Moving and bad schools

This is probably going to be a post of me just thinking out loud, so I apologize if by the end you're left wondering 'what's the question/point' here...?'   :laughing:
 
Anyway, my husband is military and he just got his next set of orders and we'll be moving this coming summer.  He got the duty station he wanted, which is good, but the schools in the area are terrible.  This is just stressing me out so much.  Granted, I'm 400 weeks pregnant so everything is stressing me out!    There is one area that has the 'best' schools, but still not great schools, so we are looking to buy a house in that area.  But because everyone else wants to live there, the housing is more expensive.  It's also one of the older areas of town, so a lot of the homes are small. Of course there are great looking neighborhoods with new and nicer priced homes but they are all in just absolutely terrible school zones.  Bottom of the bottom schools. 
 
Where we live now has excellent schools and the boys are doing so incredibly well here.  I know the curriculum where we'll be moving is way behind, like to the point where my two could possibly skip a grade. I'm going to have to do more research on that point. 
 
Private school isn't an option, we can't afford it and I don't want to send my kids to a religious based school.  There is a charter school in the area, but of course we've already missed the deadline to get in for next year and I don't want to base my semi-permanent housing decision on them *maybe* getting in in the future.  Another not great option is to move an hour away where the schools are somewhat better, but then my husband is commuting 2 hours a day.  
 
Anyone ever faced with a similar situation?   Luckily we have some time to house hunt (unlike our last move where we got 8 weeks notice! ugh.) so hopefully some diamond in the rough house will come on the market soon. 

 

Can you contact the charter school and explain your situation?  Your a military family and just got your orders.  Maybe there would be some sort of exception in an instance like this. 

 

Y'know, I don't know how much you can trust the "school scores" anymore.  Just because a school has fantastic scores doesn't mean it's better than a school that has mediocre or even poor scores. 

For example, last year some of the larger schools in our area actually paid the "smart" students to take the SAT's, they paid their fees and set up saturday practices for them.  But only the students who got good grades, because they wanted to pad their overall test scores by having only the smartest students take the test.  So yes, they look like they are a much better school, when in reality they are probably right among the average if they had helped their lessers students take the SAT.
 
That's just wrong on so many levels in my opinion, but it's what's happening all over the place.  Locally, there's been a battle over what school should host the GT student classes in elementary school, because if they are all based in one school it will raise that schools test scores.  For now, each school has their own GT classes, but a few years ago they district considered moving everyone to one elementary school, and the other 2 schools in the district threw a hissy fit that they would be losing their better students scores.
 
ALL this to say, I do hope you can find a house in the school district you want, but I don't know if I would stress myself out about it.  And I'm assuming you won't be there permanently anyways so there's always a chance to move into a better school district as your kids get older

 

Kathy suggested exactly what I was going to say.  Perhaps they'll allow admittance in that you are moving there... and are military.  Good luck.  I hope it works out better than you think it will.  I OFTEN fret about things and in they end it always works out.  Sorry you are suffering so much stress since you are 400 months pregnant! 

 

I second what Danielle wrote.  Our local school had excellent test scores, parents would move, falsify rental agreements etc to get their kids in there.  We had trouble with the principal (wouldn't let the girls be together for K) so ended up getting an exemption to attend a 'lesser' school.  I figured that if only 60% or 50% or 40% of students passed standardized tests I just had to make sure my kids were part of that 60 or 50 or 40 percent.  From the beginning we felt welcome, enveloped in the school community, and that the staff really cared about our kids.  Ironically, the year my kids enrolled, test scores started going up and test scores at the other school started going down.  Three years later, our school is in the to 10 public schools in the state, that's counting elementary, middle, high, and charter schools while the other school is way down.  My advice is always to tour the schools, talk with the principal and staff if you can and go with your gut feeling.

 

Does this mean you're coming to NC?? Terrible schools = NC, right??

Where are you going?

Private school might still be an option. My college prep HS was steeply subsidized by aide because we met the financial criteria and helped bump their x% of enrolled are military dependents stat.

 

Stephanie, we're going to SC so fairly close.   I did think about doing financial aid for private school but honestly, I'm more against sending them to a religious school than I am to a bad school.  I'm weird like that I guess.   As long as it's not bad like drugs and weapons and stuff, that is.  
 
I called the charter school and they gave me the "if we bend the rules for you, we have to do it for everyone and it's a military community so EVERYONE is military and you shouldn't think you're so special" routine.  Which is fairly common.  You either get people who will bend over backwards to help military or the people who think we want everything for free because we're military.  Oh stereotypes, so fun.  (Although I have met my fair share of military people who do think they should get everything for free...)
 
I'm going to do more research on the schools, ask people who live there already, etc, to get a better feel for the situation.  I know the curriculum is really far behind though so that should be interesting.   I know that schools do shit to keep their high ratings, but these ratings are low.  Super low.  Like 2 or 3 out of 10.   The highest was a 6/10 and that's the area we want to move into.   

 

I have no advice, just that I commiserate with you. I never thought sending my kids to school would be just a decision or ordeal, but my local schools suck, too. A 1 or 2 out of 10 kind of suck. We are looking at charters and Gifted and Talented programs- they've qualified for Advanced Kindergarten, (although I believe the standards to be extremely low- knowing letters and numbers- so I'm not terribly surprised). I'm not sure how long you are planning to be in SC, but what about a year of online school at home, until you can find something you like?

 

*snort*, well welcome to my neck of the woods then, so everything I just told you, does happen in SC   Where are you moving to?

 

I grew up in TX schools, which were really just terrible at the time (I have no idea if they're better now). My parents taught me to use reference material, encouraged me to pursue my interests, took me to the library--whatever the schools may have lacked was more than made up for at home. Now that my kids go to school in TN (don't even ask), I do the same thing. They are in the G&T program here, and that does seem to help.

 

Does South Carolina have open enrollment? You can apply to any district and if your child is accepted, they can attend but you have to provide transportation.

 

I live in a place with bad schools, so I feel you.  It is impossible to get into charters here.  I am sorry they will not make an exception in your case.  Like Michelle, I never thought sending my kids to school would be a decision or an ordeal-or that I would resent the only option DH and I would agree on (.  In our case, when we bought our house we had to live in the city as a requirement of DH's job and that requirement has been lifted in 2012 but we cannot afford to move.
I hope you can find a school that is a good fit for your children and that you feel at peace at.  :hug:

 

I assume you are moving to the Low Country in SC?  Please take the scores with a grain of salt.  I received my teaching education in SC, and had my first jobs there.  First of all, SC encourages EVERYONE to take the SAT's--even those not going to college, so their scores are typically lower than other states, the only encourage 4 year college bound students to take them.  As Danielle said, visit the schools--you may be truly surprised by what you find.  I student taught in one of the "low" schools in a good district.  There happened to be more special ed kids there--due to them having a self-contained behavior program, but those kids were really learning--you just had a population that was lower.  The smart kids excelled, but their scored were pulled down by the lower functioning kids.
 
When the boys were first born, I mentioned something about our local HS not being that good.  My pediatrician responded that it was my responsibility as a parent to make sure my kids got the education they needed, by keeping on top of what they are doing.  And that as long as I did my part, the kids would succeed anywhere.  That "poor" HS, is getting better each year--and partially because when we moved here is was 60-65% inner city kids, and the rest suburban.  Now it is 52% suburban, and 48% inner city (the ratio changed as there was a lot of development in the surrounding towns), and there are kids who score perfectly on the SAT's, and go to Ivy League schools each year--so some kids are very successful in this "poor" school.
 
And I will probably get slammed for this, but this is also the reason for implementing the Common Core Curriculum, so kids at each grade across the country are learning the same things.  Yes, there are growing pains from schools that were behind, but in a few years, it will make concerns like the curriculum being behind a thing of the past.
 
Sorry this became a book!

 

I was thinking the same thing as Sharon about common core. I hate how it is being implemented.


Tour the schools, know your boys have a good foundation and build on that.

 

Yes Sharon, we're moving to the Lowcountry.  Was it that obvious?   :laughing:    I don't think we'll get a chance to visit the schools just because we live so far away now - it's about a 9 hour drive from here.   It's a great idea obviously, just not sure it's feasible with the distance and expense.  I'll look into maybe visiting during spring break.  If we wait until the summer when we move to tour the schools and pick one, then find a house based on that choice, we'll be living in a hotel for G_d knows how long with four kids.  Yikes.   But I can ask other military families in the area and get some real life experiences on the schools too.  Just make the best decision we can from there.
 
I do appreciate all the insight though, especially from teachers!    I keep telling myself that we can keep encouraging them to learn here at home and keep them learning.  I'd like to provide them with the best education we can.  And trust me, that does NOT involve me teaching them at all!!   :lol:
 
 

 

Kate, the Lowcountry has a bad reputation, but I know the schools on the islands near Charleston are actually pretty good.  My Inlaws just sold their house in Wild Dunes, and there are a lot of full time residents who have kids in the schools, and just listening to them, I can tell that the schools are better than people think.  Daniel Island also has good schools, but they bus the kids off the island for High School.  I don't know where you are based, but maybe the Mount Pleasant area--actually, I just looked at the Report Card for Charleston, and it isn't too bad.  Actually, the worst schools in the state are the ones around the Columbia area, and mostly because that is the most inner city area of the state.

 

We won't be near Charleston unfortunately.  Well not close enough to live there anyway, we'll be about an hour away.  Or Columbia either but apparently that's a good thing!

 

Like the others said take the scores with a grain of salt. Try to talk to parents about the schools if you can because they will give more insight to the schools than a score can. Even though our state's scores are near the bottom of the US I have friends whose kids go to the 'good' schools in other states and they can't believe how much farther ahead of them we are.

 

My mom taught in the area around an hour outside Charleston for a few years and interviewed at quite a few. She then moved up to Florence until she retired. I would be glad to get her input for you. My SIL started her teaching around Charleston before moving on to Florence. I can ask her as well. Feel free to pm me. GL!