November 30, 2011

Decisions, Decisions

After the somewhat stressful process of deciding where my daughters would attend kindergarten, I thought my education decisions were over for a few years. Nope. Now I need to figure out next year!
A refresher on kindergarten choices: I had three options for my daughters. I could send them to the nearby charter school, send them to the public school we are zoned for or open enroll them into the public school where they attended preschool. I ruled out the charter school without ever speaking to anyone other than the secretary. During my initial phone call she informed me the school's policy is to separate multiples. I'm not opposed to separating my girls, but I want some say in the process. After a lengthy discussion with the principal where my daughters attended preschool, I made the decision to open enroll them there for kindergarten. First of all, he asked me to keep them there. I want my daughters in a school where they're wanted. He also told me it didn't matter how my daughters were separated in class (and also said they didn't have to be split) and left the decision to me on how to separate them. Plus, I visited the two full-day kindergarten classrooms and the teachers were fantastic. I don't regret my decisions at all. We have two wonderful teachers (which was important to me because we ended up with a not so wonderful teacher our final year of preschool) and we feel like we're part of the "school community." (I'm also on a first-name basis with the nurse/secretary as it seems she needs to call me at least every other week to alert me to a cut, scrape, fever, etc).
But now I need to start looking ahead to first grade. My daughters love school. I want that to continue, so I take this very seriously. (I know, I know. I make it sound like I'm selecting colleges!) The principal wants us to return next year. There are a lot of pros. My daughters have friends at this school. They're familiar with the school. We feel welcome. Plus one of the first grade teachers was Roo's speech therapist last year, so it would be nice to have Roo in her class. One of the reasons the teacher went to first grade is because she wanted more time with the students and felt like she could also address speech issues with those who need help.
I still have to consider the school we're zoned for. I have a meeting with the principal next week. Going to that school means my daughters would leave their friends at their current  school, but would be in classes with children from our neighborhood. I've heard good things about this school, so now it's time for me to find out for myself. I have a lot of thinking to do!

2 comments:

MaryAnne said...

Good luck deciding!

Renae said...

This is very interesting to me. We have no choices at all. Our town has just one school for K-2, one for 3-5, on MS and one HS. Being public school teachers, we probably wouldn't consider private school unless we really had to. Still, I think if the schools were equally good, I'd go with the neighborhood school. But you've got a lot invested already at the other school, so that's definitely something to consider as well. Good thing it's not me who has to make this decision. :o) Good luck!

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