How happy are you with the schools? (Chapel Hill, Carrboro: chapel, best school districts)

[m378]

Originally Posted by michgc

Be aware, that there is a proposal in the state to lower the maximum number of students that can be in a classroom. While that sounds good on the surface, it may cause the school district to cut out arts and specials so that they can meet the state requirement. The money has to come from somewhere.

Something has to give if you want quality schools like the states/cities/towns many of us came from. The days of having your cake and eating it too will eventually end.

[CapitalBlvd]

Originally Posted by m378

Something has to give if you want quality schools like the states/cities/towns many of us came from. The days of having your cake and eating it too will eventually end.

Yup. These transplants running here to escape high property tax will want services that screw everyone here.

My adult children got great educations and we lived in Mini-City. Unbelievably better than New Orleans
Our 4 YO grandson is in his second year of WCPSS Pre-K, one year in a magnet (Poe Elementary), and has done amazingly well. Both schools are heavily diverse with many students getting free lunch.

WCPSS does a great job given the load put on it by large influxes of students w/o proper impact fees to meet their needs.

[NoneOfThis]

Something has to give if you want quality schools like the states/cities/towns many of us came from.

I'm a local, but not usually a snowflake local, but sometimes...

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Reflect and carry on.

[annabanana123]

Originally Posted by m378

Something has to give if you want quality schools like the states/cities/towns many of us came from. The days of having your cake and eating it too will eventually end.

I'd rather the class size give than the specials honestly. I want a well rounded child and that comes from exposure to arts, media center, technology, music, science, languages etc. cutting those is detrimental to the long term education of the students far more than a class size. Ideally north would be awesome but if something has to give it needs to be the size. oh and PE? That's a special too. So kids who are already having to sit still way too long may have to do it even longer. Just my 2 cents. The day specials go I'll be withdrawing my son and finding a way to pay for private school.

[homerboy]

How is the school environment at Wake County and its magnet schools wrt kids and parents? Are the parents always on the "rat race," cliquish, rude, competitive, and cut throat, want to push their own kids at all cost? Or, are the parents friendly amongst each other, willing to help and receptive to one another?

The school my child current attends is annoyingly un-necessary competitive. Parents pushing their kids to squeeze every last point on their tests, cliquish among their own ethnicity, trampling over other kids and other parents to get in front of the line, and just plain nasty. I'm frankly sick of it.

[sittingonamtntop]

I hate that school boards will have to choose between cutting specials like PE, art & music or having huge class sizes (I read in the N&O someone proposed 40 kids in one classroom!). This makes me so sad Hopefully they will increase funding for our public schools soon!

[annabanana123]

Homer, you'll find both here. Some are super competitive (more so for IB and AP classes as kids get older) and some are laid back and friendly. I've made several friends with parents at our school but again my son is in elementary school. That said there's one family who is pushing their first grader to the point where the child hates school. There's always some of those but they seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

[NoneOfThis]

Re parents: You'll find a bit of all of what you describe, but for the most part, I find that parents are nice, but not overly friendly. Sure, they look after their own, but only a few do it in such an overbearing way that I find myself shaking my head as they walk away. My impression is that parents around here are really busy - busy with multiple children, afterschool activities, work trips, sports interests of parents and children, etc. I've also found that if you choose to dive into the drama, you'll find it.

Re cutting specials in order to decrease class size - I much prefer the specials. I would feel we received a very raw deal if WCPSS pulled specials out from under my children without there being any complaints from the schools or parent groups that there's a problem. My children's schools are over capacity and capped, but they are getting a great education. I have not seen indications that larger class sizes have diminished learning, but I have seen incredible growth from my children participating in music and art classes and competitions, PE, technology, and the likes.

[BoBromhal]

the thing with specials & class size is an unintended consequence of a good idea. Everybody wants smaller classes. That means you need more classrooms. There just aren't schools out there with spare classrooms. To get more classrooms, you either build more schools or you take existing space in a school and convert it to class space. You can't approve the bond, plan and design, and build the school within a year. You can shift budget dollars from specials classes to base classroom teachers though. When my children's elementary school was over-capacity, they took the brand-new huge art room and turned it into a 2nd grade classroom ... because that years 2nd grade was the largest ever.

The local school systems have asked for near-term autonomy in keeping class sizes above the mandated smaller sizes. The GA has now taken the tack of "wait a second, we gave all y'all money to reduce the class sizes, and now you're telling us you didn't and can't. Where did the money go?"

[BoBromhal]

as to competitiveness and cliquishness, I see more ethnic cliquishness that also manifests itself by driving young students to hit numbers, not become part of the community. But I also see plenty of parental involvement to the betterment of all kids, not just "my Susie"