which is actually at the convergence of Lakes Erie and Oswego).

If you need salt water, Newburyport, MA is a great option as is Portland, ME,

Good luck-

sandyponder

Gee, Annie, I love the CT beaches, and further north the NE beaches, because I like the rocks, interesting topography and the greenery that surrounds the beach. I don't care for big flat strips of sand with high rises, as so much of FL is.

As others have mentioned, it is a hard combo to find. We looked at this same question. When DH and I retired a few years ago, our kids were still in elementary school. We were open to relocating just about anywhere, and researched several areas of the US (before we decided we are not so adventurous and wanted to stay in the Phila-NYC-Boston corridor.)

Anyway, we used the Newsweek High School ranking as a guide of public school quality. I think they are free on line. But be careful in interpreting them; some public schools only admit the best students and so their numbers aren't comparable. Thus, if I recall, there were a lot of really good schools at the top of the rankings in FL. This confused me because (no offense to anyone) everyone I know said FL schools were very poor. It turns out those were all selective schools, so the figures were distorted. As a very broad statement, public schools in the Northeast tend to be better funded and better performing. That said, I think the posters above have made a great point about in state college tuition!

We have been looking at/bid on oceanfront NE (say CT/RI border to the NH/ME border). A decent house, and I do not mean elegant or enormous, is about 2mn.

Like others have said, I think it depends what you mean by beach. Do you mean the ocean?

I live in MD and the beach community here on the Atlantic is nothing special. Where I live in Annapolis, as someone mentioned above, there is a ton of waterfront, but it is mostly the Chesapeake Bay which is an estuary that feeds into the Atlantic, and a couple of rivers that feed into the bay. The sailing industry is huge here, but all types of water sports are popular. However, nearly all beaches are privately owned (community or individual owners). Most waterfront communities, like my own, have neighborhood beaches that can be used by residents and their guests. There are many waterfront and water privileged homes and good schools (not in Annapolis proper but in the surrounding communities). Waterfront can be pricey but depending on the neighborhood, not out of reach for an upper middle class income. Commuting distance to both Wash DC and Baltimore. But if the ocean is what you are after, that's two hours east of Annapolis but the schools are not noteworthy.

Good luck in your search!

DH is from Westport, CT. Lovely town. Good schools. Very expensive.

if i was interested in living year round on a beach, i would find the beach i was looking for and then find a good private school that i wanted to send my children to... i think it would be very hard to find a great public school at the beach of your dreams...

I think it is possible for a child to get a great education at a not so great school. Much depends on the child and parent.

My oldest is a curious nerd and would have gotten a great education wherever she attended. Teachers loved her and she was always willing to go above and beyond.

Younger dd is a different story. She does okay work in honors classes. Because her grades are "fine" she doesn't get any pressure from her teachers to do better. And frankly, why should they spend the time when they have dozens of other kids to worry about ? She is definitely not working up to her potential.

If your kids are nerdy (for lack of a better word) it should be possible for them to get a good education just about anywhere. If they are like my younger DD who would much rather be social, do sports, etc., it might be more difficult.

This post was edited by deee on Mon, Jun 17, 13 at 12:20

Thank you for posting so many interesting points for me to consider. College tuition for one!

mtnrdredux, that listing is what started this idea! One of the top ten was in Charleston, SC. It is a magnet school. I do have a nerdy, gifted child, but it would be a lot of pressure to move and then hope he got accepted:) But it did start me thinking of the possibility. I love that area and it is close to family and friends.

I generally do agree that he could get a good education at our high school. My husband and I both attended and it worked out fine for us. However, I think it is declining every year, and wonder what it will be in 4 years when it is his turn to attend. It takes a lot of extra parental involvement to get kids truly ready for a rigorous college education through our current system. It did not used to be like that. Most advanced classes have to be taken through the local community college, but friends with older children tell me many colleges did not accept those, not knowing the credentials of the school or the class. Also, my state does not allow charter or magnet schools, so those are not options. The only private schools are religious based and aren't currently offering any more educational opportunities than the public schools.

Right now we are at least 8 hours from the closest beach, so pretty much anywhere will get me closer! I have time, and it's fun to think about the possibility of moving.

Is Massachusetts too "seasonal" for you? If not, definitely check out Swampscott and Marblehead. Depending on your budget, Manchester-by-the-Sea could also be in the running. All three are beautiful, beautiful towns. Truly idyllic. All have great schools, as well.

I'd tell you to move to my community (we have great schools too!) but we're decidedly *not* a beach community!

I don't have children and am not up on schools. BUT, we love the Charleston area. I would think you could find a good school in that area. I know there are some artsy type schools and not surprised to hear there is a magnet school. I used to work with a woman who had her three children in three different schools - due to their needs/interests.

tina

Legomom,

I think the magnets that are not open to all should be listed separately and ranked separately. Because the scores are are really meaningless relative to schools that must take everyone. Of course the selective schools have better metrics. That does not mean they will do a better job of educating your son. If, let's say for arguments sake, the minimum IQ in the magnet school was 130, then you would want to compare it to those kids in an open enrollment school who were >=130, not to ALL the kids in the school.

In our old town, we had a real dichotomy between Wall Street professionals and an urban pocket. My DH used to volunteer in the local High School. He said there were de facto schools within a school. One group of kids was all AP, winning national debate titles and the like, and one group of kids was struggling with the basics. Overall the ranking was still in the top 1% (IIRC Newsweek only ranks the top 1%), but if you had broken the select few off into a magnet, the rankings would have soared.

So, long story short, interpret the rankings really carefully.

As an aside, my sister had a friend who was locating from PA to AZ, and she wanted her son to go to one of the very highly ranked magnet schools there. She contacted the school and was actually able to find out if he would have a spot before she moved. She had to rent at first due to timing, but it may be possible to move after you find out if he gets in ...

Good luck!

PS A second vote for the Mass. beaches, although it is a short and cold season esp for swimming.

In MA, Hingham, Norwell and North Marshfield used to have decent schools and close to the shore. We moved away from the Boston area a few years ago, so I haven't kept up with the rankings.

I have relatives who live near Southport, NC. The schools are not so great. They sent their kids to a small private school through the sixth grade, but after that there was no convenient choice but the public high school. They could have commuted the kids to a private school near Wilmington but did not want to commit to that kind of drive every day. The kids seem to be doing okay. Education is very important to the family.

Surprisingly, Ocean City High School in NJ is a good school. I just would not want to live in OC. It is so crowded during the summer months. I could not live with that crush of people each summer. Nice beaches, though.

We have pretty good schools here. This picture is from one of our local beach cams last week. It was gorgeous! We live in Wilmington, NC

I agree with Danielleg,
Marblehead is a beautiful coastal towns with excellent public schools.

If you wouldn't mind being a bit more inland, our town was just ranked as having one of the top 10 best public schools in MA. It takes 30 min. to get to the water.

DD#2 went to school in CT and we spent plenty of time on the shoreline of the LI sound. We did not particularly care for that type of beach.