School Choices...

When we lived in AZ, we had our children in a charter school. At the time, we felt that the charter school was going to offer a better education than the public school in our area (based on a not so stellar year in kindergarten with a first year teacher).

Now, I am not so pro-charter school that I'd never consider a public school. And I know that there are plenty of great teacher's in the public school system who are fantastic -- but based on that one experience -- we made the switch. It turned out to be a great experience for all of my kids - they were challenged, they liked school -- and they were happy.

We moved to Utah three years ago--on the day before school started. Unfortunately, we quickly found out how lousy our public school was when my 5th grader brought home her first spelling list. It looked exactly like my kindergartner's spelling list from the year before. I felt like the entire year was a waste for both my 1st graders and my 5th grader. It was beyond ridiculous.

I helped out in the classrooms weekly and quickly came to the realization - that at this particular school they taught to the lowest denominator. They didn't even try the middle of the road approach. And for my kids who were used to being challenged - it was disappointing.

Needless to say, I started looking hard for an alternative to public schools. By January, I had found 3 charter schools that I was interested in (one being a brand new one) - and immediately put our name on the waiting lists (which were large to say the least).

In the spring, the new school informed me that my children had made it in (they had 1600 students apply for a 600 student school) - we felt lucky. By August, we discovered one drawback to the new charter school. It wasn't finished on time - and it was going to be delayed till September 25th. Talk about one long summer!

At the end of August, we got a phone call and found out our kids had been accepted into another charter school in the area. Six families in my neighborhood have children that attend there and I knew it was a good one. I was in such a quandry. I actually had preferred this school in the first place - since it was established and the programs seemed to really work there. But, as I weighed my pros and cons I decided the only drawback to switching was that the school was only a K-8 -- and the one we were waiting for to be built was supposed to be K-9. That became my deciding factor. It was really important to me that my kids didn't have to switch over to the Jr. high for their 9th grade year.

We ended up having a good experience at the new charter. The kids enjoyed school and seemed to be challenged on a daily basis. We were happy with our decision. Then in January, the school announced they would not be having a 9th grade anymore. There were many excuses as to why this would be impossible - but I have to admit I was a little bugged at the false advertising.

Since my oldest daughter was going to be entering the 7th grade - we had a decision to make. Did we leave her at the charter school and have her switch to jr high for her 9th grade year? Or did we throw her to the wolves of jr high for 7th, 8th and 9th grade? Well, we decided to keep her at the charter - hoping another solution would crop up before she actually reached the 9th grade.

Last week, a solution did crop up. One of my friends whose kids go to the charter we had decided against last year - told me that they were building a jr high and there would be a 9th grade starting next year! I didn't think they'd have any openings. But I called the school anyway. They did have an opening for my 7th grader (not my younger two though). We applied and she's in.

So our problem for 9th grade seems to be solved. The irony in all of this is if we had based our decision on the school and its programs rather than the fact that they had no 9th grade - my kids would already be there and not having to switch to yet another school. Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda, I guess.