The Imperfect Community

Petulant Pixie · Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 8:10 am Post subject: School changes...again

Well, we're pulling Katie out of the catholic school. We liked the school, she had made good friends and fit in fine. We just can't afford it. Seriously, we've gotten over our heads in debt this past year with Liz and two kids in private school. Having Alex in the charter school next year would help, but not enough. We've made cuts wherever else we reasonably could and frankly, we're sick of living like this. We need to cut our debt so we can do things like go to movies without the fear of it causing us to bounce checks at the end of the month. Or--gasp--go on a vacation! Katie's school was the most logical cut.

So, I enrolled her in the public school system yesterday. We went down to the main district office to fill out the papers and there was a big sign saying that all the schools in the district were full to capacity and any new students would be sent to schools out of district. See? Remember how I've bitched about this fucking school district before? Anyway, they assured me that her school was NOT full and she'd be accepted. Oh, thank you for allowing my kid to go to the PUBLIC SCHOOL less than a mile from our house, which our TAXES support! The building in this area is out of control. They are just assemling these 4 thousand square foot monstrosities in bulk and they aren't able to build schools fast enough to keep up with it. We now have three elementary (k-6) schools with 1000+ students each (and a dozen others with lesser populations--Katie's being one of those). Meanwhile, their budget is being slashed every year--things like special ed are gone. I hope that this is the right move. We can't afford for her to go to that other school anymore and honestly if I hadn't tried the catholic thing, then we never would have sent her to the other school in the first place.

She's warming up to the idea. At first she was devastated. She cried and cried about losing her friends. She'll still be able to go to girl scouts at the old school, and Mike is still adamant that she do her first communion this year (via night classes) so she'll see her friends at church. I don't know. I hope it's the right thing. If not, I'll pull her out and homeschool her and once we get our finances in order we can try to put her back in the catholic school. Katie would be an ideal candidate for homeschooling, if I felt I could tackle that!

DietCokeHead · Queen of Imperfection Joined: 29 Apr 2002 Posts: 3805

Sorry, that stinks about having to change schools! Is she going into 2nd grade?

I would love to send our kids to Catholic schools but the ones here are $3k a year and that's not affordable for us right now. Luckily our public schools are excellent so I don't have to feel too bad about it but it would be nice if Catholic schools weren't so freaking expensive. Is Catholic education only for the wealthy? Evil or Very Mad

I hear ya on feeling broke! This past year has been really hard for us too. With me not working then our expenses going up with another baby at the same time, it sucked. I can't wait to start getting paid in September!!

Petulant Pixie · Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:05 am Post subject:

Yeah, Katie's school would have been 3K for her this year. We were paying like 5K with both of them in the school last year. Plus we have to pay for the bus, since the catholic school is out of our district. We paid $250 last year for the bus, it would have been $300 this year. But, the catholic school in our ritzy suburb runs DOUBLE what the kids' school cost--so 6K a year for one kid. The catholic high school here is 10K a year. There are other private schools in the area, but I don't know anything about them or how much they are.

Honestly, homeschooling would work best for Katie and I see this as either working for her or pushing me closer to doing that. Last year, she was labeled "energetic" and "lacking focus" and she did all right academically (it's the S+, S, S- system), but since school has been out, her reading has exploded. I don't tell her to read books, I don't have to--she has a stack of readers (she likes the "step 2" readers) and she'll sit and read like 10 of them in a row. She's stumbled upon the concept of multiplication and runs with it. She writes out addition and subtraction problems on her white board and solves them for fun. Without school being the distraction that it was, her learning has really taken off this summer! Alex is soooo not like that, he needs the rules and the structure of a traditional setting to learn well. But, Katie? I dunno.

Rebecca_R · Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:03 pm Post subject:

PP- sounds like a good decision. Is Alex still going to stay in the catholic school?

MedeaNJ · Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:21 pm Post subject:

Keep us informed.

Still working (I KNOW! I can't get my sorry ass out of my job!), but at the end of the year we may be able to qualify for a tuition discount up to 50% off. If we could pay 2 for 1 we will be thrilled. Granted they are only 2, but next January they start transitional kindergarten, then 3-5 day kindy. Hunterdon County, NJ and Bucks County, PA are considered some of the most expensive counties in the East.

The tuition at the school if I remember correctly is going to run about $3500 for each kid. Grade will probably be about $10K each now that they are a fully accredited Waldorf school. The other school in Philly, Princeton, and NYC range between $12 - 17K per year!

Hmmm...homeschooling is beginning to sound pretty good now.

Sewingsiren · Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:34 pm Post subject:

I feel your pain. I am in the process of changing (public) schools right now too. My daughter got in to the traditional school through the "waiting pool". I had to present my case in front of the School Board for my son ( that was hard ) and I still don't have an answer as to were he will go to school this fall. And school starts on the 25th!! Somebody kill me. Please.

Scout · Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:49 pm Post subject:

That sucks, PP, but I bet she'll do fine.
SS, we got a sibling transfer for Joshua to go to Calvin's school. It's a
PITA, but I just had to fill out an application and turn it in.

honeybee · Queen of Imperfection Joined: 20 Dec 2002 Posts: 3163

Katie sounds a lot like Ethan with the learning. I waffle back and forth about homeschooling him. I would do it without a doubt if I didn't have other kids, but with a needy Owen and new baby - Confused

- I just don't know if I can do it.

Sewingsiren · Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 7:37 am Post subject:

Oh, I wish all I had to do was fill out a forum. I started last Dec. when I visited the traditional School and decided that thats were they needed to be. Then we interred the "Lottery" (didn't get in), then applied for a "Transfer" (didn't get it), were interred into the "Waiting pool", and applied for an " Appeal". I found out when I was in Texas that my dd got in through the waiting pool, but my son did not. So I went forward with the appeal, my date to go before the Board of Education was 12 July. I stated my case and was interrupted before I finished with "You have convinced us", but I still don't have any written word where my son will be going to school this year, did I mention school starts on the 25th of August?! confused2

I feel like a lunatic.

Petulant Pixie · Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 7:51 am Post subject:

SS--that is unreal! Where the hell do you live?? I just would be insane with that!

Lisa--man, I just wouldn't even think about that route of schooling then. I have pretty rigid philosophies about early and elementary education anyway, and I just don't think that the Waldorf system would align with my beliefs if they put them in transitional kindergarten so young and they cost so fucking much. I also (this is based on our experiences here) don't think I'd find a fit with the other parents--the kind of people who have that kind of money to put into schooling--my mind just floods with the images of the people around here who have the status attached to the school names and, well, ugh.

Petulant Pixie · Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:09 am Post subject:

Becky--Alex is going to a charter school next year. It's really cool, it's just down the street from us, and I've had my eye on it for a few years. It's called the Math & Science Academy. Anyone in the state can attend, but it has a very rigorous cirriculum. It goes from grades 6-12, but the kids finish their high school requirements at the end of 10th grade and the last two years there, they take college classes at the community college. So, if you can survive there then at the end, you really would have just about any university eating out of your hand. They have no sports teams (they do their PE at the YMCA. The kids get a paid membership for the Y and they have PE time to go there), and there is no prom. They kick ass in robotics, I guess they have robotics teams that go all over the country to compete. I really think it's the right school for him, full of little science geeks like he is. And, it's FREE!

Rebecca_R · Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:47 pm Post subject:

Hmmmm...why no prom? I thought that was one of those special, unforgettable high school experiences??

Petulant Pixie · Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 6:32 am Post subject:

Personally, I'm glad there is no prom. I hated mine! This school just takes the emphasis off of all that stuff, it's just totally academic in nature, for kids who prefer that sort of environment. My feeling about it so far is that it's more of a pre-college atmosphere than a high school atmosphere, which I would have loved, and I think Alex will excel in, too. There are kids out there who would do much better in life if they skipped the whole high school experience and were just put into a college-like enviornment, and it seems that all those kinds of kids in this area are lucky enough to have adults who apparently were like that and see the need to provide it for others.

Sewingsiren · Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 6:46 am Post subject:

That would have been the perfect environment for my nephew. He really struggled in high school. He didn't even go to the graduation, but now he is a math major in college and is excelling and has even received an invitation to go to grad school for free and a future promise of a place on the faculty!