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I have been homeschooling my kids for a few years now and since our move to a stronger school district, we are strongly considering putting the kids into the local school. I had intended to homeschool this year but my husband and I were thinking that maybe we should put the kids in now and have them integrate into the neighborhood quickly by sending them to school. The school is walking distance and a good number of the neighborhood send their kids there.
The dilemma is that my older child is in 5th grade and the school that we are zoned for is capped and hence we will be sent to another middle school that the neighborhood kids will not be attending. It seems to kind of defeat the purpose of sending her to school here. And the overflow school is not as highly rated as the one that we are suppose to be zoned for but capped.
Have any others experience similar scenarios? And what are some advice? Some questions that we should be asking ourselves to make an informed decision?
how do you know she won't be allowed into the 6th grade class?
It was my understanding that "eligibility" was determined by the date you moved into your home/attendance zone, not by the date that you enrolled your child in WCPSS. But I also considered those to be essentially the same date.
We moved into our house a few months ago and the MS that we are zoned for has been capped for 2 years. So, we are not eligible to be grandfathered into it.
Your older child would be in 5th grade now? It might be good to have a year of public school in the smaller pond of elementary school before jumping into middle school which is generally a little more intense (changing classes, more kids, etc). If you say which schools specifically you're talking about posters here might be able to offer more advice.
has someone (in the office, not a parent) at Highcroft and/or Mills Park told you that you don't have a chance to gain admission to Mills Park?
every year, the 6th grade enrollment begins anew, almost at zero. Yes, every child who's a rising 6th grader who has lived in the Mills Park zone longer than you is ahead of you in line. Every sibling rising 6th grader that has a current student there now that'll be there next year, regardless of when they moved in, also ahead of you in line.
But what if the current 8th grade class is enormous, and will allow them to better balance the grades? The rising 6th grade class might gain many spots.
has someone (in the office, not a parent) at Highcroft and/or Mills Park told you that you don't have a chance to gain admission to Mills Park?
every year, the 6th grade enrollment begins anew, almost at zero. Yes, every child who's a rising 6th grader who has lived in the Mills Park zone longer than you is ahead of you in line. Every sibling rising 6th grader that has a current student there now that'll be there next year, regardless of when they moved in, also ahead of you in line.
But what if the current 8th grade class is enormous, and will allow them to better balance the grades? The rising 6th grade class might gain many spots.
I spoke with the data manager at Highcroft and she told me that most likely my child would not get in to Mills Park MS. She encouraged me to call Mills Park to confirm and when I did, I was told that the likelihood of being uncapped is low. Yes, the school board hasn't told them definitively that it will be uncapped for next year, but since there is such an influx of people moving IN and not OUT of West Cary, she did not see it being a possibility for our child.
The cap date is a yearly thing. In other words, while it has been a foregone conclusion that MPMS will be capped every year, it is re-capped every year, and if you are in by that date, you can attend the following year. So let's say they decide to cap MPMS next year and they decide this December - that's the cap date. If you are in before then, you should be able to attend. Are they definitely saying that you would not get in to MPMS if the cap remains in effect? And - are you definitely zoned for for MPMS because they are changing the base zone for next year.
As an aside, this year's 5th grade class is going to be bigger than the current 6th grade because they moved the starting birth cutoff date from October 15 to August 31 and this year's 5th grade is the class that got all the extra kids. At Davis Drive Elementary they have 60 more 5th graders this year than they did last year.
The other issue with MPMS that I heard from a friend who has kids there is that yes - they are losing a slew of kids to Pine Hollow Middle - but they will also lose staff as well. So the class sizes won't change - it will really affect things like not needing trailers and the kids actually having more than 20 minutes for lunch.
Twingles, what the office at MPMS told me was that since we have moved into our house (definitely zoned coming year for MP) after the cap was in effect, we won't be able to attend. The only way we can go is if the cap is lifted by the beginning of the year. And she thought it was doubtful that it would be lifted.
Twingles, what the office at MPMS told me was that since we have moved into our house (definitely zoned coming year for MP) after the cap was in effect, we won't be able to attend. The only way we can go is if the cap is lifted by the beginning of the year. And she thought it was doubtful that it would be lifted.
WCMS is a good middle school. I would not let the possibility of your child attending there hold her out of MS.
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