Cheaper Private Schools (Fort Worth, Crowley, Center: buyer, live in, cost)

[CaramelPea]

We live on the border of Crowley and Fort Worth near Chisholm Trail tollroad. We have one child on the way and while I could just about afford sending one child to one of the top end privates when the time comes (FWCD, TVS, etc) we do ultimately plan to have two and I don't think we could afford tuition for both.

As such, we've been looking at some of the cheaper privates in our neck of the woods, primarily St Peters Classical in Ft Worth near the high end privates, Nazarene Christian in Crowley, and Mercy Culture Prep north of downtown. I assume they're not in the same class but I am looking for something to avoid Crowley ISD publics, especially for high school as it would be North Crowley High. Anyone have any familiarity with these schools?

[tcualum]

Honestly, I haven't heard of them. I recommended Fort Worth Academy in the past for a lower cost but excellent private school but during the past few years, they really raised their tuition. My older son decided to switch to public school in the 7th grade. So far, he's attended Summer Creek, North Crowley 9th, North Crowley High, and the new Career Technology Center. Summer Creek was great and has a wonderful principal. 9th grade campus was a mess. The high school has been a mixed bag. Some of his teachers have been great and some awful. I loathe the band director. He's a jerk and is full of himself. I can't say enough great things though about the CTE Center. It's amazing. My son is gifted but has Autism and ADHD. The support he's gotten for those things has been excellent. My sister is a special ed teacher in another state and is impressed with the support he's gotten at Crowley.

You need to be careful with small private schools. Some are a total mess and you don't always know what you're getting into when you start. My best friend had her son in one that she really liked at first. It was housed at a conservative church but the church didn't involve itself in the running of the school until a new minister was hired. All of a sudden, the school was anti-gay and drove out a very sweet lesbian couple, and was requiring families to sign documents attesting that they believed and practiced the same values as the church. There was also pressure to join the church. My friend was hoping to put her head down and finish out the year and then find a new school. She ended up pulling out her son after her son was called "gay" by his teacher and was bullied by his teacher as well. She is pro-gay rights but was furious because the teacher was using the term as an insult. The head of the school did nothing.

Is it possible to move?

[TeamLynn]

Any good charter schools near you? That might be free alternative.

[jbb303]

Never heard of the other 2, but Mercy Culture Prep is connected to the very conservative and politically active church of the same name. Schools like that are strong on doctrine and faith and weak on everything else including academics. That may be what you're looking for and more power to you, but buyer beware.

[tcualum]

Originally Posted by TeamLynn

Any good charter schools near you? That might be free alternative.

They missed the charter school sign up deadlines.

[CaramelPea]

I don't mind some religion but I'm not looking for anything too extreme, so I suppose Mercy won't do. We do live in reasonable distance to the Harmony charters but when I reached to them about admission rates they refused to provide that information to me.

[tcualum]

Originally Posted by CaramelPea

I don't mind some religion but I'm not looking for anything too extreme, so I suppose Mercy won't do. We do live in reasonable distance to the Harmony charters but when I reached to them about admission rates they refused to provide that information to me.

As I mentioned earlier, you've missed the charter school lotteries. You can't rely on charters as your only option because the lotteries around there always have way more entries than slots. Some charters expect you to enter all of your kids into the lottery instead of guaranteeing admission to younger siblings.