Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We are not a large school and still have an active PTA. Those ECs, even for AAP Centers, are run by and organized by the Parents. Any school can have them, it is not an AAP thing.

My kid's AAP center did not have Odyssey of the Mind or Science Olympiad. They only have Mathcounts if a parent pesters the school to make it happen for that year. There used to be a math club, but the admin threw up enough roadblocks that it folded. The only after school clubs are the for profit ones run by outside companies. My other kid's school was a regular gen ed school when DC attended, but is now a LLIV. They had science olympiad, a GEMS club (STEM for girls), a robotics team, and Math Olympiad, all run by teachers and free to the students.

It's really not an AAP vs. base school thing. It depends on whether parents are willing to run activities, whether the school itself runs activities, and whether the principal makes it unreasonably difficult for parents to run anything.

The bolded statement is 100% accurate. It is not AAP vs Gen Ed, it is the specific school and what the Principal is willing to allow.

Our STEM offerings are a mix of Parent run (Odyssey of the Mind, LEGO) and for profit groups. The cost of the for profit ones is pretty reasonable, it works out to $5-$10 a session. The Clubs lead by Teachers, like Art Club, are less expensive with the money covering supplies and the Teachers time after school.

Where in the county are you looking? The AAP offerings and the numbers of student in them varies considerably. Some schools offer AAP social studies and sciences to all students. Some allow math AAP for a student even if they do not qualify for full AAP.

Anonymous wrote:
We are not a large school and still have an active PTA. Those ECs, even for AAP Centers, are run by and organized by the Parents. Any school can have them, it is not an AAP thing.

My kid's AAP center did not have Odyssey of the Mind or Science Olympiad. They only have Mathcounts if a parent pesters the school to make it happen for that year. There used to be a math club, but the admin threw up enough roadblocks that it folded. The only after school clubs are the for profit ones run by outside companies. My other kid's school was a regular gen ed school when DC attended, but is now a LLIV. They had science olympiad, a GEMS club (STEM for girls), a robotics team, and Math Olympiad, all run by teachers and free to the students.

It's really not an AAP vs. base school thing. It depends on whether parents are willing to run activities, whether the school itself runs activities, and whether the principal makes it unreasonably difficult for parents to run anything.