The top reported proficiency rate is 71% in English language arts. The lowest is 33% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Stephen J. Gerace School
Stephen J. Gerace School is one of the primary-grade schools serving the Pequannock Township School District, a suburban district in eastern Morris County. The school covers kindergarten through fifth grade, making it a starting point for families in the community before students move on to the district’s middle school. The student body of Gerace School is predominantly white, with a Hispanic population representing the next largest group. Very few students at the school are economically disadvantaged, and the share qualifies as quite low compared to many districts in the region; a family considering this school would find a peer environment that is relatively homogenous economically.
The school itself operates as a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and there is no Title I designation, which aligns with the low share of students receiving free or reduced-price meals. The enrollment is moderate for an elementary school serving these grades, with class groups that appear to be of a size that would allow for individual attention. The school’s setting in Pequannock is a largely residential bedroom community, with civic life concentrated along the Newark-Pompton Turnpike corridor. The township is car-dependent, with commercial services running along Route 23. Many residents commute to jobs elsewhere, likely toward the Interstate 80 corridor or New York City, and the housing market reflects a high-cost area. Housing values are above national and state medians, and the county’s market shows demand outpacing supply, with homes moving relatively quickly. A family moving here should expect a significant financial commitment to housing, consistent with much of Morris County.
The district’s academic performance for Gerace School is measured by the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, and the available data shows a pattern of solid to strong results in English language arts and mathematics across third, fourth, and fifth grades, with proficiency rates that place the school above the midpoint of the county’s elementary schools when aggregated. In both math and ELA, the proficiency rates rise moderately as students move from third to fifth grade, with fifth-grade ELA particularly standing out. The school’s overall performance index is above the district median within Morris County, which is a competitive benchmark given the county’s generally high-performing schools. The one subject area where the results drop is science, which is tested only in fifth grade; here the proficiency rate is notably lower. A parent may want to ask the school how science instruction is structured across the elementary years, as the fifth-grade results suggest room for growth in that subject.
The locale brief for Pequannock reports that the township is primarily residential and that its population growth peaked in the mid-20th century, with recent decades seeing only modest increases. There is no large-scale new development on the horizon, and the district brief did not turn up any recent major changes to curriculum, budgets, or facilities. That lack of news in itself suggests a period of stability for the district. For a parent considering the school, the relevant context is that Gerace is a well-resourced elementary school in an expensive, stable suburb, with strong reading and math results but a notable gap in science. The school does not serve grades beyond fifth, so there is no graduation rate to consider here, and chronic absenteeism data was not available, so that is a gap a prospective parent may want to raise with the school directly.
The student population is very low in economic diversity, and the racial makeup is largely white; families who value a diverse peer environment will find that this school reflects the broader demographics of the township, which are overwhelmingly white. Program data for the school itself was not provided, so offerings such as art, music, physical education, or enrichment cannot be described here. The school’s role is as a neighborhood elementary school in a district where most families are homeowners and where the academic baseline in literacy and numeracy is solidly above average for the county. For a family looking for a strong start in reading and math within a stable, affluent suburban setting, Gerace School fits that description. The science results in fifth grade are the one area that stands out as weaker, and that may be worth a conversation with the principal about how the school approaches science instruction in the earlier grades.
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