Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments School choice - help me!!

Thanks so much everyone for the thoughtful responses. Here is some additional detail on DDs attitude and our other options.

DD is 10, she's a little fickle and her opinon may vary based on what she had for breakfast, but in general she has been getting more and more interested/excited about the charter school as a possibility. When I first brought it up, she wasn't particularly interested, but I later mentioned that I'd talked to the director just to do research and DD asked several followup questions. I showed her the website and went over several of the things I thought would either interest or concern her. I described it basically as a small school with just 6th and 7th grade, with about half the kids similar to the kids in her current gifted class (which from what I know of, the students are probably 75% MG and 25% MG+.) I mentioned the plan at that time was to use ipads for instruction and I told her they weren't sure exactly where the classrooms were going to be or what they would look like.

I pointed out that they wear uniforms, (which I honestly thought could be a dealbreaker) and she didn't seem to think that was a big deal as she tried to figure out how she could customize it.

I also pointed out that they already had a summer assignment reading a couple of books and answering several questions about the books, which again, I thought would put her off, having to work over the summer break,especially writing, which she darn near hates. Again she surprised me by asking if could she do the assignment, even if she didn't get into the charter school. I agreed and we ordered the book we didn't have for her Kindle a few days later. Of course the flip side is that she hasn't actually started to read that book or the one she already had, so the follow-through leaves a little to be desired. I am also a little suspicious that interest in the charter school peaked right about the time that she found out that she hadn't made safety patrol at the current school.

I pretty much let it drop until the last day applications were due and asked if she wanted me to do an application. She said she did. Since that time she's asked about the school a couple of times and when I mentioned going to a meeting about the school she acted very excited. She even asked about the ipads tonight at bedtime and I told her the people running the school discovered some issues with using those, so they are now planning to use a combination of laptops, tablets and desktops. She took that very in stride an didn't seem too concerned about the lack of ipads (which I think was one of the original selling points for the charter).

She's kinda almost to the point, where I think she will be disappointed not to try the charter. I think she sees it as an adventure - our past experience with other situations is that she is often very excited, deals with some trepidation at the last minute and then jumps in with both feet. Unfortunately once the novelty has worn off, as the day-to-day sets in, so does the enthusiasim. I know, I described her as routine driven; she likes the excitement of new things, at the same time she needs routines (maybe it would be better to say that the rest of us need her to have routines) - she's complicated, what can I say.

We don't really have any other options. We are way out in the corner of our school district, the next nearest public elementary school is essentially similar to ours and the next one is about a 30 minute drive nearly opposite to my 30 minute commute to work. Which leaves us without transportation or child care, since both my husband and I work full time. We have no elementary (or middle/jr high) magnets in our district and I don't think there are any charters within our district at all. We have the same issue for jr. high - the next nearest one is just not feasible from a transportation standpoint.

The one perk with our currently zoned high school is a dual enrollment agreement with the branch community college, that is just down the street. Several students each year are now graduating from the high school with AAs or significant college credits. In addition we have a major state university only about 30 minutes away. We've got options for about 10th through 12th grade. Just feels like slogging through molasses uphill in January to get to that point.

My husband works in the next district over (a different one that the charter school - yes, we live in one district, I work in a different one and he works in a third) and we've tried for several years to get DD into magnet programs and/or the lab school in that district, but since we are out-of-county and the programs are very competitive, DD has always been waitlisted (far down the list).

I've read many of these charter school stories here real time, I think over the last few years, which is why I'm so uncertain about taking this leap. It sounds good, it looks good (so far), DD is interested, almost excited, but . . . .

There are a few successful charter schools - I just need a crystal ball to know if this will be one of them. Anyone got one handy?