School

[Audrey]

Do you homeschool? Did you hand pick which school district you wanted to live in? How did you decide which school to send your kids to?

[Kit]

We just sent him to the school I went to. I was a teacher in PS (glutton for punishment lol) so the kiddo just went to the system I was in.


L

[Lori]

We picked the town we wanted to be in... many people with similar values to our own. The school reflects it and for the most part we've been more then satisfied.

I often wish we homeschooled. There is no way I could do that and work from home though. I cannot even imagine it!

[Audrey]

When we moved here to S.B., my daughter was in 5th grade. There are 2 school districts here and many schools within each district. I chose the district. We found a house near a school that was not my first choice, but we ended up loving the school.

We've moved a few times and my other daughter went to the highest rated elementary school. We still had some issues. I liked the "not my first choice" school better.

Junior high and high we can pick which school we want. If we don't live in the proper zone, we can just transfer. I've not been overly thrilled with the public school system, but I also would not have been able to home school and private schools are beyond expensive.

[Candace]

We actually had some friends who had their kids in a charter school that is in a certain school district. I read their mission and curriculum and loved it - I then put our first daughter who was 6 weeks old on the waitlist. We made it into the school, but we had to move into district because it had become extremely sought after. So we did move into the district, and we LOVE the school! Even though it was a little extreme to sign her up at 6 weeks old, I am so glad that we were very proactive in choosing her school... we feel very confident that she is getting an excellent education.

[Audrey]

Is there a fee, like a private school?

[Candace]

No fees... charter schools are part of the district, but they use their own curriculum and establish their own rules. I did some research on charter schools in different parts of the country, and they vary greatly from school to school. I think that it is important to consider their test scores compared to other schools in the same district and the overall state (not that test scores tell you everything), as well as how established they are and what their overall reputation is. And then I think that you can tell a lot about a school by visits to make sure you like what is going on. There was another charter school on the opposite side of town that I had also heard of, and I had talked with several people who really liked it, but when I visited myself I was really turned off by the very military feel to the elementary school... it was hard to think of my little 5 year old there. The decision between the two schools got a lot easier.

[JSaldan]

We actually learned the hard way. When my first son was just a baby, my husband and I didn't even consider school districts and moved to a town where you could get A LOT of house for your money. However, when it came time to think about schools we were so disappointed. We quickly made the decision to sell and buy in a district with top rated schools. We lost a lot of house, but live in a very nice neighborhood and love the schools my children are going to.

[Lori]

It was just the opposite for us a few years back when we lived in CT. Our realtor kept trying to talk us out of the town we were looking in because the taxes were so high. But we were choosing that town specifically for the school system which was supposed to be awesome.

As it turned out we paid high taxes and were NOT satisfied with the schools :)

[AJOY724]

My son just turned 4 and we know we want to send him to a private school because we do not like the high school he would be attending. The elementary school is fine, but our thoughts are that if we send him there and decide to switch to private school he will not want to go because all his friends would be going to public school. We went and looked at a private Baptist school yesterday and we really liked it. The price was very reasonable and the teacher to student ratio is perfect. They have no more than 11 kids per teacher. I was really impressed at how much the kindergarten students knew. After what happened in VA yesterday it's hard to even think about my son going to school.

[Audrey]

It's great you've found a school you believe will work for you.

What happened yesterday is HORRIBLE!!!!!