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BPS wait list movement
By tmrozzie on Tue, 04/14/2015 - 6:39pm
So all anyone in Boston with a young, school-age child is going to talk about in the next 36 hours is the lottery placements that are going out for BPS.
I know each school is different, but is there any rule of thumb on how much a wait list tends to move in terms of spots? I feel like anything under 10 should be decent, but if a given K1 only has 17 seats I suppose that still isn't likely.
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Comments
Wait list
From a Roslindale perspective, It's really a crap shoot. I think anything under 4 is good and above is a long shot. After you factor in sibling preferences, there are typically less than the listed amount of open seats in a class. It's a pretty good bet that someone will have an older sibling in the school already. If you're in a part of the district will less popular schools, it might be totally different. I also think in West Roxbury, even 4 is pretty much no shot. It might be worse now though if there really are more people applying to BPS than in the past.
In my last round dealing with a wait list at BPS, we got our kid into a Rosi K-5 from 3rd on the wait list. Of course, thanks to the West Zone Resource center, we didn't get the spot (open since day one) until late October. Hopefully that's been reformed.
We got hosed this time around - over 25 on the wait list at three schools. Oh well, I guess another $20k in daycare down the drain so we can live in the urban paradise of Roslindale.
20K for daycare?
Nobody will do it for 19?
Not anybody
That you would want to.
Ever hear of licensed child care? Of course not - these things don't exist in WillWorld.
My SIL charges much less ... but she's subsidized by that commie socialist province of Alberta.
They don't exist in WillWorld
Because I don't have kids and thus I don't know the market for childcare. You could have answered without the condescension.
Is this per kid? Can somebody have like six kids and clear 120K a year doing this job? Am I in the wrong business?
You would need at least one
You would need at least one assistant to be licensed for 6 kids (or for anyone to think it was a good idea to leave 6 kids with you all day). You would need rented space conforming to safety and cleanliness standards (there are surprise inspections), you need to provide food (conforming to state nutritional standards, and prepared with appropriate food safety precautions), and you need insurance. Extra insurance if you plan to ever drive those kids anywhere. You work 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., you never take a vacation, and you'd be lucky to take home $40K a year.
Why do people have kids then?
I can't think of a single good reason for me to have one ever. And yet, people keep doing it into 2015. Are people with kids that much more optimistic than I am about the future?
Will I can give you 100 reasons not to have children.....
And the charter school issue is not one of them.
(Edit: I would give this advise to many people, not just you Will)
Ask your parents
Sorry, the line was out there.
People have been pessimistic about the future going back at least to Malthus' time. From an economic perspective, everyone should have a kid (yes, men can't give birth, and beyond that other issues come up so on average a kid a person) to ensure when the generation that came before is unable to work, the next generation will be able to care for them.
Again, you don't have to sire one, but the next time you see a family with 3 kids, one of them might be the one that will be helping you down the road.
I can't think of a single
On this, it's safe to say, we all agree.
Now THIS is what UH has been missing
A knock-down-drag-out "parents vs. non-parents" fight.
To me, kids are like cars - I guess I can see why some people like them, but I haven't the slightest bit of interest in having one of my own. And for the most part, the less I have to interact with them, the happier we'll all be.
But for Internet flamethrowing purposes - BREEDERS! HELLSPAWN! GET GIANT STROLLERS OFF THE T!!!!1!
And what about Sacred Heart?
A lot less than $20K, I can assure you. Of course, it's also less then the $13K we spend on daycare, but that is neither here nor there. All I know is that the tuition goes down when junior is old enough to pop over to Canterbury Street.
Heliocentrism
I don't want my kid educated by an institution which persecuted Copernicus and Galileo. (this is a joke).
Yeah
Pretty much what we expect. We're 4th on the list at the Haley, which has two strands but one of them is mostly rising students from their K0 class. Honestly we've lucked out compared to a lot of people we know. We'll just have to wait and see. Sorry that the algorithm gods weren't kind to you this time around.
Wishing you luck
My daughter was #3 on the wait list for K-1 for the Eliot School in 2008. She got in about a month after the placements came out. I feel my luck in getting her in all those years ago is a reward for putting up with my ex-husband.
And it begins
Poor kids. The hell are next year's kindergarteners going to do for employment in 2028?
They will fix the simple
They will fix the simple robots that fix the more complicated robots which fix the really complicated robots. At least until the AI's decide humanity is woefully inefficient and do away with us entirely.
Dunno
Secure VC funding for apps with huge user bases and dubious revenue options?
Or human space-savers.
The year we did this for our
The year we did this for our son, the district had a spreadsheet indicating how many parents put each school down as their 1st, second or third choice, and how many K1 and K2 seats that school had after each round of enrollment. It was terrifying (it cured me of any belief we could get a K2 student into Murphy without divine intervention), and very useful.
I can't seem to find an equivalent document anywhere now. My experience was that there wasn't a lot of wait list movement. I wouldn't hold my breath even for a very low wait list number (and I wouldn't be surprised if a low wait list number resulted in someone calling in mid-October to ask if you still wanted the spot). If a K1 has only 17 seats, I think the only way to get in off the wait list is for some other kid to die.
I remember a spreadsheet with seats etc.
I saw one once, but I think the data was from 2013 or even earlier. The new "Home Based" plan really invalidates any earlier data since the pool of students changes so much year to year based on age and geography.
Would be nice to see one that's updated for 2015, but I certainly won't hold my breath.
Kindergarten demand report
BPS has last year's demand report on their web site. Based on the date in the URL, it looks like they didn't publish it until May, so I assume this year's won't be out for a little while. They also include this disclaimer on the page from which they link to the demand report:
do donations help?
Anyone know if donations to school choice 1 for the few years ahead of the lottery makes any difference? Seems ridiculous so many kids don't get into choice number one due to lack of spots!
Good lord no
It is a blind process based on your proximity to the school in question, available seats, SPED qualifications, etc...
It's very disappointing to not get a spot, but at least it's not payola based.
The city has no legal obligation to provide K1 education so there are 2 kids for every spot. The mayor is working on this and it will cost us (the tax payers) a lot of money and will take a while. BPS has lots of parents who want k-5 seats and not enough slots and too many 6-12 spots for not enough kids.
Why do young families leave Boston?
You have to enter a lottery and gamble on your child's education or move to a city or town that doesn't torture you with these social theatrics. Damn shame.
FWIW
We've talked with many BPS families whose kids are in schools both close to home and some further away by bus. The vast majority are happy with their schools, but agree that the lottery process and al the other bureaucratic business is the pits.
My wife is a teacher in a different urban district and this holds true in most large school systems. Sort of like how most people think their congressperson is doing a good job, but hate congress as a whole.
No doubt that this process puts a very bad taste in people's mouthes. But again from the parents whose kids are now IN schools, this initial process seems to be the worst part of the BPS experience for many.
My issue is presenting this process to families the city needs
to grow successful neighborhoods and schools. Many are not willing to take the chance of not getting their first choice school and its a real shame. They move. We can build all of the new and fancy residences downtown but without sustainable neighborhoods in places like Roslindale, Hyde Park or Dorchester the city will not flourish and become the Boston of its potential.
Different view
I was been happy with the BPS education my kid experienced, more or less, in a Rosi K-5.
I hate the fracturing of neighborhoods in the sense that kids don't go to school with neighboring kids, which IMO reduces opportunities for a walk down the street kind of friend vs. a coordinate a playdate with parents driving kind of friend. A lot of that is also just dumb luck, but it's exacerbated by the school choice and that fact that in Roslindale there are five very small schools.
I understand the past issues which led us to this point, but as a self-interested parent in the current city, it sucks.
It Works Like This
If you're a relatively good parent and you can spend a reasonable amount of time reading to your child and teaching them some academic things, then things should be ok for a while. Especially in K-0 to 2nd grade. What I'm trying to say is that the school itself doesn't matter that much. Now, if you have a little bit more time, and I know many of us don't, but if you do- team up with some other relatively good parents and help make your school better. Befriend some teachers, go to parent council, demand more from your principal and then no matter what you school you get in your lottery, it will be pretty great. Of course, none of this is easy, but if all the relatively good parents decide to step up then our schools will improve.
Long range planning and development for schools in Boston
For long range planning and development of Boston schools how is the city divided?... zones?, districts?, regions? or ...?
checking the information at
http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/domain/175
It's not that simple
If you remember from the debate on new neighborhood zones a few years ago, there was a feeling that simple maps could be exclusive. The current assignment policy, as noted here, comes closest to geography by saying
Therefore, a map would not help answer your question.
Thank you for your interest in our schools.
The Great Debaters
The Great Debaters
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+great+debaters