I think you need a good enough high school with a big enough cohort of high achieving kids there’s someone for your kids to hang with intellectually. Our high school isn’t particularly highly ranked, and many other school districts are considered much better, but the fact is, that the teachers are pretty good, many are excellent and there is a group of kids every year heading off to top ranked colleges. I think my kids would score fine even if they had attended a truly terrible high school, but fwiw they scored very well on the SAT and got 5’s on all their APs (oldest) and most for the youngest. Our taxes are half that of some of the neighboring towns for the same size house and lot.