It seems like more news is rolling in all the time on the school front. Tis the season. I'll give you it all to you in the order it was received ...
ISL is a clear no. It's a language-immersion school so it would have come with its own set of difficulties and blessings. We didn't rule it out, but it's nice not to have to make a decision about it. This was the "test" that Zach took in NOLA two weeks ago.
Morris Jeff is a GO!! They called today to let us know that the boys have been accepted. While it's nice to know that they have seats, my heart doesn't feel settled quite yet. It's a brand-new school (PreK-2nd) spear-headed by the community to be an open-access school. Its academic program is respected internationally but new to the area. In this whole process, I've learned that I can get excited about a school when I've been on campus, felt the vibe, met teachers, and pictured our family getting involved. That hasn't happened yet with Morris Jeff, so I'm cautiously optimistic. Their future permanent location (ready in 3-4yrs) would be good proximity to Gentilly.
Alice Harte will hold their lottery on Friday morning. Both boys are in the lottery. I learned today from a school official that there are basically three tiers: 1. siblings of current students, 2. Westbank Orleans parish residents, 3. Eastbank Orleans residents. This is the school very close to our home in Algiers, so we'd be in the second tier. Not sure that location-wise it's where we want to be long-term, but might work for this year. However, there is only one definite seat available in 1st grade but possibly 3 at least at this stage of the summer. I can call on Friday afternoon to find out the results.
Lusher will hold their lottery for the extra 2 kindergarten classes they are opening at the JCC on Thursday afternoon at 2pm. Zach is in the lottery. We're sending a letter of appeal for Sam's application to Lusher tomorrow. Who knows? Just trying to be faithful in each of these rides.
Audubon may open up later in the summer since our waiting list numbers are pretty low. Zach is 10 in tier 2, while Sam is 2 in tier 2. Could be a real possibility. I will probably try to tour a montessori school here in LR just to get a feel for that program since we haven't been able to schedule with Audubon while we were in town recently.
So, to recap ... Hynes is out. ISL is out. Applied to Gentilly Terrace (just for fun!) and Dibert but haven't been on their campuses. They never were top picks. We've cut our options really down by half ... which isn't so bad. And, maybe, just maybe ... we'll actually have a decision to make in the end between one or two of them. Wouldn't that be cool? But if not, that will be cool too.
Oh! I will be praying for you! I can't imagine your stress level as far as this is concerned. This is one reason I would choose not to live in New Orleans. I, too, would like to go the public school route, but it isn't as easy as just choosing the school closest to your house here. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteThis all sounds great! As nice as it would be to be able to choose any school you want (if you had gotten into them all) I like your attitude that it's a blessing not to have to make that decision and just having to choose between a couple. The best part is that you have "options" now and you won't have to go to your last option (i.e. homeschooling) :-)
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