Elementary School hopping and How much Choice is too much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have much to add, other than to say thank you for summarizing what is increasingly my sadness, as I hear from parent after parent at our solid but not highly-sought-after neighborhood PK3 of their intention to, next year, lottery out to a school with a more assured high school trajectory. Awesome parents, awesome kids, but the parents' involvement has been tempered by their awareness that they will not commit to the school long-term.

For our part, we have attended meetings on Ward 4 high school reform, and have committed ourselves to be part of the improvement process so that our child(ren) can be part of an engaged, zoned community through high school. But sometimes it feels like, "for what?" Because, strangely and unfortunately, I wonder if we'd have a better likelihood of continuity of kids and parents from one grade to the next, if we would revise our family's core value of "shopping local" (neighborhood school, neighborhood coffee shop, etc), and go somewhere more "desirable," within the bounds of other factors like a non-insane commute. In which case, I'd just want to get this over sooner than later, to "buy" us more years of building relationships among our child(ren)s' cohorts.

Important food for thought. Thank you for raising this point.

You're putting too much emotion and not enough sense into this, and I find it annoying. Your choice of schools is not a referendum on your character or an expression of your "core value of shopping local" (wtf?). It is about finding the best school and neighborhood for your family. Nobody has any obligation to "commit" to a school zone. I find it laughably hypocritical that you have to turn yourself into so many knots to admit that your true core value is the best school you can find, not "shopping local."

You can count on the fact that if you don't live in JKLM, then all the neighborhood friends you and your child made at the playground (through age 3 or 4) are all going to wind up at different schools = downside of school "chance".

[Anonymous]

I don't think you can fight parents angling to send their children to the best possible school for their family, especially with limited opportunities to lottery into the "best" schools. But I do agree it's a shame there's so much churn, and that it impacts kids and schools. I started this year excited about our EOTP title 1 school and have become disillusioned. We're looking to lottery out for PK-4, and I can feel how much less I'm inspired to be part of the PTA and all that - in part because I feel disillusioned but in part because I know in at least a year (we have a good IB option we didn't get into this year), we'll be gone. So, I'm guilty of this, and I feel guilty about it, and I try to contribute to the school, but it absolutely will not stop me from moving my kiddo to a better school as soon as possible.

[Anonymous]

In the Susie example ... can OOB kids still lottery into JLM schools?! I thought those days were over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the Susie example ... can OOB kids still lottery into JLM schools?! I thought those days were over.

They can, particularly in the upper grades, but the odds of success are long all around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the Susie example ... can OOB kids still lottery into JLM schools?! I thought those days were over.

You can also rent temporarily in JKLM and keep your placement (and your feeder). The DME's recommendations to stop this practice were not adopted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the Susie example ... can OOB kids still lottery into JLM schools?! I thought those days were over.

You can also rent temporarily in JKLM and keep your placement (and your feeder). The DME's recommendations to stop this practice were not adopted.

Doesn't it revert to Principal discretion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the Susie example ... can OOB kids still lottery into JLM schools?! I thought those days were over.

You can also rent temporarily in JKLM and keep your placement (and your feeder). The DME's recommendations to stop this practice were not adopted.

And people wonder why Murch is overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have much to add, other than to say thank you for summarizing what is increasingly my sadness, as I hear from parent after parent at our solid but not highly-sought-after neighborhood PK3 of their intention to, next year, lottery out to a school with a more assured high school trajectory. Awesome parents, awesome kids, but the parents' involvement has been tempered by their awareness that they will not commit to the school long-term.

For our part, we have attended meetings on Ward 4 high school reform, and have committed ourselves to be part of the improvement process so that our child(ren) can be part of an engaged, zoned community through high school. But sometimes it feels like, "for what?" Because, strangely and unfortunately, I wonder if we'd have a better likelihood of continuity of kids and parents from one grade to the next, if we would revise our family's core value of "shopping local" (neighborhood school, neighborhood coffee shop, etc), and go somewhere more "desirable," within the bounds of other factors like a non-insane commute. In which case, I'd just want to get this over sooner than later, to "buy" us more years of building relationships among our child(ren)s' cohorts.

Important food for thought. Thank you for raising this point.

You're putting too much emotion and not enough sense into this, and I find it annoying. Your choice of schools is not a referendum on your character or an expression of your "core value of shopping local" (wtf?). It is about finding the best school and neighborhood for your family. Nobody has any obligation to "commit" to a school zone. I find it laughably hypocritical that you have to turn yourself into so many knots to admit that your true core value is the best school you can find, not "shopping local."

You can count on the fact that if you don't live in JKLM, then all the neighborhood friends you and your child made at the playground (through age 3 or 4) are all going to wind up at different schools = downside of school "chance".

I've actually found that to work out OK. My kid has school friends, playground friends, extracurricular activity friends, camp friends, etc.

[Anonymous]

Which eotp schools are people looking to leave?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which eotp schools are people looking to leave?

Any one that lacks a feed to Deal or Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which eotp schools are people looking to leave?

Any one that lacks a feed to Deal or Hardy.

Deal, yes but Hardy, no.

Getting into Latin or a DCI feeder will help tremendously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which eotp schools are people looking to leave?

Any one that lacks a feed to Deal or Hardy.

Deal, yes but Hardy, no.

Getting into Latin or a DCI feeder will help tremendously.

Id prefer Hardy over DCI any day, also the Hardy feeders are excellent schools (I'd prefer over most Deal feeders) . There is no feeder for Latin.

-Deal IB