Chattanooga School for Arts & Sciences (East Brainerd: best schools, live in, move to)

[knucklehead_vol]

I am sure this has been beat to death. But can someone tell me the admissions for this school? I have two kids, one 3 and the other 10 weeks. We'll probably move to the North Shore area with the Normal School, but would like some other info. Also, what about St Jude and OPH? Thanks.

[An Einnseanair]

No, no one can explain the current policy, because unfortunately the policy is going to change next year. The changes affect both CSAS and its sister school, the Chattanooga School for Liberal Arts (CSLA, over on East Brainerd).

The process is currently a first-come-first-serve system, but sign-ups for kindergarten start on a set day the year before admission. Which means people start lining up ahead of this day. Previously people literally camped out in tents in front of the admissions office for as long as a week. The school didn't like all these people hanging out around the school 24/7 (unwashed bodies, trash, sanitation issues, campfires on cold nights, hundreds of strange people right there next to the playground, etc.), so they changed the policy. Unofficially, they started recognizing the sign-up "list". They set rules such that as long as at least one person was on location and claimed to be maintaining the line, the list was valid, so everyone else could go home. Plus you had to check-in at least one time per day. When I went through this to get my son in CSLA back in 2009, the "line" started almost 4 weeks before the sign-up day. I had to be there every day at 6:30pm to say "here" when my son's name was called, and I was there for several 4-hour shifts to maintain line presence (usually from 2-6am, then I'd go to work, but also sometimes on the weekends).

The main advantage of this system is that parents have to work to get their kids in. Therefore, by default, every child in that school has parents who have proven they care about education and are willing to work at it. After all the work I did to get him in that school, helping him do homework, participating in class outings, and doing volunteer hours is nothing. And I know that most (if not all) of the kids in his class have parents who feel the same way I do. This is a HUGE advantage because instead of continually repeating previous lessons, the teacher can move on to new things because of the extra learning time most kids get at home.

Unfortunately, a large group of people decided they WERE GETTING IN this last fall. So they started the line in early AUGUST, and the usual sign-in day usually isn't until late OCTOBER. Unfortunately, the official sign-in day hadn't been set yet, so the school caved and moved the day ahead to September to shorten the waiting time for the line. This set a very bad precedent, so it was likely that the line next year could start in mid summer in the hope that the school would move the sign-in date up again.

So now they're going to change the policy. The school board probably wants to go to a lottery-type system because it'll be easy for them. NO ONE else wants this system, including the administration at both schools and the parents of existing students. Luckily, the board allowed the creation of a task force of alumni and parents of existing students to discuss options for a new system. They meet fairly regularly. Maybe the board will listen to the recommendations of this task force, maybe not.

But ultimately, the official policy won't be announced for several more months.

[blindsolitude]

As for OLPH and St. Jude, these are both private, Catholic schools.

Admissions for St. Jude: St. Jude School Chattanooga - Admissions Page

Admissions for OLPH: Our Lady of Perpetual Help School - Chattanooga TN | Main / Admissions

Both schools accept catholic and non-catholic students, but if students are not part of a catholic parish, the tuition is higher.

[knucklehead_vol]

Originally Posted by blindsolitude

As for OLPH and St. Jude, these are both private, Catholic schools.

Admissions for St. Jude: St. Jude School Chattanooga - Admissions Page

Admissions for OLPH: Our Lady of Perpetual Help School - Chattanooga TN | Main / Admissions

Both schools accept catholic and non-catholic students, but if students are not part of a catholic parish, the tuition is higher.

How are these academically? Originally we were thinking about N Chatt. for the Normal Magnet School, but we have been looking into other areas and those areas could possibly not have the best schools. Although from what I understand, St. Elmo is in Lookout Valley's district, which is a good school, but the middle and high schools are lacking.

[blindsolitude]

I couldn't really tell you how they are academically. . . But they feed into Notre Dame High School (as do some other schools), which continually has students who are AP scholars, National Merit Finalists, etc.

The people I know who have kids in either school seem to love it.

[kanooch1011]

Can someone please tell me what the 2011-2012 tuition is for CSLA if you are an out of zone parent (I live in Ringgold, GA)?

[An Einnseanair]

If you're already guaranteed a place in the 2011 class, your best bet is to just call the school office. Contact info is HERE.

If you're not already guaranteed a place then you're about 9 months too late to apply.