Nancy Van Doren just went off the deep end

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, they're not redoing them again, pp is stirring up drama. Or is late to the party and just learned about how sibling priority is being applied to the montessori program.

I'm late to the party. How is sibling preference being applied differently at montessori relative to other options, and why?

At the other APS elementary choice schools, priority is given to students who attend VPI preschool at the site and younger siblings of concurrently-enrolled students at the choice school. The remaining seats are filled via the lottery. This works because there are significantly fewer VPI students in the pre-K year at those schools than there are kindergarten seats, so there's room to take all of the siblings as well as the VPI students who wish to stay at the school and still have seats leftover for the lottery. This works because VPI students get priority only for the school where they attend VPI, so a student who goes to VPI at Claremont or Barrett doesn't get priority admission for ATS; only students who go to VPI at ATS get priority there.

Montessori is different because all of the students in the APS Montessori preschool program get elementary Montessri priority at Drew, regardless of whether they attend preschool Montessori at Drew or at one of the satellite sites. In past years, between attrition from the program at the elementary level and expansion elementary program size, they've been able to give elementary Montessori priority to APS Montessori preschool students and to siblings of concurrently-enrolled students. Children who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere also got lottery priority over children who had no prior Montessori experience, which meant there was a lot of room for people who sent their kids to private Montessori programs to get their oldest child lotteried into the APS Montessori elementary program and then get all of their younger children in via sibling preference.

Now that the program will be moving to Henry the year after next, they're halting the growth of the Montessori elementary program because there isn't enough room at Henry to keep growing it the way it has. After the applications started coming in this past winter, they realized they had more applicants who qualified for priority enrollment either betweeen the APS preschool kids and the siblings than they had seats available. So they clarified the priority system so that priority goes first to students enrolled in the APS Montessori preschool program, and then to siblings who weren't in the APS preschool program (and they've done away with any preference for students who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere, they go into the general lottery pool with students who have no Montessori experience). The result this year was that only students who were in the APS preschool program were offered seats in the elementary program, and students who would have gotten in via sibling preference were waitlisted. Parents who were counting on getting their younger children into the elementary Montessori program via sibling preference are livid.

PP here. Thanks for the info. Sounds like "clarifying" actually meant changing the policy from what had been done in years past. My guess is the communications about it were also bungled, knowing APS. What's the difference between "private" Montessori and "public"/APS? I can't see any. Both require the family to pay some portion if not all of the tuition. It's all "private", but at least aps private gets guaranteed admission to Henry...until they demolish that building to build a 4th high school and have nowhere to put the montessori program.

They aren't demolishing Henry. They don't have the money to take an entire ES offline and rebuild it somewhere else. There will be no 4th HS at the CC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, they're not redoing them again, pp is stirring up drama. Or is late to the party and just learned about how sibling priority is being applied to the montessori program.

I'm late to the party. How is sibling preference being applied differently at montessori relative to other options, and why?

At the other APS elementary choice schools, priority is given to students who attend VPI preschool at the site and younger siblings of concurrently-enrolled students at the choice school. The remaining seats are filled via the lottery. This works because there are significantly fewer VPI students in the pre-K year at those schools than there are kindergarten seats, so there's room to take all of the siblings as well as the VPI students who wish to stay at the school and still have seats leftover for the lottery. This works because VPI students get priority only for the school where they attend VPI, so a student who goes to VPI at Claremont or Barrett doesn't get priority admission for ATS; only students who go to VPI at ATS get priority there.

Montessori is different because all of the students in the APS Montessori preschool program get elementary Montessri priority at Drew, regardless of whether they attend preschool Montessori at Drew or at one of the satellite sites. In past years, between attrition from the program at the elementary level and expansion elementary program size, they've been able to give elementary Montessori priority to APS Montessori preschool students and to siblings of concurrently-enrolled students. Children who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere also got lottery priority over children who had no prior Montessori experience, which meant there was a lot of room for people who sent their kids to private Montessori programs to get their oldest child lotteried into the APS Montessori elementary program and then get all of their younger children in via sibling preference.

Now that the program will be moving to Henry the year after next, they're halting the growth of the Montessori elementary program because there isn't enough room at Henry to keep growing it the way it has. After the applications started coming in this past winter, they realized they had more applicants who qualified for priority enrollment either betweeen the APS preschool kids and the siblings than they had seats available. So they clarified the priority system so that priority goes first to students enrolled in the APS Montessori preschool program, and then to siblings who weren't in the APS preschool program (and they've done away with any preference for students who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere, they go into the general lottery pool with students who have no Montessori experience). The result this year was that only students who were in the APS preschool program were offered seats in the elementary program, and students who would have gotten in via sibling preference were waitlisted. Parents who were counting on getting their younger children into the elementary Montessori program via sibling preference are livid.

But isn't this just a one year hiccup while they are still in the Drew building? When Montessori actually moves into Henry, there will be more Montessori ES seats. Unless they are moving a bunch of the satellite pre-K classes into Henry.

I can't find firm enrollment numbers, but from the data available on the APS website it looks like there are already over 400 Montessori students at Drew, and Henry's capacity is 463, which doesn't leave a lot of room for growth. They could keep all ten trailers to expand program capacity, but if I'm remembering correctly the hope was to move the 6th grade Montessori to Henry in 2021, which would take up at least a couple of those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, they're not redoing them again, pp is stirring up drama. Or is late to the party and just learned about how sibling priority is being applied to the montessori program.

I'm late to the party. How is sibling preference being applied differently at montessori relative to other options, and why?

At the other APS elementary choice schools, priority is given to students who attend VPI preschool at the site and younger siblings of concurrently-enrolled students at the choice school. The remaining seats are filled via the lottery. This works because there are significantly fewer VPI students in the pre-K year at those schools than there are kindergarten seats, so there's room to take all of the siblings as well as the VPI students who wish to stay at the school and still have seats leftover for the lottery. This works because VPI students get priority only for the school where they attend VPI, so a student who goes to VPI at Claremont or Barrett doesn't get priority admission for ATS; only students who go to VPI at ATS get priority there.

Montessori is different because all of the students in the APS Montessori preschool program get elementary Montessri priority at Drew, regardless of whether they attend preschool Montessori at Drew or at one of the satellite sites. In past years, between attrition from the program at the elementary level and expansion elementary program size, they've been able to give elementary Montessori priority to APS Montessori preschool students and to siblings of concurrently-enrolled students. Children who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere also got lottery priority over children who had no prior Montessori experience, which meant there was a lot of room for people who sent their kids to private Montessori programs to get their oldest child lotteried into the APS Montessori elementary program and then get all of their younger children in via sibling preference.

Now that the program will be moving to Henry the year after next, they're halting the growth of the Montessori elementary program because there isn't enough room at Henry to keep growing it the way it has. After the applications started coming in this past winter, they realized they had more applicants who qualified for priority enrollment either betweeen the APS preschool kids and the siblings than they had seats available. So they clarified the priority system so that priority goes first to students enrolled in the APS Montessori preschool program, and then to siblings who weren't in the APS preschool program (and they've done away with any preference for students who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere, they go into the general lottery pool with students who have no Montessori experience). The result this year was that only students who were in the APS preschool program were offered seats in the elementary program, and students who would have gotten in via sibling preference were waitlisted. Parents who were counting on getting their younger children into the elementary Montessori program via sibling preference are livid.

PP here. Thanks for the info. Sounds like "clarifying" actually meant changing the policy from what had been done in years past. My guess is the communications about it were also bungled, knowing APS. What's the difference between "private" Montessori and "public"/APS? I can't see any. Both require the family to pay some portion if not all of the tuition. It's all "private", but at least aps private gets guaranteed admission to Henry...until they demolish that building to build a 4th high school and have nowhere to put the montessori program.

They aren't demolishing Henry. They don't have the money to take an entire ES offline and rebuild it somewhere else. There will be no 4th HS at the CC.

There will be a fourth high school, it'll just have off-site parking and only one field to come a few years later so that Henry can stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, they're not redoing them again, pp is stirring up drama. Or is late to the party and just learned about how sibling priority is being applied to the montessori program.

I'm late to the party. How is sibling preference being applied differently at montessori relative to other options, and why?

At the other APS elementary choice schools, priority is given to students who attend VPI preschool at the site and younger siblings of concurrently-enrolled students at the choice school. The remaining seats are filled via the lottery. This works because there are significantly fewer VPI students in the pre-K year at those schools than there are kindergarten seats, so there's room to take all of the siblings as well as the VPI students who wish to stay at the school and still have seats leftover for the lottery. This works because VPI students get priority only for the school where they attend VPI, so a student who goes to VPI at Claremont or Barrett doesn't get priority admission for ATS; only students who go to VPI at ATS get priority there.

Montessori is different because all of the students in the APS Montessori preschool program get elementary Montessri priority at Drew, regardless of whether they attend preschool Montessori at Drew or at one of the satellite sites. In past years, between attrition from the program at the elementary level and expansion elementary program size, they've been able to give elementary Montessori priority to APS Montessori preschool students and to siblings of concurrently-enrolled students. Children who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere also got lottery priority over children who had no prior Montessori experience, which meant there was a lot of room for people who sent their kids to private Montessori programs to get their oldest child lotteried into the APS Montessori elementary program and then get all of their younger children in via sibling preference.

Now that the program will be moving to Henry the year after next, they're halting the growth of the Montessori elementary program because there isn't enough room at Henry to keep growing it the way it has. After the applications started coming in this past winter, they realized they had more applicants who qualified for priority enrollment either betweeen the APS preschool kids and the siblings than they had seats available. So they clarified the priority system so that priority goes first to students enrolled in the APS Montessori preschool program, and then to siblings who weren't in the APS preschool program (and they've done away with any preference for students who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere, they go into the general lottery pool with students who have no Montessori experience). The result this year was that only students who were in the APS preschool program were offered seats in the elementary program, and students who would have gotten in via sibling preference were waitlisted. Parents who were counting on getting their younger children into the elementary Montessori program via sibling preference are livid.

PP here. Thanks for the info. Sounds like "clarifying" actually meant changing the policy from what had been done in years past. My guess is the communications about it were also bungled, knowing APS. What's the difference between "private" Montessori and "public"/APS? I can't see any. Both require the family to pay some portion if not all of the tuition. It's all "private", but at least aps private gets guaranteed admission to Henry...until they demolish that building to build a 4th high school and have nowhere to put the montessori program.

They aren't demolishing Henry. They don't have the money to take an entire ES offline and rebuild it somewhere else. There will be no 4th HS at the CC.

There will be a fourth high school, it'll just have off-site parking and only one field to come a few years later so that Henry can stay.

Offsite parking? Like where?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, they're not redoing them again, pp is stirring up drama. Or is late to the party and just learned about how sibling priority is being applied to the montessori program.

I'm late to the party. How is sibling preference being applied differently at montessori relative to other options, and why?

At the other APS elementary choice schools, priority is given to students who attend VPI preschool at the site and younger siblings of concurrently-enrolled students at the choice school. The remaining seats are filled via the lottery. This works because there are significantly fewer VPI students in the pre-K year at those schools than there are kindergarten seats, so there's room to take all of the siblings as well as the VPI students who wish to stay at the school and still have seats leftover for the lottery. This works because VPI students get priority only for the school where they attend VPI, so a student who goes to VPI at Claremont or Barrett doesn't get priority admission for ATS; only students who go to VPI at ATS get priority there.

Montessori is different because all of the students in the APS Montessori preschool program get elementary Montessri priority at Drew, regardless of whether they attend preschool Montessori at Drew or at one of the satellite sites. In past years, between attrition from the program at the elementary level and expansion elementary program size, they've been able to give elementary Montessori priority to APS Montessori preschool students and to siblings of concurrently-enrolled students. Children who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere also got lottery priority over children who had no prior Montessori experience, which meant there was a lot of room for people who sent their kids to private Montessori programs to get their oldest child lotteried into the APS Montessori elementary program and then get all of their younger children in via sibling preference.

Now that the program will be moving to Henry the year after next, they're halting the growth of the Montessori elementary program because there isn't enough room at Henry to keep growing it the way it has. After the applications started coming in this past winter, they realized they had more applicants who qualified for priority enrollment either betweeen the APS preschool kids and the siblings than they had seats available. So they clarified the priority system so that priority goes first to students enrolled in the APS Montessori preschool program, and then to siblings who weren't in the APS preschool program (and they've done away with any preference for students who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere, they go into the general lottery pool with students who have no Montessori experience). The result this year was that only students who were in the APS preschool program were offered seats in the elementary program, and students who would have gotten in via sibling preference were waitlisted. Parents who were counting on getting their younger children into the elementary Montessori program via sibling preference are livid.

PP here. Thanks for the info. Sounds like "clarifying" actually meant changing the policy from what had been done in years past. My guess is the communications about it were also bungled, knowing APS. What's the difference between "private" Montessori and "public"/APS? I can't see any. Both require the family to pay some portion if not all of the tuition. It's all "private", but at least aps private gets guaranteed admission to Henry...until they demolish that building to build a 4th high school and have nowhere to put the montessori program.

They aren't demolishing Henry. They don't have the money to take an entire ES offline and rebuild it somewhere else. There will be no 4th HS at the CC.

There will be a fourth high school, it'll just have off-site parking and only one field to come a few years later so that Henry can stay.

Just
Offsite parking? Like where?

Long Brdge aquatic center

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, they're not redoing them again, pp is stirring up drama. Or is late to the party and just learned about how sibling priority is being applied to the montessori program.

I'm late to the party. How is sibling preference being applied differently at montessori relative to other options, and why?

At the other APS elementary choice schools, priority is given to students who attend VPI preschool at the site and younger siblings of concurrently-enrolled students at the choice school. The remaining seats are filled via the lottery. This works because there are significantly fewer VPI students in the pre-K year at those schools than there are kindergarten seats, so there's room to take all of the siblings as well as the VPI students who wish to stay at the school and still have seats leftover for the lottery. This works because VPI students get priority only for the school where they attend VPI, so a student who goes to VPI at Claremont or Barrett doesn't get priority admission for ATS; only students who go to VPI at ATS get priority there.

Montessori is different because all of the students in the APS Montessori preschool program get elementary Montessri priority at Drew, regardless of whether they attend preschool Montessori at Drew or at one of the satellite sites. In past years, between attrition from the program at the elementary level and expansion elementary program size, they've been able to give elementary Montessori priority to APS Montessori preschool students and to siblings of concurrently-enrolled students. Children who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere also got lottery priority over children who had no prior Montessori experience, which meant there was a lot of room for people who sent their kids to private Montessori programs to get their oldest child lotteried into the APS Montessori elementary program and then get all of their younger children in via sibling preference.

Now that the program will be moving to Henry the year after next, they're halting the growth of the Montessori elementary program because there isn't enough room at Henry to keep growing it the way it has. After the applications started coming in this past winter, they realized they had more applicants who qualified for priority enrollment either betweeen the APS preschool kids and the siblings than they had seats available. So they clarified the priority system so that priority goes first to students enrolled in the APS Montessori preschool program, and then to siblings who weren't in the APS preschool program (and they've done away with any preference for students who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere, they go into the general lottery pool with students who have no Montessori experience). The result this year was that only students who were in the APS preschool program were offered seats in the elementary program, and students who would have gotten in via sibling preference were waitlisted. Parents who were counting on getting their younger children into the elementary Montessori program via sibling preference are livid.

PP here. Thanks for the info. Sounds like "clarifying" actually meant changing the policy from what had been done in years past. My guess is the communications about it were also bungled, knowing APS. What's the difference between "private" Montessori and "public"/APS? I can't see any. Both require the family to pay some portion if not all of the tuition. It's all "private", but at least aps private gets guaranteed admission to Henry...until they demolish that building to build a 4th high school and have nowhere to put the montessori program.

They aren't demolishing Henry. They don't have the money to take an entire ES offline and rebuild it somewhere else. There will be no 4th HS at the CC.

There will be a fourth high school, it'll just have off-site parking and only one field to come a few years later so that Henry can stay.

No, there will be a program at the CC site, next to or incorporated with the other programs onsite. That's not a 4th HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, they're not redoing them again, pp is stirring up drama. Or is late to the party and just learned about how sibling priority is being applied to the montessori program.

I'm late to the party. How is sibling preference being applied differently at montessori relative to other options, and why?

At the other APS elementary choice schools, priority is given to students who attend VPI preschool at the site and younger siblings of concurrently-enrolled students at the choice school. The remaining seats are filled via the lottery. This works because there are significantly fewer VPI students in the pre-K year at those schools than there are kindergarten seats, so there's room to take all of the siblings as well as the VPI students who wish to stay at the school and still have seats leftover for the lottery. This works because VPI students get priority only for the school where they attend VPI, so a student who goes to VPI at Claremont or Barrett doesn't get priority admission for ATS; only students who go to VPI at ATS get priority there.

Montessori is different because all of the students in the APS Montessori preschool program get elementary Montessri priority at Drew, regardless of whether they attend preschool Montessori at Drew or at one of the satellite sites. In past years, between attrition from the program at the elementary level and expansion elementary program size, they've been able to give elementary Montessori priority to APS Montessori preschool students and to siblings of concurrently-enrolled students. Children who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere also got lottery priority over children who had no prior Montessori experience, which meant there was a lot of room for people who sent their kids to private Montessori programs to get their oldest child lotteried into the APS Montessori elementary program and then get all of their younger children in via sibling preference.

Now that the program will be moving to Henry the year after next, they're halting the growth of the Montessori elementary program because there isn't enough room at Henry to keep growing it the way it has. After the applications started coming in this past winter, they realized they had more applicants who qualified for priority enrollment either betweeen the APS preschool kids and the siblings than they had seats available. So they clarified the priority system so that priority goes first to students enrolled in the APS Montessori preschool program, and then to siblings who weren't in the APS preschool program (and they've done away with any preference for students who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere, they go into the general lottery pool with students who have no Montessori experience). The result this year was that only students who were in the APS preschool program were offered seats in the elementary program, and students who would have gotten in via sibling preference were waitlisted. Parents who were counting on getting their younger children into the elementary Montessori program via sibling preference are livid.

PP here. Thanks for the info. Sounds like "clarifying" actually meant changing the policy from what had been done in years past. My guess is the communications about it were also bungled, knowing APS. What's the difference between "private" Montessori and "public"/APS? I can't see any. Both require the family to pay some portion if not all of the tuition. It's all "private", but at least aps private gets guaranteed admission to Henry...until they demolish that building to build a 4th high school and have nowhere to put the montessori program.

They aren't demolishing Henry. They don't have the money to take an entire ES offline and rebuild it somewhere else. There will be no 4th HS at the CC.

There will be a fourth high school, it'll just have off-site parking and only one field to come a few years later so that Henry can stay.

No, there will be a program at the CC site, next to or incorporated with the other programs onsite. That's not a 4th HS.

Okay, have fun at your high school trailer park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, they're not redoing them again, pp is stirring up drama. Or is late to the party and just learned about how sibling priority is being applied to the montessori program.

I'm late to the party. How is sibling preference being applied differently at montessori relative to other options, and why?

At the other APS elementary choice schools, priority is given to students who attend VPI preschool at the site and younger siblings of concurrently-enrolled students at the choice school. The remaining seats are filled via the lottery. This works because there are significantly fewer VPI students in the pre-K year at those schools than there are kindergarten seats, so there's room to take all of the siblings as well as the VPI students who wish to stay at the school and still have seats leftover for the lottery. This works because VPI students get priority only for the school where they attend VPI, so a student who goes to VPI at Claremont or Barrett doesn't get priority admission for ATS; only students who go to VPI at ATS get priority there.

Montessori is different because all of the students in the APS Montessori preschool program get elementary Montessri priority at Drew, regardless of whether they attend preschool Montessori at Drew or at one of the satellite sites. In past years, between attrition from the program at the elementary level and expansion elementary program size, they've been able to give elementary Montessori priority to APS Montessori preschool students and to siblings of concurrently-enrolled students. Children who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere also got lottery priority over children who had no prior Montessori experience, which meant there was a lot of room for people who sent their kids to private Montessori programs to get their oldest child lotteried into the APS Montessori elementary program and then get all of their younger children in via sibling preference.

Now that the program will be moving to Henry the year after next, they're halting the growth of the Montessori elementary program because there isn't enough room at Henry to keep growing it the way it has. After the applications started coming in this past winter, they realized they had more applicants who qualified for priority enrollment either betweeen the APS preschool kids and the siblings than they had seats available. So they clarified the priority system so that priority goes first to students enrolled in the APS Montessori preschool program, and then to siblings who weren't in the APS preschool program (and they've done away with any preference for students who attended Montessori preschool elsewhere, they go into the general lottery pool with students who have no Montessori experience). The result this year was that only students who were in the APS preschool program were offered seats in the elementary program, and students who would have gotten in via sibling preference were waitlisted. Parents who were counting on getting their younger children into the elementary Montessori program via sibling preference are livid.

PP here. Thanks for the info. Sounds like "clarifying" actually meant changing the policy from what had been done in years past. My guess is the communications about it were also bungled, knowing APS. What's the difference between "private" Montessori and "public"/APS? I can't see any. Both require the family to pay some portion if not all of the tuition. It's all "private", but at least aps private gets guaranteed admission to Henry...until they demolish that building to build a 4th high school and have nowhere to put the montessori program.

They aren't demolishing Henry. They don't have the money to take an entire ES offline and rebuild it somewhere else. There will be no 4th HS at the CC.

There will be a fourth high school, it'll just have off-site parking and only one field to come a few years later so that Henry can stay.

Just
Offsite parking? Like where?

Long Brdge aquatic center

LOL, that's a good one. If they can't use the land for a new high school at least people could park there. Never mind that's its a 20 minute car ride from the career center in rush hour traffic

[Anonymous]

The sibling preference for Montessori was so unfair before. I am sorry siblings didn’t get in this year, but that is a fact of the growing school populationsnd the VPI policy.

I had a real issue with the old policy where you got priority if you were rich enough to pay for private Montessori. And one PP and people on AEM fully acknowledge they were faking the system by paying to send one kid to private Montessori as their ticket in to APS Montessori and then chain-admissions for the rest (sorry - couldn’t help but borrow from the Cheetoh in Chief).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The sibling preference for Montessori was so unfair before. I am sorry siblings didn’t get in this year, but that is a fact of the growing school populationsnd the VPI policy.

I had a real issue with the old policy where you got priority if you were rich enough to pay for private Montessori. And one PP and people on AEM fully acknowledge they were faking the system by paying to send one kid to private Montessori as their ticket in to APS Montessori and then chain-admissions for the rest (sorry - couldn’t help but borrow from the Cheetoh in Chief).

BUt the thing is, you also get into Montessori if you're rich enough to pay for aps preschool montessori. It isn't free either. Everyone in the program pays for it on a sliding scale, some full freight. So "private" is just a slur, not an actually meaningful distinction.

[Anonymous]

Yeah - but why not just open it up after you fill VPI and siblings. How about people who moved here and didn’t have access to Montessori. Or people who couldn’t swing Montessori (APS or private) because they needed full day care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah - but why not just open it up after you fill VPI and siblings. How about people who moved here and didn’t have access to Montessori. Or people who couldn’t swing Montessori (APS or private) because they needed full day care.

I'm sympathetic to that argument. The counter argument was that kids learn a lot in preschool montessori that prepares them for the elementary experience, and so if it's all or half children without prior montessori experience, that's kinda good for nobody. Of course it's true of all preschoolers: they start out way ahead of kids who were babysat instead of educated for the first 5 years of life.

Anyway, opening montessori to everyone regardless of prior experience is moot now, since Henry barely has enough seats for aps preschool montessori, and those kids are guaranteed admission. No one who wasn't poor enough, lucky enough, or crafty enough with their claimed income to get into aps preschool montesorri is getting into Henry from her on out. There's been a waitlist for preschool montessori for a long time and it'll get longer and worse now that it's the only way into Henry.

My family weren't any of those 3 things, and so we dug deep to pay for full day "private" montesorri so the kid got an education while both parents worked all day. I guess that makes us some kind of terrible "private" school people. We were looking forward to continuing that montessori education at Drew but thems the breaks. No one owes us anything. Can't afford to pay what we were paying for years to come at some private elementary and wouldn't want to. I wish they'd expand the program instead of capping it. It's clearly in demand.