Why was this so hard?
Unlike where I (and most of the US) grew up, you don't just go to your local school and register your kid a few months before the fall they're supposed to go to Kindergarten. No, San Francisco has public-choice for its 70 elementary schools. And being in a neighborhood does NOT guarantee you a spot (naturally, the good schools are always oversubscribed, including our neighborhood school, Alvarado). In order, preference goes to:
- Siblings
- CTIP 1 students (students from low-test-score areas of the city as of the last Census; we are CTIP 2)
- Neighborhood preference (we do get some preference for our neighborhood school here, but not nearly enough to guarantee a seat)
OUR CHOICES
We put our local elementary school, Alvarado, first and second (there's both a spanish immersion and a general education track); we were very interested in immersion in general, and we've been really impressed with the local K-8 charter school that's 2 blocks from our house, Edison. Edison wasn't in the lottery because it's a Charter, so we hope that we already have a spot there if our SFUSD choices don't work out. We have also applied to the Mission Preparatory School, another charter that's farther away.
Other schools we included (in alpha order, as our order doesn't really matter as much as SFUSD's lottery-chooser):
- Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Spanish immersion,
- Clarendon Japanese immersion,
- Fairmount Spanish immersion,
- Leonard Flynn Spanish immersion,
- Miraloma general education,
- Monroe Spanish immersion,
- Rooftop alternative school K-8, and
- Sanchez elementary with "FLES" (Foreign Language in Elementary Schools).
DECISION CRITERIA & WEIGHTING
We decided the following criteria were important to us (won't reveal how we ranked each school above; but this was what was important to us):
- Teachers 6 - we met teachers who were generally great; but some greater than others.
- Academic performance 8 - test scores. I know they aren't supposed to matter, only show the demographics...but they do matter.
- Language 10 - we (mostly I, but Yogesh as well) want a second language immersion or strong language program. It's such a gift to give a child a second language; and now's the time, not high school...so if we can get in, we want to.
- Technology 3 - how strong is the technology at the school? Computer lab? Effective use of resources that will be part of our rascals' lives?
- Diversity 10 - We're by definition a 'diverse' family and don't want a school that's 80% of any race, regardless of what race that is.
- PE/Sports 5 - SFUSD schools have to have gym class at least once per week, but a few have gym classes every day, and we think that's good to help an active little guy like Deven (and Rohan behind him) focus on classwork.
- Art 5 - Daadaji's an artist; and it's important, period.
- Theater & Dance 5 - like Art, it's just important.
- Music 5 - ditto Art, Theater & Dance.
- Building/Environment 3 - how's the facility? Is it light, bright, and in acceptable repair? Notably we were drawn to the older-architecture buildings than the midcentury monstrocities that just don't seem to hold up well.
- Outdoors / Garden 6 - Most schools we toured had lovely gardens; but all are city schools so none had the green space that I grew up with. Some were in nicer environments than others.
- Parents involvement 8 - We know we'll be involved, but some schools already have wonderfully-active parent communities that raise hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. We don't mind being part of that, and ranked lower those schools without any or very active communities.
- After school program 9 - We both work, so a good, accessible, inexpensive after-school program on-site until at least 5:30, preferably 6pm, is important to us.
- Start-time; timing 8 - Deven is an early bird but Rohan isn't; and for at least 2 years we'll have the boys in different schools - so 7:50am start times were not as ideal as 8:30 or even 9:30am start times.
- Location 10 - Obviously important; add city traffic and that Yogesh is doing 95%+ of the pickups and dropoffs these days, and you get why this is important. For comparison, their preschool 8 blocks away is a 10-minute drive, up to 20 including getting into & out of the car, and slow traffic and getting into the classroom.
- K-5/K-8 & feeder 3 - We liked K-8 schools because it's 1 less transition in the future, and there are some better middle-schools than others; but didn't rank this too highly as a lot can change in the next 6 years.
Notably, we did not apply to any private schools. We toured a few - the Catholic schools near our home, and 4 nearby private non-sectarian schools. While all were beautiful (some, really really beautiful), the cost ($7-10k/year for parochial, $20-25k/year for non-sectarian) was just too much - and more importantly, the local public schools on our list above are all at least OK for us.
We did tour a few schools that didn't make our list, mostly for geographic or demographic reasons. All-in-all, we're hopeful that Deven will get into one of the schools on our list (with Edison quite close to the top) in the first round. If he doesn't, there's always a 2nd and 3rd round.
Photo of the rascals recently after eating beets - we're wondering where Deven will be in school...Fingers crossed!
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