I'm having a hard time choosing a school

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Forum -> Parenting our children -> School age children

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amother

cornflower

Tue, May 02 2017, 5:15 am

We are planning on moving this summer and we are down to choosing between 2 schools. My daughter is going into third grade. One school is 10 minutes away but I have heard some mixed reviews about the school. The other school is an hour away on the school bus and the education is stellar. We have friends who moved last summer and send their children on the bus for an hour each way so that their children continue to have an excellent education. Their younger daughter who is in kindergarten had a bit of a hard time on the long bus ride but has been slowly getting used to it. My daughter is currently on the bus for 5 minutes and comes home exhausted. An hour bus ride to school and back would add 2 hours to her day. This makes me nervous but I'm a little worried about sending her to the local school because their education seems a little iffy. WWYD given this situation? Choose location over stellar education or vice versa? Thanks in advance for your responses.

amother

Lavender

Tue, May 02 2017, 5:22 am

I'd chose location. 2 hrs traveling each day is too stressful and too much of a waste of time. They need to be running around playing. And what if someone gets sick at 11am? Then what do you do?

Or move closer to the stellar school.

esther09

Tue, May 02 2017, 5:41 am

I would start her in the closer school while she's still so young. You can always switch her later on when she can better handle a log bus ride.

Ruchel

Tue, May 02 2017, 5:48 am

1 hour of trip is really ok. 2 is hard but here I'm reading 1

amother

cornflower

Tue, May 02 2017, 5:50 am

Ruchel wrote:

1 hour of trip is really ok. 2 is hard but here I'm reading 1

It is one hour of trip each way

amother

Khaki

Tue, May 02 2017, 6:06 am

can you pick someplace else to live closer to the better school- personally I don't like either option. Being near a good school is a top priority for me in terms of community.

amother

cornflower

Tue, May 02 2017, 6:25 am

amother wrote:

can you pick someplace else to live closer to the better school- personally I don't like either option. Being near a good school is a top priority for me in terms of community.

Unfortunately there is no other place. My husband is firmly set on this specific community. Right now we live in a great community (my husband hates it here) and we are within walking distance to school. I hate to give up that convenience but my husband really wants to move. My daughter's current school is phenomenal and I just really don't want her education to go down the tubes because of this move. Unfortunately, moving to this new community leaves us with only these 2 school options.

Ruchel

Tue, May 02 2017, 7:08 am

amother wrote:

It is one hour of trip each way

Yes, ok that's what I read. I say it's ok.

SixOfWands

Tue, May 02 2017, 7:13 am

"Mixed reviews" means some people like it and others don't.

"Stellar reputation" means that you haven't met the people who don't like it. Trust me, they exist at every school.

Unless you have a reason to believe that the local school is not a good fit for your child, I'd try it. Allow your child to have local friends and local playdates, not a life that's an hour away. And if it doesn't work out, you can move to the other school in a year.

perquacky

Tue, May 02 2017, 7:14 am

Do your own research. Have you personally checked out the school that's closer? Just because you heard mixed reviews doesn't mean it's not the right place for your children. The reason other families aren't happy may not apply to you.

amother

Khaki

Tue, May 02 2017, 7:38 am

op- have you posted about this before? Putting together other threads I think I know which community you are referring to and I really feel for you about the school situation. Do you know exactly what pple don't like about the local school and see if its still accurate? If it's the school I'm thinking of I believe it's undergone a lot of "changes". Don't just speak to people who send there but people who were thinking of sending there and chose not to for whatever reason so you know what to be looking in to.

amother

Purple

Tue, May 02 2017, 7:54 am

Yes, this seems to be quite similar to the other posting. Closer school works great for some.
Others it doesn't. "Stellar" school is "stellar" for some, not so stellar for others. Now if you are not the same op as that older thread I cannot in good faith say that statement #1 is true. Statement #2 is always true.

If your child has special circumstances and one school is known to handle that better, that is one thing. Otherwise, you just haven't spoken to the right people yet. People who sour on a school tend to forget the good things. Stellar people don't always notice when it is not so stellar for others.

jewish613

Tue, May 02 2017, 7:58 am

How long is the commute to the farther school by car? Is there a way to arrange a carpool or another method of transportation to significantly decrease the commute time?

amother

cornflower

Tue, May 02 2017, 8:04 am

amother wrote:

Yes, I have posted something similar a while back looking for information on these 2 schools. We then went to check out both schools for ourselves and were absolutely blown away by one of these schools. My reaction to the other school was, well, it's a school closer by. When we went to see this school, it did seem a little more to the right than what I would like. This school supposedly has changed a lot in the past year and the new rabbi seemed great when we met with him. I went to an awful elementary school were no matter how much I struggled, I came out learning nothing. I want my daughter having every advantage in her education that I didn't get.

amother

Rose

Tue, May 02 2017, 8:09 am

Education is my top priority and I would have zero problem with an hour each way if that's what was required to send them to the right school. Any more than that, we would be moving closer to the school. That said, most decent schools will be perfectly good for most kids. Some kids need more and can't go to just any old school. But if your kid is average and can adapt anywhere and doesn't need extra attention or resources, then the closer school should be fine. I mean, do your homework, if it's really bad, then you'll have to send to the farther one. Don't just base this on not having 100% satisfaction. Look into it yourself. Perhaps what others don't like is a nonissue for you.

amother

Periwinkle

Tue, May 02 2017, 12:48 pm

I went to an elementary school which was not great (it may even be the same close by school that you are thinking of, if I connected your posts correctly as others hinted). And even though I didn't enjoy school, the education itself was fine - I learned what was needed, and didn't feel any deficit in a high school that got kids from all over the state from different elementary schools. The only disadvantage was that in hebrew language, because that wasn't taught well where I went and was better n other places, but many places have improved that.

Also, many of the kids in my elementary school liked it and got a reasonably good education. There weren't really other options in my day, and when given the choice to switch somewhere farther, I told my parents that I would hate traveling that far and stayed in my own local school anyway.

In short, I would go with location. Especially because if your kids has a 1 hour bus ride home and the another 1 hour of homework, they basically have no free time in the afternoon evening. . .

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