The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in Math. The lowest is 23% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Westbrook Elementary School
Westbrook Elementary School is a closed school. It served students in kindergarten through fifth grade in West Milford, a large, rural, and primarily residential township in northern Passaic County, New Jersey. The school was closed as of the start of the 2023-24 school year, a decision that aligns with broader local demographic trends that have seen the township’s population decline modestly over recent decades while environmental protections constrain new development. For any parent or resident reading now, Westbrook Elementary School is a former attendance zone and a past option, not an active one. The question for a current family is what this closure means for the remaining schools in the district, as the four other elementary schools in West Milford now absorb the students who would have attended Westbrook.
West Milford itself is a place where geography defines daily life. Nearly two-thirds of the township’s land is permanently protected open space, including watersheds, reservoirs, mountains, and roughly forty lakes. There is no traditional downtown. Instead, the township is a collection of communities, with homes spread across large lots, many built around lakes as former seasonal bungalows later converted to year-round use. The main commercial corridor is Route 23. Walkability is low, and a car is essential. The district’s eight schools are spread across this landscape on separated campuses, not clustered in a single center.
Because Westbrook Elementary School has closed, we do not have full state testing data for it. The testing data available is from the 2022-23 school year, its last year of operation, and covers only math, English language arts, and science in grades three through five. That data shows a mixed picture. In English language arts, proficiency rates rose from a low figure in grade three to a near majority in grade four and then to just over half in grade five. In math, the pattern was uneven. The highest proficiency appeared in grade four, with lower rates in grade three and grade five. Science, tested only in grade five, showed a much lower proficiency rate. These are single-year snapshots, and without broader context about the school’s long-term performance or the specific characteristics of those cohorts, it is hard to draw strong conclusions. A parent curious about the academic trajectory of the students who attended Westbrook would want to look at the current performance data from the district’s other elementary schools to see how the transition is going.
The civil rights data, including enrollment by race and ethnicity, economic disadvantage, students with disabilities, and English learner status, was not available for this school. The same is true for information on class sizes, staffing ratios, discipline rates, and course access. This is a significant gap, as it means there is no public portrait of the student body or the school’s internal environment. A family could reasonably ask the district for this information.
The housing market in the area served by Westbrook is expensive. Typical home values in the 07480 zip code are above national and state benchmarks, putting the cost of living high. The township’s growth is heavily constrained by the Highlands Regional Master Plan, which limits development to protect drinking water. That, combined with a modest population decline, has reduced school enrollment, a factor that contributed to the decision to close Westbrook. The district has not publicly reported any other recent or pending changes that would affect a parent’s decision.
In short, Westbrook Elementary School no longer exists as an active school. For anyone who lived in its attendance zone, the practical concern is which of the remaining four elementary schools their child now attends and how that school’s programs, culture, and performance compare. The closure is a clear signal that the district is shrinking and consolidating, which a family moving into the area should understand when choosing a neighborhood.
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