School Selection

As Kevin attended his Mickey Mouse meeting down in Orlando today, I awoke to the sound of a fireman on a two-way radio, saying, "...and nobody's answering the phone ..." when I remembered OUR malfunctioning fire alarm and wondered if it had gone off and cut the phone line, without my hearing the perpetual shriek. I jumped out of bed and noticed that they were actually at the house across the street, which appears to have noone home. They didn't stay long to investigate, but left the house with its own alarm perpetually shrieking indoors. I'm pretty sure it's still going on now. They are a retired couple, so they could be anywhere. Even in Florida.

Anyway, once I ascertained that this was not another humiliation served up by my own over-active monitoring system, Brian and I headed out for the final school under consideration. I will call this school MD. The grounds are very nice and serene, something like 32 acres of mostly playing fields and a beautiful huge new church that the parish just completed last year. This is actually the church where Brian was baptized, but since he has moved toward heathenism by joining an Episcopal church, he can't be a Catholic without undergoing some sort of ritual. But it doesn't matter. They'll still take our money.

So the school has the same laptop program as the one we visited last week, which is nice (call it SJV). However, when the students changed classes, we saw many of them moving through the halls with large textbooks in hand. I didn't think they needed to carry them, SJV did not, but this is still something that can be worked out under the 504 plan if he does choose MD. The problem that I am seeing is that his first choice school is morphing into whatever school he has most recently seen. So today it's MD. Last week it was SJV, and before that, the all-boys one.

The advantage of MD would be its size - they aim for 125 students per class, and there are only about 400 in the entire school. SJV has about 1000, as does the public school, and the all-boys Catholic school as well. I don't think MD generally has gotten there yet, they have not got the best reputation in town in some ways, although they seem to be doing better at reaching their goal. I know of several very selective parents who have sent their children here and are happy. The school is neat, clean, and bright. Even if they did just do this for the open house yesterday, the other two didn't look that way at THEIR open houses. Interestingly, MD has three levels: low, mid, and honors. SJV has mid, honors, and AP. They won't take the lower ones, I guess. This is the reason for the negative perception of MD. On the other hand, it gives certain kids the opportunity to be big fish in a small pond.

And one to go - the public school. Next week, on the 28th, Brian will visit the public school with his middle school. He would also like to spend a day as a student at MD; they offer that as part of their admissions process. Then, on November 1, he takes the test at the all-boys school, and on November 15, he takes it at SJV. This test will serve as a placement test for either of the two co-ed Catholic schools. He'll have to complete an MD application and pay for that as well; although he's already paid up for SJV. Confused? I am. My current front-runner is still SJV, plus it is the 'cheapest' of all. I think he hears from all of them in January. and of course, don't rule out public just yet.

When we got home, we found Megan sitting in front of the TV. Apparently E had woken her to tell her she was going out to lunch, and then couldn't lock the front door, so Megan had to come down and do that. This was five hours ago, and still no sign of her or word from her. Kevin is in Orlando and at last check was frantically speeding towards the airport. Come to think of it, he suddenly stopped texting me back (he was not the driver) so hopefully that meant they reached their destination and he is too busy checking in and finding the gate to text me back again.

Megan is exhausted from the swim workouts. The hayride she went on the other night wore her out because it turned out to be a highly popular touristy place and they were waiting on lines for hours for the attractions. She didn't get home till nearly midnight, after having been up early for the PSAT. Then the swim meet yesterday was long, and her finger is injured from a collision in the pool. Add to that her cold (which at least seems to be improving) and her flaring up eczema, and, well, she is falling apart. Good thing there was no school today, but I do hate that these days are always spent recuperating instead of taking little trips or doing little activities.

And in other news, I am working, so far, two half days this week. I guess that's better than nothing. I just got my social security report (which I get every year, ironically, and Kevin never gets one) and I made more money in 2007 than I have made since I stopped really working, in 1999. I made over $6000!!!! In ONE year!! Amazing. This year I am already up to 5, so I am challenging that amount. Of course, at this rate, I'll never make it. It's only that high because of the 07-08 school year, anyway. I've made about $400 so far this school year. Gross pay. No pun intended.