New Members on Philly School Search Discussion!

[Len]

Our list is now up to 50 subscribers, thanks mostly to many of you who
signed up after one of my two parent discussion groups this month.
I'm looking forward to some great conversations here.

In the meantime, let me share the groundrules: There are none! That
is to say, I don't want to write any. This group is for parents
engaged in the school choice process in Philadelphia. Please speak
openly and honestly, and be sure to respect one another. I'm not
moderating this group and I'm not going to restrict membership, but I
will exercise my power to boot you off if you are not civil. Don't
MAKE me give someone a time out (or make me write usage guidelines).

Since half of you joined on your own volition, a quarter were coerced
after my NW Philly discussion group and another quarter after my
Center City discussion group, maybe having some introductions would be
worthwhile. Who wants to start?

I will!

I'm Len Lipkin. I started Philly School Search, but I'm no more an
expert than any of you. I live in NW Philly and have two kids
scheduled to start K this Fall and 2013. Right now I have a deposit
in on a local private school and I'm waitlisted at a charter. Holding
my breath......

Regarding the blog itself, I'm always looking for good story ideas and
people to write them! If you want to share some part of your
experience (by name or anonymously), let me know.

Who's next?
Len

[Holly Lentz]

Guess I am next. . .

I'm Holly Lentz Kleeman. I'm not an expert, but I have been
selecting/considering/testing into/paying for both private and Philadelphia
public schools since the 1990s. My daughter started at The Philadelphia
School and will graduate from Masterman in June, and my son goes to Friends
Select. I know a lot of parents with terrific success stories at other
schools too. What have I learned? There is not a one size fits all, nor
are there "good schools" and "bad schools." Successes seem to come largely
from parents who are engaged and paying attention not only to their
choices/options, but also to the unique needs and learning styles of their
children. My two kids are quite different from each other. So their school
paths are different too.

My biggest piece of advice? Get involved at the school your child attends.
That is the only way to know what is really going on. And, you will meet the
parents that are going through the same stresses, joys and issues you are.
I was late in doing this, but once I volunteered for a fundraiser it only
took a couple of years before I was leading the event, and now I am
President of Home & School. You don't have to be an officer, but taking on
a piece of a project helps in so many ways. You will learn everything that
is NOT on the report card (and that is often the most important stuff).

I will!

Who's next?
Len

--
Philly School Search http://phillyschoolsearch.com/

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[miriam hill]

I'm Miriam Hill. My husband Nick Simon and I and our son Luke, 3, live in Fairmount. We love where we live and want to stay here but the schools situation makes that difficult, hence my obsession with this topic. My husband works in IT, and I am a reporter for The Inquirer. My job means I must stay out of conversations everywhere, including in this group, that touch on topics we cover.

 

I had a question for the group: My husband and I are both very pressed for time, but we feel like we have a ton of schools to visit. With charter schools, is there any downside to applying without visiting first? The odds of getting in are so long at the charters we are interested in that I wonder if it makes more sense to apply, see if we get in, and then visit those where we get lucky.

 

Thoughts?

 

Also, anyone have experience/opinions on Project Learn in Mount Airy and/or Russell Byers Charter?

 

Thanks.

 

Miriam

 

[Sasha Rash]

I'm Sasha Best. Me and my family don't yet live in Philadelphia. We will actually be overseas until summer 2012. We plan to move to back to Old City. We believe McCall would be the public school option. We need to have our son in a kindergarten program in September 2012. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this process from afar? I believe that the public school in our future catchment is required to take our son, but I'm wondering if that also means that the district must find a place for him somewhere. Not necessarily in our catchment, just someplace. Needless to say, that is worrisome. Does anyone know the answer to this?

[DawnE]

I'm Dawn. After a temporary move to the Main Line 'burbs from out of
state last fall, we landed in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of
Philadelphia in April. We have a 9 and 4 year old, so the last six
weeks have been spent obsessing over where to send the kids, what we
can afford and how to juggle it all since it is apparently rather
difficult to get both children into the same private school. We've
been through this before in two other metropolitan cities. Philly is
our home until the 4 year old graduates so I'm looking for the long
term solution.

I toured our local public school and am not sure it's an ideal fit for
the 9 year old. Budget cuts and half-day kindy in 2012 is not going to
cut it for our youngest, so we've been touring the private schools.
Unfortunately, most are completely out of our budget... not even
within reach if we 'cut back'. We've cut back and back and back over
the last five years. There's not much else to cut. Unfortunately, we
are presumably in a vacuum... we make too much to qualify for
financial aid and not enough to swing tuition for two kids at an even
moderately priced private school. Finding a balance is going to be
tough for us and frankly keeps me awake at night.

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