Opinions on O. Henry Middle (AISD)?

[tibbar]

Originally Posted by NomadFamily

Military life has its perks, but the older our kids get the more staying in one place gets more and more appealing!

i couldn't agree more. Navy brat here, the constant moving left me with no close friends anywhere. Senior year in another new school after Dad retired to a small Kansas town really sucked.

[centralaustinite]

I really think that you are overthinking the social aspect!! Austin is not Mayberry. People are constantly moving here, people are constantly moving within Austin, there are new kids in every grade of every school everywhere!

I think that the 6th grade option at Brykerwoods or Lee or Maplewood might be a great idea! And even there, you will not find every who completed 5th grade at those school sticking around for 6th grade, the kids will be a new mix! Some kids will prefer to go to a magnet MS program (Kealing, Lamar Fine Arts, Fulmore Law and Humanities, Ann Richards), others will go private for middle school, others will chose to go ahead to the 6th grade in their feeder pattern. The 6th graders who stay at the elementary for 6th grade tend to be those who will benefit for a smaller and more intimate environment.

Private schools are the same way! New kids every year! And private schools tend to work very hard to make sure that kids are getting along and developing social and emotional skills, she won't be left on the outside.

BUT MARCH IS FAR TOO LATE TO WAIT TO APPLY!! No Austin private school has a huge application fee, they tend to be nominal, under a $100, often more like $25 or none at all. No significant money is ever due until there is a signed contract for the next year.

You need to call schools and get the application process underway NOW if you think that you want that as an option. And I am not sure if either St. Francis or Paragon will do a completely remote application without a chance for your daughter to shadow. Generally the process at both schools is -- initial contact, interview and tour with head of school, complete application, schedule shadow days, both schools open this process in the fall. As students and families complete the process and if the feedback from teachers, application, parent interview all seem to point to a good fit between the student and school, the child is put on the waiting list -- in chronological order! So families who completed this process in November will be on the waiting list ahead of families who don't complete this process until the first week of February.

Then sometime in February contracts will be sent to current families, they usually have 2 weeks or so to respond (and submit a deposit check and signed contract for the next year), then the school will have an idea of how many slots they will have for new students. 6th grade is usually an entry point so most schools and this includes both Paragon and St. Francis have more slots for 6th grade than they did for 5th grade. Contracts are then sent to the first 5 families on the waiting list, they are given a certain time to respond, then contracts are offered to the next set on the waiting list. Repeat.

10 years ago St. Francis and Paragon might both have slots available in grades all summer but it has been years since that has been the case. Both school generally find themselves at capacity for the next school year before May! Of course, there will be some movement all summer as families move, take new jobs, etc. so you can be pretty far down the chronological waiting list and still end up with a spot come August, but it is a crap shoot, and the odds have been getting longer every year. Austin has been growing explosively and Austin private schools have certainly grown but overall growth far outpaces it.