Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions Any school love in South or Central New Jersey?

Wondering if anyone loves their school--public or private--in Southern or Central NJ. We're in Camden County right now, and don't want to have to change jobs, but moving to a new school district is definitely on the table.

have you checked out Haddonfield? I know they are open to subject acceleration at the least, and the high school has a pretty amazing program with...shoot mental blank on the university...but it is worth checking out.

Thanks, Deacongirl. Yes, I'm definitely aware of Haddonfield--I drive through there every day to get to work! We're looking at the Friends school there right now, even though paying tuition will hurt.

Just curious if you had considered the public schools--I don't know how good of a job they do in elementary, but again, in middle and high school I believe subject acceleration is possible and supported, especially in math. The program at the high school with Drexel? is pretty amazing--you can get 2 yrs. worth of actual college credit with a transcript, and Drexel is not a bad school.

Well, for this year, we're definitely not able to move because we're underwater in our mortgage. In order to move, we'd have to buy a house worth much less than what we're mortgaged for now so that we can borrow the short-fall in selling the first house into a refinance for a second house. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of houses in Haddonfield in that price range.

I am pretty sure you can pay tuition for your kid to go to Haddonfield (at least for middle and high?). I don't know how it compares to Friends--but it may be possible that paying tuition for the public would be more likely to give your kid some peers just because there is a larger pool of kids, and I would bet at least a few in each grade that are >moderately gifted. Or it might make sense for elementary to do Friends if and then switch in middle. Anyway, def. something to consider for the future if you are going to stick around that area. Good luck!

I called them, actually. My daughter is only 7, and they don't accept tuition students until middle school. It's definitely on my radar for when she gets older. Thanks for all of your feedback!

One caution re: tuition enrollment is to read the contract very carefully. If you require ANY services not normally part of the curriculum (ie, that require an IEP and some districts use IEP for G&T plans), you will not get them for a tuition student if contract doesn't allow for it. Or much else as far as positive attention for your child. We mistakenly thought it would be similar to paying private school tuition as we had been doing, when we moved to NJ & enrolled our kids in public school on tuition. Worse decision we ever made.

Thanks for that heads-up! I would definitely assume she'd get to participate in the G/T program.