sorry, just wanted to throw my 0.02 in on the aliq/hopewell merge:my parents still reside in hopewell. my sisters and i all went to hopewell. all of us were fairly miserable, with the exception of my baby sister, but that was just us. regardless: they have been talking about merging the 2 schools since i was in elementary school. and then again a handful of times in jr high. and again in HS. point is-it never happened. it isn't news that they talk about it, no matter what. it's been thrown around for the last 15 yrs, and it hasn't happened yet. the monaca/center merge might change some ppl's minds, but chances are it only made it worse. most of the center parents are unhappy with the merge, and the last thing anyone wants is to merge with aliquippa. i don't care where you're from, nobody wants to merge with that school. hopewell is no superior school, but aliquippa is just that bad. i sincerely doubt the merge will happen. the rumors have been floating around forever. and if someone hears the rumor and feels it is a new rumor...they prob haven't been around the area all that long to not have heard the rumor the last time it floated around. however, if you're looking to move in to the area-i would shoot for moon area school district, or if you don't mind going farther up-blackhawk for sure. southside HS isn't bad, it's just extremely, extremely small (105 in a graduating class, my X went there). west allegheny is decent as well. i would skip ambridge, freedom, aliquippa, the newly merged monaca/center school, rochester.