Yesterday was a big day in the Quick household. Not only was it the day that our oldest daughter started 1st grade, but it was a solution to an issue we have been thinking about and working on since she was an itty bitty baby. We live in a neighborhood that we love.....historic, lots of trees, quaint and friendly, but the schools stink! Many people that live here send their kids to private school, (which we cannot afford). Some of our brave neighbors started a movement to send their kids to the neighborhood school in hopes that it would change things for the better. They tried, we watched. They pulled their kids out of the school.
Over the years, we have spent endless amounts of time talking about "where our kids will go to school". Everytime we run into a neighbor, this is the conversation.......
Them: "Where is Libby going to school?"
Me: "I don't know! We are going to apply to the charter school.....and for a transfer within our system.....and the city next door takes tuition students, if they have room......and then there is private school that we are trying to avoid. So, where is Johnny going to school?"
I have no idea how many times I have replayed this conversation over and over with my friends in the neighborhood and many of them had the same type of answer as I did! Honestly, I wonder what we would all talk about if our schools weren't so bad.
Well the last couple of years have been pretty stressful. The birth of twins made private school completely out of the question. So we began our plan to move to a better school district. I started visiting schools and looking at houses in those neighborhoods so we could target a couple of schools/neighborhoods that we liked. Then we put our house on the market in April....and hoped that it would sell so we could move before Aug. 11 when school was set to start. Our house didn't sell. We tried two public school lotteries and didn't get picked in either one. We tried to become a tuition family in the nearby city and was denied because they had no room. We put in a request for a transfer to any of the 5 or so schools that we would consider moving to - and was denied. We were pretty much forced to either homeschool, or try private school. Well, anyone that knows me and knows my extremely social daughter, Libby, knows that homeschooling would be a total disaster. As Chris said, "We might as well pay for private school because if you homeschool, there is no telling how much money we would have to spend in psychotherapy for you AND Libby." And, he is right.....after taking care of toddler twins all day, the little patience I do have is completely spent. Teaching your own 6 year old how to do simple arithmetic takes far more patience than I ever realized!
So....moving on.....we go through the summer in suspense as to where our daughter will go to school. We call the charter school to see if we have moved up on the waiting list. We call the local school district to see if a transfer might come through for us. We start filling out our private school application. We call checking on the transfer again. We start the process of applying to the private school, (which is at least 30 minutes away, BTW), which entails collecting referrals, transcripts, taking student tests, and going through an interview. We call checking on the transfer again.
Finally, less than two weeks before school is to start, we are accepted to the private school. (that we have no idea how we will pay for). Then, the very next day, we recieve word from our local school district that Libby has been approved as a transfer student to a GREAT school!!! YIPEE!!!! We were so happy and relieved and surprised and thankful!
So, as Libby began her first day of first grade yesterday, we should have been feeling sentimental and nostalgic about our baby getting so big and going to "real school" and being gone almost all day, but mostly all I could feel was how incredibly happy and relieved and grateful I was that she had a wonderful public school to go to. It is just the type of school that I have been picturing in my mind for her all these years! Small and quaint with a great reputation and very involved parents. And FREE!!!!
