urbanSTL

My wife & I are expecting our first baby in October. How early can you add a name to a school's waitlist?

iowa09 wrote:My wife and I have two kids, a three year old and a 6 month old. We bought a house 2 years ago in Lindenwood Park and absolutely love living in South City. However, we are pretty bummed out about the limited options we have when it comes to sending out kids to school. We are not Catholic and therefore the plethora of Catholic primary schools around us really aren't an option. The St. Louis City schools are pathetic and currently there's only one decent option, Kenard which is a gifted primary school. However, Kenard is nearly impossible to get into so its not like we can set our hopes on that option. That basically leaves us with sending our kids to either a non-denominational or christian private school. However, these schools are all outrageously expensive. Westminster Academy in West County is 14K plus a year!!! So, based upon all of the above, we will likely have to move in a couple of years to Surburban hell in order to find a decent school district. It breaks my heart but I just don't see how we can continue living in the city.

So....are there any options I'm leaving out? My wife and I have researched this subject a bit but are looking for opinions from somebody else.

I know some people say living in Webster or Kirkwood is a good alternative to living in the City but home prices there are VERY steep. I'd have a very difficult time spending $400 K plus on a home that the same size as our home in the city that's almost $150 K less.

So does anyone know what this guy wound up doing, and how it's been working?

The French St. Louis Language Immersion School. Wow, what an amazing place.

http://www.stlouiscitytalk.com/2013/03/ ... hools.html

To all the expecting parents and school-aged families out there, please research your options. Educate yourself, tour a school, talk to your neighbors and parents. The county is not the golden egg in all cases. Talk to people who know. PM me if you have to, I'll hook you up.

Please families, be part of the solution and not the problem.

Cheers-Mark

Just got a mailer for a new Charter that will be opening up in TGS neighborhood on Morgan Ford and Chippewa. Eagle College Prep has a couple of schools in Phoenix and will be coming here.... it seems to do well in Phoenix and receives support from Alex Aggassi, who supports quality charters.

http://eagleprep.org/news/10-12-2012/an ... eagle-prep

^ Andre

^ yes, Andre, the retired tennis dude who had precious 90's hair.

So...are these charters all 1) free, 2) neighborhood-based, and 3) non-lottery/waiting list?

onecity wrote:So...are these charters all 1) free, 2) neighborhood-based, and 3) non-lottery/waiting list?

Charters are all free; some are neighborhood-based, some have lottery based on demand. I think generally what happens in new charters don't have a lottery but if it is perceived as successful (like Citygarden Montessori) then demand grows and there may be a lottery.

For those reading these entries, what is missing that you'd like to see? I am trying to get my sea legs with this process and want these to be useful. I want to index these eventually so there is a consolidated list...

cngrant wrote:I would strongly encourage parents to consider Mallinckrodt if they are looking for an pre-K thru 5th grade elementary school in south city. Mallinckrodt is a relatively new St. Louis City magnet school. Though initially established as a "second" Kennard, it its distinct, with its own character. Parents, teachers, and administrators are pushing for experiential learning, structured recess, more science in the classroom, and expanded foreign language instruction. There is testing process for eligibility, and also the lottery for entry, but so far Mallinckrodt has been easier to get into than Kennard.

I'm working on connecting with a family there...stay tuned. Another great option for St. Louis families!!! The numbers are growing. We need as many families to root down in the city as we can get.

quincunx wrote:I've been interested in the school voucher idea since I was a teenager. I wrote my term paper about it in AP English class. Would children be better served? Would the city be better off? I think so. The stigma of the public schools in the city is a huge drag. Knowing that you would have this option would be a relief to many who would like to live in the city. I really hate that many poor disadvantaged kids are stuck in the SLPS.

IndyStar - Indiana Supreme Court upholds school vouchers

http://www.indystar.com/article/2013032 ... %7Cmostcom

It is a complex issue and charters are far from a panacea. Too often, charter backers see this as a way to make money and leave kids behind. The for-profit Imagine Academy fiasco was a complete mess, and that ex-City Treasurer ghost employee taking tens of thousands was a more home-grown example. It is good that charters are finally getting some more oversight and I think the good ones welcome that.... we'll see if it is enough. (And let's not forget there are some excellent SLPS schools, including the second-best high school in the state.)

I really hate that many poor disadvantaged kids are stuck in the SLPS.

Maybe they aren't stuck. I don't know the income demographics of who left STL in the last census, but the city's median income increased. I assume wealthier people moved into the city to reap the benefits of city living while poorer people left for greener pastures to escape crime and bad schools. If that is the case, that demographic trend will probably continue since the "bad" school district could be causing families with no other options to leave, thus relieving some of the strain on SLPS, especially as wealthier people enter the city and increasingly gentrify it. The demographics will tip at some point, it's just a matter of when. But it will certainly accelerate once the national economy ramps up.

^ Yep. No one in their right mind will move to the city for a 50/50 chance at a particular school. So what does one do? Rent an apartment in the city and claim residency to apply? Buy a home, rent it, and use the address? (I've contemplated all of the above, and more)

SLPS is a totally solvable problem, if you start with demographics. We know there are 12k or so middle class black families in the city (are their children enrolled in SLPS or not?), and most likely those families share the same middle class values that characterizes the middle class regardless of race. We can assume some portion (greater? lesser?) of the remaining black families, while poor, are stable and provide a nurturing environment for their children. We can assume neither of these groups wants their children surrounded by delinquents with delinquent parents. We can also assume the delinquent children of delinquent parents, through disruptive behavior and limits on expulsion and suspension, greatly reduce the quality of education for the first two groups, and that because there is currently no large scale mechanism for identifying and segregating the troublemakers into a more rigorous track for troubled kids, they drag down SLPS such that achieving accreditation is difficult to impossible. So SLPS needs to reorganize into a normal district for the first two groups, and an independent special district for the problem kids. In doing so accreditation is pretty much a certainty, the perceived quality of education product would dramatically improve (as the student population would primarily be from quality families), and SLPS would probably become attractive enough for many more people to consider living in STL proper. And it would eliminate those ***** stupid waiting lists and lotteries.

quincunx wrote:

roger wyoming II wrote:including the second-best high school in the state.)

Metro High has only 300 students. Clayton high has 836 and your kid gets in just because you live in the Clayton District. Marquette High School has 2274. Kirkwood High School has 1628. That's great for Metro, but parents want the assurance.

I was simply comparing SLPS to charters..... what assurance do charters give compared to SLPS? As I said, some charters are good and others are a disaster; same as the SLPS. And as a whole I think SLPS beats the charters on testing. Hopefully they are getting better, as is the SLPS. And the success of Metro speaks for itself.... no charter has risen to that level.