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[quote=Anonymous]My DD just started PK3 at Miner. We are IB. We are having a pretty good experience so far.

Pros: DD seems happy. She likes going to school, likes her teachers, talks about her friends there and there are no tears at drop off. The other parents -- at least the ones we have met -- seem nice. Her class is split about 50/50 in terms of SES and actually reflects the neighborhood demographically, which suits me perfectly. We observed the classroom in the afternoon once and the kids seemed engaged, were polite/well-behaved and the teachers had everything under control. It's sort of ridiculous that DC pays for my kid to have free breakfast and lunch, but it does, and it's awesome. No need to pack food, DD eats enough that she is not starving when she gets home (though not as much as if we packed lunch) and, bonus, she is getting less picky! The principal is awesome and super responsive. His job is very hard, he really cares/tries and it's obvious how much better Miner has been doing since he came on board. There's a brand new pre-K playground.

Cons: The school is pretty disorganized. Some teachers seem engaged, but I think most of them are just trying to keep their heads above water. The PTA tries, but there's very little engagement/continuity, since it's mostly run by ECE/K parents who then leave. (The head of fundraising -- who really seems to be trying -- is a PK3 parent who is IB for Brent, so...). It's a weird school and that's obvious at every meeting/school event: I described my DD's class; that's pretty much what the ECE is like overall. There's a little bit of diversity in K and a tiny bit in 1st. Then, from 2nd up, there is none. PTA meetings have the principal begging parents to send their kids to 4th grade and discussing the improvement in ELA scores to like 15% on grade level... and ECE parents bitching about non-organic playground surface materials and describing how the Lafayette PTA paid 100K to rip out theirs and replace it with some eco-friendly stuff. It sort of feels like a farce.

We actually got off the waitlist for two charters after the year had started and turned them down, because they weren't long terms solutions either and so the disruption didn't seem worth it. I expect to stay for next year (unless we happen to lottery into SWS or 2R:)), but -- just to be upfront about it -- we'll move a few blocks for K.[/quote]

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