JOHN F KENNEDY SCHOOL vs SANTAPOGUE SCHOOL

John F Kennedy School and Santapogue School are separated by just 2.4 miles in West Babylon, New York, yet they sit just one spot apart in New York state rankings — Kennedy at #37 of 4,739 schools and Santapogue at #38 of 4,739. Both schools earned an identical overall rating of 9.2/10, placing them among the top 1% of elementary schools statewide. For parents weighing these two options, the differences emerge in the details rather than the headline numbers.

On academics, John F Kennedy School holds a slim edge with a 7.8/10 academic score compared to Santapogue School's 7.6/10 — a 0.2-point gap that reflects a modest but measurable difference in tested proficiency. Santapogue flips the advantage on growth, earning a 9.9/10 growth score against Kennedy's 9.8/10, suggesting that Santapogue students show marginally stronger year-over-year learning gains relative to their starting points. Both schools are genuinely exceptional on growth, and neither advantage is large enough to be a deciding factor on its own.

The demographic profiles of the two schools diverge more sharply. Santapogue School enrolls 356 students compared to Kennedy's 333, and its free and reduced-price lunch rate stands at 46% — nearly double Kennedy's 27%. That gap signals a meaningfully different socioeconomic mix and may reflect differences in the neighborhood populations each school draws from. Santapogue also offers a lower student-teacher ratio of 9.9:1 versus Kennedy's 11.1:1, meaning each teacher at Santapogue is responsible for roughly one fewer student on average — a practical difference in classroom attention.

Both schools serve students in grades PK through 5, so grade-level access is identical. The distinction parents should weigh is environment: Kennedy's lower FRL rate and slightly higher academic score may reflect a more academically concentrated peer group, while Santapogue's tighter staffing ratio and marginally stronger growth score suggest a school that accelerates student progress effectively across a broader range of starting points.