School Daze

Before I started blogging, my wife and I went on the great school search for the HB. This is a ritual among families in LA because while the public schools generally suck, there are some islands of good schools and a fair amount of school choice (charter schools, magnet schools and private schools). My wife and I, being analytic types, poured over school data and visited what seemed like 20 schools. One of the ones we really liked is actually very close to us. It's a charter/magnet, which meant we had to apply to a lottery where points are awarded in a fairly byzantine way. Oh, and you lose your magnet points if you turn down an official invitation to a magnet school. We're not sure if this includes being called from a wait-list.

Of course, we didn't win the lottery. This was not a surprise as when I looked at the ratio of applications to spots, well, let's just say the HB has a better chance of getting into Stanford. But, one of the the private schools we liked accepted him and that's where he's been. The school is excellent and we're happy with it, but it ain't cheap. Also, as he got rejected each year by the charter/magnet, we accrued the points so that, theoretically, he would eventually get accepted there (which we had lost hope in because the school has a transfer rate of nearly zero) or we could use for high school (his current school goes through 8th grade).

So, I get a call from my wife yesterday. The charter/magnet school called and said, "We have a spot for the HB, but you have to let us know by 2 pm tomorrow." So, my wife and I rush around and get together for lunch. Funny, she never calls with an urge to get together for lunch so we can have sex, but that's a different story.

I had this HUGE rush of anxiety as I had put the school search stuff in the deep recesses of my mind. I figured the HB would stay at this school until 8th grade, then we'd do the great search one more time. But trying to decide in 24 hours made my head hurt.

So, we decided to call the school back to see if we could get a tour, etc. and also have our cool neighbors over as their kids both went there. We also wanted to pick their brains about middle schools (their daughters ended up going to different ones). At this point, she's leaning towards moving him and I'm leaning towards keeping him where he is. From her perspective, she's concerned about the money and her constant state of dread that she'll run out of work. I'm thinking that moving him would put us on a path with fewer choices for middle school.

My wife calls the school and the assistant principal who called her is a total bitch. First, she puts her on hold a couple of times and holds a side conversation or two. Then she says that she can't meet with us or arrange for a tour because they are so busy. IHU LAUSD. So, before our neighbors come over, we decide to cruise by the school (the HB was a kindergartener the last time we were there) and take a look around. Turns out that they are having an end-of-the-year open house. You'd think that Ms. Cranky Pants would have been more than happy to have someone take us around...but noooooooooooo.

The big reminder of going through there was that it's a pretty good school, has an innovative curriculum and has class sizes that are way too large (about 30-35 per class at his grade). The kids learn mostly through projects and it's pretty self-directed. The HB doesn't always focus as much as he should, so I'm thinking this might not be the best place for him.

Our friends came over with their kids and we talked about the charter/magnet and the middle schools. The girls' mom does some special ed work with LAUSD, so she knows a lot about the schools and the system. The most interesting thing that came out of the conversation was how much the LOVE the middle school where their youngest goes to. It's public, but is also a magnet. So, if were were to keep our magnet points we could apply there in a couple of years. She seemed to think that you don't lose the magnet points for turning down a wait-list spot, but said that she would call the district and check for us.

So, as of now here's what we're gonna do: Keep the HB in his school for the next two years. Apply to the good magnet middle school. If he gets in, great. If not, we'll stay at the current school.

Whew....