Letters of Intent were mailed by our private school a couple of months ago. While they are not contracts, it helps the school board determine school year needs, such as staffing. I did not print ours off; mostly because I am struggling with the decision about where to send our kids in the fall. This is a battle that has been waged in my mind since we moved just a couple of miles from the public school.
When we moved in November, we actually moved to a great school district. All the schools are rated very high in the state for academics. If we had remained in the same school district, I wouldn’t have really thought twice about continuing to send the kids to private school. I mean, a huge reason we went with the private school was because our old school district charged for kindergarten, but also the before/after school care combined with the Kindergarten tuition wasn’t that much different than what we would pay at our private school. The perk of our school: small classrooms so the teachers have more one on one time with the students. I also know the teachers and we communicate frequently via email (and even text sometimes). I just know my kids are not going to be lost in the crowd.
When we moved we talked about switching to the public schools that are so close to our houses. But the Girl did NOT want to switch schools. She has a network of friends that she doesn’t want to leave behind. The Boy, however, was ready to start at the new school right after Christmas break. The difference is that his preschool friends stayed in preschool while he advanced to Kindergarten, and another friend transitioned to public school. He is one of the youngest in his class this year. I think he feels like he has already lost his close friends, so why not move on.
I am completely torn. It would be so nice not to have such a long commute (even carpooling with another staff member, I worry about them being on the road so long every day). The cost to send the kids to public school will be about a third of the private school costs because we will still need to pay for before OR after school care (which is on location!). But they will go from classrooms of 14 to classrooms of about 25. They won’t have the same classes- like bible or Share Chapel, which are both more important to the Girl than they are to the Boy.
It is a hard decision! And we will have to make it soon.
What would you do? Take the money and send the kids to public school? Continue with the longer commute and send the kids to a christian school with smaller classes?
