I really don't have many options here. The public school is the only other viable option, as we're zoned for a supposedly good one. However it is very overcrowded, so much so that the school just went year-round. They've already made the classes for next year, so if we switched now he'd be stuck wherever they could fit him, as opposed to wherever would be the best fit. I've emailed the vice principal who is the one who talks to parents and tried to make an appointment to discuss possibly transferring, but have gotten no response, which doesn't make me sanguine about how responsive they'd be to his needs.
There aren't any good private schools in my area. There are a couple of good ones that are a 40 minute drive away, but that really isn't doable for us. I'd have to spend almost 3 hours a day driving back and forth between home, school and work. He would have no time for any after school activities and would hardly ever be able to play with school friends since most would live far away.
There are only two secular private schools in my area. One is so rigid they suck all the joy out of learning and the other seems to be all show (fancy facilities, etc) but no real substance.
I love everything about his school except the academics. It is a small charter school with a very safe environment. While his 1st grade teacher was not good, his classmates were the nicest group of kids and families. If I pull him out, he would never get back in, which makes the decision really hard. The waitlist to get in is long. If not for this I would give the public school a try and if it didn't work out just go back to the charter.
Marcy, fwiw, we were in a similar situation re school when my ds was in early elementary. Same issue with achievement testing too - the school would only test to end-of-current-grade-level. I was very hesitant to leave the school because I loved the philosophy, class size, "extras" in terms of arts/etc. We're in a slightly different situation in that our ds is 2e, so he also had challenges at school. When he was first diagnosed, his neuropsych recommended we leave the school - and I held on because I didn't want to let go of what I *wanted* the school to be, and my ds also didn't want to leave what was familiar to him. A few years later, ds told us he wasn't going back - he'd had enough of the lack of intellectual challenge. We ultimately switched to the school our neuropsych recommended, in spite of it being quite a reach for our family in terms of expense and commute time, but it was the single best educational decision we ever made. The reason I mention this is, if I'd posted at the same age and place for my child as you are posting now, I would have thought we were absolutely in the best school possible and would have thought many of the same things about other school placements. I realized in hindsight that my ds might have been happier and more appropriately challenged if I'd spent more time trying to research other schools - not just go on what I heard from parents but actually talk to the other schools' staff as well as the school district gifted program.
Just a for instance - the school that is overcrowded. Yes, that might be a nightmare in terms of the number of students... but what if the school was willing to subject accelerate your ds? What if the larger # of students meant the school might be able to pull together a higher level reading group in his grade across classes? What if the overall attitude of the teaching staff made it easier to challenge higher ability students?
The other one thing I'd mention that we did - which was just a bandaid but it was something - our elementary school was really stressed for resources. They weren't adverse to helping kids who needed a challenge, but they didn't have the time to really make it happen, so we had parents who came in as volunteers once or twice per week to help advanced students in subjects like math, writing, spelling etc.
Best wishes,
polarbear
