Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

My SO and I can't really take the crowd, impoliteness, and continuing decline of lack of true neighborhood feel of the city and we decided to move to Long Island. Skipping nassau we looked straight into Suffolk. Started at dix hills, smithtown, st. james, setauket, now we ended up in Mt. Sinai.

Do we have any parents from Mt. Sinai area? We have 10 year old who'll be going to 6th grade next year, it looks like Mt. Sinai schools are pretty good.

We would love to hear from families in the area, including Setaukets as well as Stony Brook area.
In Mt. Sinai, is there anything I should be aware of/areas to avoid or more desirable areas? How are winters? We drove to cedar beach, what a beautiful place!

I work near queens border so it's a long drive but I am trying to negotiate 2-3 day week work schedule so it should be doable then.

Thank in advance and be well!

Re: Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

I am in Middle Island, Mt. Sinai is a very small district but very good school district. One of my friends is the assistant principal of the High School.

Message edited 3/14/2021 11:32:49 PM.

Re: Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

I’m in a small town right near Mt. Sinai. It’s a very nice area. I love the small town feel these few areas on the the north shore have. We just moved here 1.5 years ago from a much bigger town still In Suffolk and we are so happy we did. Mt. Sinai is probably one of the more expensive ones of these small towns. Great choice though!

Port Jefferson station isn’t as small but it’s not huge. The schools are pretty good still. But according to some people I know that live there, some areas might want to be avoided. We definitely didn’t rule out this area when looking though. It’s more affordable than Mt. Sinai.

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

I lived in PJS for 5 years. I loved it when I first moved there and then didn’t love so much of what I saw. I personally wouldn’t recommend the neighborhood at all, but that’s me. Also if your child needs services they are just ok but it took a lot of fighting to get the bare minimum for my son. I also grew up around the area and always loved PJS but after living there I would never go back

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

Thank you for the feedback.
We found few homes in Port Jefferson Station zip code but in Mt. Sinai school district.

TwinMommyToBoys, the area is totally new to us, and by driving around we noticed some areas are really well maintained, while others not so good, but we didn't really know which area belong to which zip code or school district so that might be why. I think lack of special needs support or even help identify weak areas is something most SDs are missing these days. Do you mind letting us know where you moved eventually?

Some of the houses we looked are far from both Mt. Sinai and PJS (but in Mt. Sinai school district, and in PJS zip code (literally edge of 11776 zip) and it's kind of edge of Mt. Sinai SD.

Hi Jenn, the area we are looking is between 112 and Patchogue-MTS road, around Canal Road. The houses are nice and I did spot 1M+ houses as well as 500k houses, so I thought it was a nice blend and diversity.

We've also seen some condos, Villages and Ranches communities, I thought they were 55+ but they confirmed they are not. It's a nice very clean, organized community, but houses were too close to each other, no backyard space for kids to run/play.

Re: Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

Message edited 2/24/2022 9:38:09 PM.

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

I live in PJS, my family member lives in Mt. Sinai. Mt. Sinai is lacking for special education, and they also don't offer BOCES Career Tech Ed for their high school students as an FYI. Not sure if either of those apply to you. It's also a very cliquey setting and a lot of keeping up with the Jones' there. The Villages is "the place" to be apparently. Even though there is no yard space.

As for PJS, I don't love it, but don't hate it. I've lived here for 14 years. Our schools are decent, and they have handled the pandemic schooling pretty well for the most part (my youngest is in 8th). My oldest (22) is Autistic and graduated from Comsewogue, and we had awesome services for him his entire school career here.

Message edited 3/15/2021 5:21:31 AM.

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

It seems like a gamble since we don't really know the area much, from what I've read so far it sounds to me that we should either consider strictly Mt. Sinai zip code/neighborhoods or not consider at all.

We will also keep our eyes open for any decent houses in Smithtown, Setaukets and Stony Brook.

Regarding special needs, I think every school starting this year should be prepared to deal with a lot of mental and behavioral issues due to being stuck at home for almost a year during Covid. It will have long lasting effects on kids, so I hope both State and local school districts pay more attention to these in coming years.

I heard about BOCES before, never knew about those programs before, I love this site for this reason! Thank you. I wanted to focus more on arts, especially music, theatre, painting, etc. I heard Northport SD is good with arts.

While I want our DS to have a successful career, I don't want him to do something he doesn't want, if it's not what he wants like pushing him to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, etc.. I also don't want him to feel like he is always in competition, I heard some stories about Jericho, Syosset, Cold Spring Harbor, SD's, that's no fun.. So it's important that SD can identify strengths of the kids while addressing other issues like special needs. This is probably more important than the 1-10 rating system they are using now. I couldn't really find information on this in any of the sites.

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

IMHO, the Three Village School District is the best around the area (TV, Comsewogue, Pt Jeff, Mt. Sinai, Miller Place). That puts you in Stony Brook or the Setaukets. The others are all decent Long Island school districts. There are definitely areas in the Comsewogue district that are less desirable than others. Either due to traffic, or commercial area build-up, or something else.

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

Thank you DancinBarefoot, are you from TVSD? It's Elementary school until 6th grade and MS only 7-8, then HS 9-12, right? Is the Elementary fully in person or blended/remote?
It was my first choice actually seeing an amazing house in PJS in MS SD made me rethink. Let me research a bit more if I have any questions I'll start a new thread on Setaukets.

Message edited 3/18/2021 2:10:31 AM.

Re: Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

I’m in 3V and the middle schools go from 7-9 and Ward Melville is 10-12.

We love the district. We have been in person 5 days a week since sept (all buildings) and you had the option of full remote.

Taxes in 3V are high but we have been thrilled with the schools. There are a few blocks that have PJS addresses that are 3V schools off old town.

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

I live in PJS and love it here. Sure there are undesirable areas but most are fine and the district has been great throughout the pandemic. If you have any questions feel free to message me.

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

I don't have any information re: the various school districts. Overall, I love the area (live nearby and work in Stony Brook/Setauket). The only thing I would look out for, particularly in Stony Brook is that many houses are rented out to groups of college students. I have one house near me like that and it has never been a problem, but a friend of mine who lives in Stony Brook has a house full of loud college students right next door and to say it can be annoying is a huge understatement

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

chilltocam, that's exactly what I was thinking, but I realize those houses are more on the northern side and houses with many rooms. I've seen one for sale and I can tell from a mile away it was like a dorm so I wouldn't expect it to be in best condition so we stayed away. If I can find any house, I try to make sure at least houses on either side are owner occupied. It's hard these days, I don't feel like people would welcome anyone knocking on their door to ask few questions during covid.. Maybe in summer if they are like working on their yards etc you can spot those owner occupied homes so that requires a lot of visits and I live 60 miles away right now. :) Not an easy trip to take just to scout or sit on a neighbor stakeout.

Thanks Danielle! I will message you if I have any specific questions. I just realized some of the homes we found in 3V SD are also in PJS zipcode. Did not realize that until now.

Hi Meaghan, how is the school bus operation during covid? Are your little ones in MS or HS? our DS is complaining that his current city friends will make fun of him because he will be in Elementary school while his friends will move on to Middle School, so we are reminding him it's not the school that matters, it's the grade, you and your friends will be in same grade.. I also reminded him his cousins in others states are also in same situation.

If anyone could share school bus situation in their areas that would be great. We've never had bus experience, our school was literally behind our home so it will be another new experience for all of us.

In Setaukets, we are looking at "South Setauket" I know there is no such zip code, but the area by Percy B Raynor Park, part of what's called "Pondfield Crossing". Houses vary in prices form 600's to 800's and we are trying to something in lower end of this range since the neighborhood as community feel, we are hoping it's a family commmunity.

One thing that made me a little concerned (hubby was OK with it saying it's normal) was that I noticed houses have alarm systems in this area, whereas in other parts, especially commack/dix hills we haven't seen any house with alarm system. We are wondering if it was necessary for these houses to have alarm systems, or if it was just part of original building construction.

Re: Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

Re: Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

Re: Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

Message edited 2/24/2022 9:37:55 PM.

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

I grew up in south setauket in the wireless road area. its 3 village schools with a centereach zip code

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

Everyone in 3V gets bussing. Busses are running same as pre covid.

My kids are elementary. If you’re budget is 600-800 look in island estates in Setauket. It’s a popular family neighborhood.

Mine are in ES and they don’t care that it goes to 6th. They do sports and surrounding towns have 6th in MS and it’s really not an issue with the kids. They love their school and don’t want to graduate!

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

Thank you for the all the replies, I really begin to think it's a nice area, however one thing I've been hearing is the traffic over by Nicolls. Someone said in another thread to think about moving from City to Suburbs only to face city traffic on Nicolls.. :( Is it really that bad? If I decide to for one of those houses in Pondfield Crossing, I will need to take Nicolls every day.

Hi Meaghan, which area is Island Estates? Or is it like condo community? Thanks.

I also read about alphabet zones like S section, M section, B section, wonder if these matter which section is better than others.

We drove by College section (right above M section) which is next to co-ed park, and it really looked like dorm area, lots of cars parked by every house.

Mrs213 and Karen, thanks, we just saw one house to the east of Wireless road. 14 Grace Ln. It looks nice just we weren't sure about the neighborhood.

Thank you so much everyone for the information on Alarm system, makes total sense and I never even thought about having it to get reduction on the home insurance! :) I know it's a family forum but I guess I grew up paranoid, locking our doors, checking windows and doors before bed time, or sometime getting up and checking again even though you are 99% sure you locked it.. As if we have diamonds and gold at home.. Someone won't even want to steal our 80lbs plasma TV from 2005.

SecretlyTTC14, I am not sure about ring but Nest is supposed to be great that can connect with smoke detector and actually shut off heat if it senses smoke in the house, pretty nifty but not cheap.

Sounds like verdict is YES on Setaukets, even South Setauket (technically Centereach zip code). That reminds me, do you lose any benefits like beach/LIRR parking etc because of being in centereach zip code? Looks like same fire, police and library district as setaukets, only difference is water district?

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

There isn’t a lot of traffic on Nicolls. 347 can be a pain pre covid but traffic hasn’t been bad since the pandemic started. It’s typical LI traffic.

Island estates is off of Gnarled Hollow Rd, just south of 25a and north of sheep pasture rd. The surrounding neighborhood is nice too (Buccaneer, galleon, buckingham meadow are some of the street names)

Message edited 3/19/2021 7:08:37 PM.

Moving to Port Jefferson Station / Mt. Sinai

The traffic on 347 is bad during rush hour over by the mall. It's bad because it's the one major highway on the north shore and it comes right off the northern state in that hauppauge area. Nicolls going north off the expressway at the end of day is also bad sometimes

Message edited 3/19/2021 7:53:36 PM.