If you want a top school district

Ranking Long Island's best public schools is a tricky business. Anyone with online access can check school report cards at the state Education Department Web site.

[LindyBab]

Lindenhurst is great because it has three bakeries in the village. Babylon village has nice restaurants and tons of little shops to explore, plus a LIRR hub.

[Joey]

LindyBab wrote:

Lindenhurst is great because it has three bakeries in the village. Babylon village has nice restaurants and tons of little shops to explore, plus a LIRR hub.

Not exactly what I would have in mind when checking for the best schools! Jacka$$

[Rich]

With all the school taxes I pay and they way all the "PRO" school tax people talk, Bayport should have been near the top of this list. What happened???

[Jen on LI]

I live in Setauket just down the street from the beach. This area is so incredibly beautiful and quiet. Being north of 25a gives the area a wonderful hidden quality which allows sense of peace and safety. In addition to streets canopied with lush trees and quiet neighborhoods we have the benefit of one of the best school districts, Three Village. There is no shortage of programs for every intellectual level. So, with that said, I can say with experience that living in Setauket is a fabulous place to raise children and live.

[LindyTom]

Lindenhurst school district didn't make the Newsweek poll or Newsday poll for best schools in Long Island but I think it's not the school district but the students that make up the district. I have a son in the Middle School who's in the principal list. I think he would have been in the principal list no matter what school district he was in. I guess I just couldn't afford to buy a house in the top school districts. Therefore, I think those polls are overrated.
Lindenhurst is also a very nice place to raise a family. It's very diverse and many working-class families with kids. There are many family owned shops on Wellwood Avenue in the heart of the village.

[A Gray]

The Village of Massapequa Park should employee better employees in the park works dept

[Shaft]

holy crap Newsday, this is a great concept but your website DOESN'T WORK!!! I'm going to realtor.com now.

P.S. Patchogue RULES!

[EVEN STEVENS]

On the whole one needs to take the good with the bad on Long Island. Let's start off positive. Long Island beaches, shopping, and close to Manhattan's art mecca makes LI a prime area to live. Now let's take the bad. High taxes and lack of community bonding. Very few who grew up here, still live here. The taxes are way too high. Also neighbors keep to themselves. That's good, however. Rarely does a neighbor feud happen in my neighborhood, no one talks to others on the block. Also traffic is horrendous. Never seen such lousy traffic outside of big cities. In other words, the Island is too crowded because of developer and political greed. Regardless, the beaches is the greatest getaway on this earth.

[Mr Big Town]

Altough I do not live there Rockvile Centre is probably the best town in Long Island. It has a 33 minute train ride, a town with plenty of great restaurants, great schools and every pary of the town has a Currier and Ives setting. It also has some diversity which is one of the most important things that your children can be exposed to growing up. Many of the other top 10 towns are all clones stepford in nature. For example in Garden city every dad works on wall street and In Great Neck every family is in the Jewelery or Garment business. RVC seems ideal

[Jen]

I currently reside in Manorville after living in various places on LI including Nassau and Queens. Manorville is a very large community but the feeling of small town life is very strong here.
Parents are very involved and there is defintely a strong feeling of "it takes a village" to raise a child.
There are many stay at home moms who are more than willing to help the ones that must work.
Life is very centered around children.
My husband and I have thought of moving south but we can not imagine a community that would compare to Manorville.
We have also considered moving west on LI but could also not invision the lifestyle we grew up on with houses so close together, no horse farms, etc.
By far this is a great place to live!
A joke in our house is even if we won the mega millions we would never leave Manorville!

[Kilkenny]

I live in Bethpage and my children attend Plainedge schools.Although the taxes are very high,I feel that this is one of the best places to live.We have a 10 minute ride to the beaches because of easy access to parkways and a 2 minute ride to Bethpage golf courses.We are very close to the village in Bethpage with its downtown feel.The schools in Plainedge are excellent and even though they didn't make Newsdays list which of course has a million dollar house feeling to it,Plainedge is a place where middle class residents can get the same education for their children without the exorbitant home price.If you look up standardized test scores from the previous year,you will see some of our scores are second only to Jericho.We also have excellent sports programs for our children as well as first class programs in our high school.I would also like to add that unlike some other places on the Island where neighbors keep to themselves,you will regularly see people in this district congregating in the middle of the street and chipping in with fundraisers when someone is in need because of illness.I highly recommend living here and if you choose to come ,Welcome to the neighborhood.

[East Islip resident]

I was walking along Union Blvd yesterday and I am disgusted by the litter along the road. We should be ashamed of ourselves. As soon as I leave my job I am joing KIC (Keep Islip Clean) and help to clean up the mess.

[East Islip resident]

Also the kids that drive around with the bass turned up so much that my house shakes, turn it down before you go deaf! Also have some respect for people who may have sleeping babies, elderly people and people who may work nights and sleep during the day!

[Farmingdale Man]

Nice Main Street area with restraunts and bars. Good stadium movie theaters. Allen Park is great and is now expanding. 10 minutes to beaches, 45 to city. The neighborhood has landscaping fever, so all the properties are nice.

[jonthan Winant]

Village of Valley Stream
those intending on looking for rental or homes in the Village need to look around town first. Road conditions are deplorable as many are in need of repairs and in the main shopping district there are stores vacant (wonder why).
The once pristen park (Hendrickson) is now home to garbage flowing from the adjoining State Park and piles of what might be road material or debri picked up from street sweepers. The massive piles of whatever it might be have grown in size in the north west quarter of the park just off of Merrick Road only blocks from Village Hall.
look around the town your thinking of becoming a resident of before believing all the hype salespeople tell you

[Country Girl]

Many people on LI have never eaven heard of my town, Ridge. It is still an affordable place to live, their is diversity in races, religions and nationalitites and everyone seems to live peacefully together. I love that at any time I could see deer in my backyard, a horse and rider coming down the street and children have wide open spaces to play. The homes may not be exclusive and the town may not have cute little shops to browse in, but I still love living here.

[Larry]

I moved to Switzerland after a nightmarish upbringing on LI, which included bad coffee and outings at Roosevelt Field.

I would recommend to move to Europe.

[FatBoy Kessel]

With all the school taxes that we pay in Commack you not only would think that the school halls would be lined with gold, but we would at least place as one of the best.

But we all know where these high taxes are going! Did I hear someone say crooks.........thieves.....Com mack school administrators! Let's hope one day they get caught but I doubt it and even if they do there will be no consequences to pay.

Greedy pieces of crap!

[Get Ready]

3 days in a row now Newsday has been highlighting Long Island Real Estate. I guess it's desperation time because they know the market is crashing and will only get worse. Feel sorry for you suckers who bought at the top .. can you say FORECLOSURE !!

[long island gal]

Glen Cove- FOGETTABOTTITT!!!!!!!!!!