Is anyone going to force their kid to go to a center school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got in, but no way would I send them to our Center school. Local level IV is not an option for us either. We’ll stay at the base and supplement outside of school.

why not?

One of my children attended our Center for a while and opted to return to the base school. The bus ride was very LONG, fellow students were overly competitive and egotistical, and it wasn’t a good experience. It wasn’t that the work was too hard or the pace too fast, but the school culture was a bad fit. My child was much happier after leaving. Knowing what I know, I opted out for my other kids.

I also didn’t like that the AAP Center was basically segregated. The AAP kids were mostly white or Asian higher-income kids, while the rest of the students were mainly FARMS. I’m sure the Center was put there to boost test scores, but the groups did not mix at all. It struck me as wrong. I would hate to have a gen-ed student at that school because I know they felt like second-class citizens.

[Anonymous]

It bothers me that people generalize AAP students as "overly competitive and egotistical". Maybe your child had some classmates like that, but there are all types of personalities, some problematic, everywhere, in gen ed or AAP. They're just kids for goodness sakes. My kids attended our Center and had a wonderful experience and made great friends. And they aren't white or Asian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It bothers me that people generalize AAP students as "overly competitive and egotistical". Maybe your child had some classmates like that, but there are all types of personalities, some problematic, everywhere, in gen ed or AAP. They're just kids for goodness sakes. My kids attended our Center and had a wonderful experience and made great friends. And they aren't white or Asian.

I didn’t generalize about all AAP students, but there was definitely a cohort of overly competitive and egotistical students in my child’s class. Kids bragged about being in AAP and were snotty know-it-alls. The school itself seemed to fuel it. We said no to all of that and are comfortable with our choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got in, but no way would I send them to our Center school. Local level IV is not an option for us either. We’ll stay at the base and supplement outside of school.

why not?

No the PP and we do have LLIV, but I would never take my kid out of the neighborhood school. Tons of friends, he can walk there and back, it's convenient . Also, it's elementary school so who cares?


When we moved here, we carefully chose a diverse school, racially and socio economically. Pulling him to the bubble school was never an option.

That’s all fine and good, but some schools experience a brain drain if the have a weak or nonexistent local Level IV program. Your kid might not love it so much if his friends are leaving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It bothers me that people generalize AAP students as "overly competitive and egotistical". Maybe your child had some classmates like that, but there are all types of personalities, some problematic, everywhere, in gen ed or AAP. They're just kids for goodness sakes. My kids attended our Center and had a wonderful experience and made great friends. And they aren't white or Asian.

I didn’t generalize about all AAP students, but there was definitely a cohort of overly competitive and egotistical students in my child’s class. Kids bragged about being in AAP and were snotty know-it-alls. The school itself seemed to fuel it. We said no to all of that and are comfortable with our choice.

I don't know if there is more than one school like this but you sound like you are describing Keene Mill and you are not the only person who feels this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't seen anything in the mail yet, but we decided a while back that we would keep our DC in his base school. He's done really well here, has had wonderful teachers so far, all of his friends are here, and he's in the SACC program which he loves.

Sounds like SACC isn’t your only factor, but they usually run a bus from the base school to the APP center. So he could stay at SACC at his base school even if he went to the center.

PP - yes, you are correct. I'm aware of the transportation provided; we got our acceptance letter yesterday. I'm still 95% sure we're staying at our base school, but may attend the center school orientation purely out of curiousity. Our son has already conveyed to us that he wants to stay at his current school.

The one benefit to going to the center school would be that we could eliminate morning SACC, as that school starts a lot earlier than his current school.