How attached are you to the idea of your DD going to this school?
Oh, this makes me so sad to answer. :o( It's a new charter school and I worked with them for years to get it going. My family has put many hundreds of hours of volunteer work into this school and alienated ourselves from our neighbors by supporting it being built in our neighborhood.
DD was only 3 when I first got involved and at that point we knew she was gifted but didn't think her needs would end up being so atypical. Also, the vision the board initially had for the school was different than how it's turned out. I hosted a meeting and the board president sat in my living room explaining how the flexible ability grouping would work out with students of all ages working together, grouped based on what they're ready for. I think what happened is, once the administration was hired they convinced the board a school with that setup was a pipe dream. It's just a regular school with regular classes based on birthdate. They still claim to challenge all students at their level, but I guess that's only if "their level" is reasonably close to that of age peers.
Sure, we have other options, I just hate change and it would be hard to wrap my brain around not sticking with this school we thought could see our family through the next decade at least. I know so many people there and there are multiple kids in DD's class that we've known since they were all babies.
We haven't brought the principal into the conversation yet. I'm not sure how to do that. I know there's a policy about taking complaints to teacher, then admin, then board, but I don't know about filing an actual complaint.... That seems to have implications for the teacher's job that I wouldn't want to get into. She's very young and inexperienced and i think the real problem lies with the administration.
Other options include a self-contained GT classroom at another school (but not until 2nd grade and DD would have to test in) or partial homeschooling (although DD's current school does not seem too excited about helping with this.)
