Who can forget that Elmer’s Glue smell growing up? In classrooms everywhere, its use had no limits. When used properly, it set the creativity loose among our young minds, piecing together projects with sometimes surprising outcomes. Safe to touch, frowned upon to eat and—to the unfortunate—highly discouraged to put in yours or someone else’s hair.
After years of producing our Rating the Burbs feature, we’ve come to realize how important the school data was within our extensive data research (which includes many data sets used to evaluate our local Tristate communities). For instance, one year I saw one quality community basically take a nose-dive year-over-year in these rankings. After further review, we saw that their home values had taken a hit more so than the communities surrounding them. Home values are a big determinant of success within our rankings. After some investigation, we found that their school levy had failed and that had most likely sent their home values strongly downward.
The message to me was clear: Schools are very important to a community’s success, compared to our other metrics. If the value a community places in their schools is so important, why not shine a spotlight on it for the benefit of all our readers? Therefore, Best Schools became a cover story in the magazine some years ago.
During the pandemic, life has been upended, along with how schools are managed and how the community interacts with them. Test scores for students who remained remote longer saw a significant downgrade compared to others. Parents have increased their scrutiny of educators and school leadership. Who hasn’t seen the higher prevalence of signs, when compared to previous years, of those now running for both our local community council or school board?
We hope you enjoy learning about the region’s schools in the Best Schools feature, back after a year off. By the way, that one community did eventually pass its school levy. The following year, just like clockwork (and the consistency of the first period bell in class), its home values and rankings skyrocketed back. Schools really are the glue that binds us together.
Eric Harmon, President & Publisher
