Today we visited the local public school and spoke to the elementary principal. I kept asking questions and expecting him to say something we wouldn't agree with, but that never happened. Instead, it seems that we have a lot of the same philosophies about education that he does, and we've decided as a family that the kids probably would benefit by being there. There are of course a few technicalities we need to deal with to get them enrolled, but unless something really outrageous happens between now and August 17, I think it's a done deal.
There are pros and cons to attending a small, rural school, and most of them were things we anticipated, but maybe not quite to the degree that we're going to face them (both for better and worse).
First is perhaps the one that will effect us the most directly: class size. There are 180 kids between the elementary and middle schools (the buildings are connected). Each grade is divided into two classrooms, with about 15 kids in each. During the course of the year, between 60 and 80 students will probably move out of the district (most of which will return the following year) due to their transient status (the parents are migrant workers, there are complicated custody arrangements, etc.)! That was something I expected to see a little of, but certainly not up to 44%!
With numbers like that, I wasn't at all surprised with the next figure: 65% of the students receive free or reduced-rate lunches. Obviously the district is poor; that's evident by the mis-matched construction of the buildings and the 40-year-old linoleum and fixtures within. But everything appears to be clean and in good repair, so I can recognize and appreciate frugality at work. The school I went to routinely wasted money on prettying the place up in ways that even as a kid I thought were completely unnecessary. It looks like every dime here is being spent on the kids.
Electives are few and far-between. There are only three: art, music, and PE. There are even fewer extracurriculars (baseball and softball are offered in 7th grade. That's it.), and the principal admitted that field trips are rare and unlikely. This is, of course, a huge disadvantage to other districts, but that's life. And due to the rural nature of the school's location, it's unlikely that many parents would be able to afford to attend any sports or other events anyway—and that's assuming they could find enough participants in the first place. So,all things considered, they're not very practical anyway!
