Holy cow!!!! I have to come on here to express my total jubilation with the meeting we had with the private school yesterday.
It's a small school with only 30 students in K-5th grade (and 45 pre-K kids), so DD5's K/1st class would have just 10 students. They are completely on par with DD's abilities and are easily willing to advance her at her own rate. Each student gets an IEP (this happens there at pre-K, too, so I'm familiar with all of this already with them)... so she'd technically be in K next year, but they anticipate teaching her alongside the 1st graders (it's a mixed-age class with K and 1st being together). Then the following year, they said they'll probably skip 1st grade and bump her up to 2nd. They have other gifted children there as well, but they said DD5 is definitely the most gifted they have seen. They're very excited to have someone like her at their school.
I knew the private school near us was the answer to my child's education, but the tuition was holding me back. The principal/owner of the school offered us a full-ride scholarship for DD5. However, DH and I took another look at our budget and feel confident we can swing half the tuition. I told the owner I did not want to take away the scholarship from someone who needed it more than us (and we may very well need it once DD2.5 is ready for K there as well).
I canceled my meeting with the public school set for Friday. I don't think they could offer anything me anything that would compare to what we'll get at the private school. The public school has already said some things to me that have sent up red flags and have shown a lack of cooperation. Maybe I'm being misguided for not checking out the public school, but DH and I don't even want to go down that road if we can help it (DH spent his entire school career in this district, and I spent 6 years in it, so we both know what the district is like).
Anyway... yippy skippy to DD5!!
And the generosity of the private school is well worth commending.
