Jafta will be starting kindergarten in the fall, and I am having a really hard time figuring out where he will attend school. I am a big proponent of public school on a number of levels, and I’ve always been vocal about wanting our kids in the neighborhood school. I found this to be a great ideology to hold while my kids were too small to attend school, but now that it’s MY kid who is old enough to be the next student at the Title I down the street, my principles are faltering. I’ve been trying to keep an open mind. I’ve come up with many a justification for the low test scores, and I’ve ignored the rumor mill about the sub-par education that might be awaiting him. I decided to go to the school’s website and find out if there was some sort of open house I could attend. I’ve copied and pasted the info I found:
Kindergarden Registration for 2009-2010 begins at the end of March. For more information please attend our Kindergarden Informaion Night on March 25th, or call the Office.And that just about sums up the problem, doesn’t it?
I would talk to your MIL. I taught with her for 5 years and she definitely would have a lot of information about being an English only student in a Title 1 school. I guarentee the education is excellent there, they will even have tons of extras because of the extra $$$ for being Title 1. But there is more to schooling than listening centers and manipulatives… Good Luck!
shoot. looks like you missed it :). i guess you'll have to look into you other options?
that would seriously give me pause. my oldest will go to kindergarten in the fall, and i, too, have wondered if that is the best option for her. we're going to try it. if there is any hint of trouble, i promise to look our for my daughter first.
It doesn't look good, according to their site;-)
My son won't enter K until fall '11 but the kid can't sit longer than 5 seconds without moving. I don't know if I will be able to homeschool him.
Ha! That's unsettling. Public vs. Private seems to be up there with spanking vs. no spanking, breastfeeding vs. bottle and working vs. stay-at-home. It's so polarizing and moms get so snippy (read: defensive) that whatever they chose is the only way. You'll do what's best for Jafta! And either way, there will be some great blog fodder.
Hurrah for California education! Gee whiz, that is hilarious.
My girl is starting next fall also….I think we're going for the public charter part-time homeschool deal. If I can handle it.
Maybe you should call the Office and give them some informaion on how to spell kindergarten.
At least it wasn't Kindergarden Informaion Nite.
I've found some pretty spectacular spelling and grammatical errors in the official announcements my kids bring home from their Title I school, but I'm very pleased with the education they are getting there. Before making any decisions, perhaps you can arrange to observe a kindergarten class. Good teachers make all the difference.
We can't stop laughing out loud. Sorry to see there may be something to those rumors! But I'd agree on one front — go check out a couple classrooms and see if you can request a particular teacher. That really can make all the difference. 🙂
I'm really, really hoping that maybe they just have a website admin that isn't go great at the spelling! I am still going to go to the Informaion Night. I know one of the kindergarten teachers, so at least there is that!
It's a tough decision. We just finished the magnet school application process for our oldest, who will be in 2nd grade in the fall. She is currently in private school and I would love not to have to pay for school (tho I know I will have to pay for after-care), but I am really torn on whether I want to make the switch. Like you I have always been committed to public education, in theory. But we have never lived in a neighborhood where the local elementary was a "good" school (they are uniformly low-performing or mediocre) so we keep trying for charter schools and magnet schools and not getting in.
However, even if she is admitted to the magnet, the one thing I keep coming back to is the racial diversity at Viva's current school. It seems like in public school – even the magnet school we are considering – the demographics are always overwhelmingly one race or another. Her current school is a pretty even mix of races/ethnicities, which is alarmingly unusual. I guess I'm being overly idealistic.
Is it possible I'm overthinking it? (NAWWWW….)
By the way: typos on anything distributed by a school are my personal pet peeve. I'm supposed to entrust teaching my kid to you and you can't even spell (os use spellcheck)?! Please, do go to Informaion Night and be sure to report back. I am sure it will be very educaional. 🙂
Oh how sad. THey really had the wrong year? We don't even have an Open House so I thought that was at least a step in the right direction. Maybe my mom and I could go to the school with you one day to sheck it out. You could always call and make an appointment to meet with the principal and sit in on a KDG class. If it makes you feel better my kids will come with me to my Title 1 school and be just fine.
This is a tough decision. I suggest you take a tour of the school. You may be pleasantly surprised. At least then you can make your own educated opinion instead of relying on hearsay. I also suspect that the information you found on the school website may have been from last years registration, not for this coming fall.
I wanted to point out that I find it funny that several of the comments about your post on bad spelling have misspelled words in them! How critical can you all be when you too didn't use spell check!