I'm so happy! Gotta share!

Poststructural Pub
1

This is about as off topic as it can get, but I’ve got to share:

As many of you know, I’ve been worried sick about Johanna’s schooling. She just graduated from elementary school, and our regular public secondary schools hereabouts are truly terrible. In February we participated in a lottery for a accelerated charter school in Santa Cruz (which just about everyone who knows her agrees would be perfect for Johanna), but ended up on the waiting list. Although she had a high number on the wait list, we were told it might be as late as September or October before we would know for sure if she got in.

I just got the call a few minutes ago. She’s in! She goes for her math and English assessment tests tomorrow morning (these tests are simply to determine which group she’ll be in for these core classes…since she’s already working at middle school level for math and algebra and college level for English, I have no worries).

If you’re curious, here’s a look at her new school. You can see why we’ve been so eager to get her a placement there:

http://www.pacificcollegiate.com/

We’re all just over the moon!

Redwolf

2

Audrey,

That’s wonderful news!

Blessings,

Mark

3

Congratulations. That’s wonderful news. Three or four breaks like this at the right times and it can set up your life.

4

Celebrate – Celebrate Dance to the music!

That is great news. Congratulations to your daughter and you!

MarkB

5

I’m happy that windows opened for you!
I’ll be facilitating the parallel processes next Fall, of daughter #2 doing the college app. thing, and selecting a High School for the boy. His current school runs through 8th grade (that’s next year,) and since his learning style is completely outside the public school box, we’ll be evaluating several potential alternative schools.
I’m hoping things will click, and the ultimate commute will not be horrendous.

6

Yay! Congratz. :slight_smile:

7

since we are now on school number 3 for Noah - I can certainly understand your fears and pain - and celebrate and congratulate you that you got the best fit!!!

8

Great news, congratulations!

Robin

9

That is just WONDERFUL!

It’s great to hear some good news.

10

Huzzah! I’m so happy for your daughter, Red! My son starts at a magnet school (emphasis on math and technology) in the fall-- this was such a blessing for him, as well.

I hope your girl has a fabulous year!!!

11

Magnets are great. Jo went to a “pre-International Baccalaureat” magnet school when we lived in NC (emphasis on research and foreign language).

It was like pulling teeth getting this charter school going here, and people still complain that it’s “elitist” (even though anyone can go there…in fact, it’s so popular, they have a lottery to determine admissions).

Redwolf

12

Congratulations.

You are giving the best gift possible to your child. A solid education, which will last her all her life.

I’m very happy for you, truly, and can only hope and pray that my own daughter can receive the same wonderful gift that you have given yours.

:slight_smile:

13

I checked into this for my son and yes I’d say these schools are elitist. They say anyone can go there but the bus doesn’t so if you don’t have a flexible schedule your child can’t be accomodated. Totally discriminates against families that rely on all income being earned outside of the home or families with no transportation. Also no latchkey. In addition, many of these schools have parent participation requirements that eliminate a lot of students. Definitely NOT accessible to all…

14

springrobin:

I think “charter” and “magnet” schools are different things in different areas.

MAGNET schools are public schools that have some basis or teaching style or something that is unique to that school. There are montessori, paedia, fundemental academy, science and math academy, college prep, zoo, health services, etc. In this district, at least, they were set up to make the district be in compliance with a desegregation order. Some have the requirement of testing to be accepted (college prep, for example) others are on a first come basis (as long as leaving the neighborhood school doesn’t skew the racial balance required by law).
But the are public schools in all services and areas - the teachers belong to the union, and they must follow all local and state dictates.

CHARTER schools are privately run schools that accept public funds. In other words, the funds that would be used by the student in the public school follow the student to the charter school. By law, a charter school MUST give entrance to any child that applies, unless there are things such as LD etc that cannot be adequately served by the charter school. The teachers are required to be union and must carry a certificate in their level of teaching, but not necessarily the specific subject. The students must pass the state graduation test to get a diploma, but all other standard tests are optional.

PAROCHIAL schools are those that are funding by student tuition AND some type of an organization - in most cases here a church. The kids must pass the graduation test, and the teachers must be certified in level, but not subject.

PRIVATE schools are funded by tuition or private sources. The kids must pass the graduation test, and the teachers do not need to be certified in education.

ALL kids in the state must be offered bus service or stipends if they live 1 mile or more away from the school (until 6th grade) or 2 miles or more away from the school (7th - 12th grade). It doesn’t matter WHAT of the above school types they attend. It’s up to the discretion of each district as to how they will follow this law. In this district, my kids had yellow bus service when they attended parochial school until 8th grade, my one son had a city bus pass for parochial high school, the other, we had to file to receive money when he attended a private school. Now that he will be attending a magnet school, he will be getting a city bus pass.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that in some areas, magnet and charter schools ARE public schools in as far as funding and transportation.

15

There are always work-arounds for transportation, if this kind of education is important enough to you and to your family. Even in our private school, we had many families who relied on two (or more) incomes and who had limited transportation options…they worked out transportation arrangements with other parents. PCS also has information on city bus transportation to and from the school, which costs no more annually than what the school district charges for their busses.

FWIW, in our local district, there are no school busses for high school students in any case, so all parents have to work out transportation options…not just charter school parents. They also don’t have afterschool care for children over the age of 13…so there’s no difference there either.

Parent participation requirements (which are actually “family participation,” and can be met by grandparents, or even friends of the family) are also relatively easy even for working families to meet if they’re creative and care enough about the quality of education their children will receive to put out the effort. I know many people who met their service hours at our school last year by doing a little here and a little there, mostly on evenings and weekends. And yes…these were families in which both parents worked (sometimes multiple jobs)…and some of them were commuting over the hill or from Pajaro! Because charter schools don’t get full public funding, that’s the only way they can function. On the other hand, if you ask outright (as at least one parent did at our informational meeting in January), you’ll learn that service hours “requirements” aren’t actually legal “requirements.” Because charter schools ARE public, they can’t discriminate against students whose parents are unable to fulfill their service hours, nor can they do what most private schools do, which is BILL the parents for missed service hours.

It’s easy to whine “oh, that’s so elitist” because a particular school doesn’t meet your family’s particular needs. I’ve done my share of whining about the regular public schools around here and how they don’t meet OUR family’s needs (in fact, they don’t even come close). Bottom line is, no school situation is going to suit everyone…but that’s no excuse for all children to be forced into the same box. Instead of whining, it makes more sense to LOOK at the resources you have available to you (not only in terms of money, but in terms of people and creativity) and figure out how you can make things work.

A school with a curriculum that any private preparatory school would be proud to offer, but which charges no tuition, requires no testing for entry, and is open to any student in the county is not “elitist.” If anything, the success of schools such as PCS (which had more than 100 kids on its seventh-grade waiting list this year) indicates that MORE such schools are needed and WANTED in our community.

Redwolf

16

Magnet and charter schools are public schools in all areas of the country, but not all areas of the country provide transportation, even to regular public schools. For example, in our area, there is only transportation for elementary school students and only to their district schools…and you have to pay for it (I don’t know how much it is now, but when Jo was in first grade, it was around $200 per year unless you were low income). You can choose a transfer to a different district, but if you get it, transportation is not provided (and whether or not the transfer is allowed depends on your home district…they can and often do deny such transfers because they’re paid by the head). Middle and high school students are on their own, whether they’re going to their district school or a charter school.

Charter schools receive some public funds, but not to the extent that regular public schools do (nor are they provided with a place to house the school…they must come up with that on their own). They manage, on what public funds they do get, by depending on volunteer hours and donations. They are, however, open to any child in the county.

They had a great set up in Durham, NC, where we lived before. All the old inner city schools had been turned into magnet schools. If you lived within a mile of a magnet or had a sibling there, you had an automatic “in.” Otherwise, you had to participate in a lottery, just as you have to for the charter schools here. Students who lived near a magnet but didn’t want to go there had a choice…they could participate in the lottery for a different magnet, or they could go to either of two suburban schools (one full-year, one traditional year) that were “sister” schools for their neighborhood. Likewise, suburban kids had a choice…they could go to their neighborhood school, or to the “sister” school with the alternate year program, or they could participate in the magnet lottery. Whichever alternative you chose, you were guaranteed transportation. There was also an “open enrollment” system in place that allowed you to attend ANY of the non-magnet public schools on a space-available basis…but transportation was not provided in those cases. It was wonderful…all students had real, honest choices in public schooling, and the neighborhood schools improved because they had to compete for students. It was a win-win situation.

In smaller communities, however, the choices are fewer. Here, for example, my only choice for my daughter if I couldn’t afford the $16,000 per year it would cost to send her to a private secondary school (which I can’t) was the local school (which absolutely sucks) or home schooling (which she really didn’t want). I’d love to see MORE charters offering competition to these pathetic local schools (and offering real choices to the kids and to their parents). The fact that the waiting list is so long for the charters we have demonstrates that there’s a real need for such schools.

Redwolf