I had a parent conference with my daughter’s teacher.
The teacher showed me the test scores and grades. The grades of English literature and understanding are at the highest level, but not well in math.
Honestly I don’t concern about it. My daughter is superior in her right brain, which is why she is good at literature and understanding, along with artistic talent. As far as she understands the minimum level of calculation, she will be fine.
Although I don’t concern about her academic, I do have another concern. It is about the charter school. I mentioned to the teacher about my honest feeling about the current school and the new school.
My main concern is the issue of friends. In this current school, up until now, four of her best friends left the school. This year she didn’t have any steady friends in the classroom. That was why I thought of transferring her to a new school. The new school will have many new students, so that she might be able to make a new steady friend there.
My other concern about a new school, on the other hand, is a giving a ride to her twice a day every day.
I asked the teacher for any inputs about a charter school.
After our talk, I found out I had the right person to ask for advice.
Here is why.
The teacher said she actually knows a lot about a charter school. Previously she was a teacher at the charter school in Colorado. Based on her own personal experiences, it is really depends on the school, and the student, and the teacher on whether a student really fits to the school.
At the charter school where she worked, they had obligations to show the progress in students’ academic level to the government in order to receive their financial support. Therefore, the students were constantly exposed under many adults’ monitoring. They had many visitors from the other organizations as well as the parents of possible future students. The students had more tests than the students of public school.
She told me two biggest concerns for parents to think about.
One is the cafeteria issue. Her charter school did not have a kitchen where people can cook hot food. Therefore the parents needed to prepare their children’s lunch on their own. Another option is to purchase a lunch from school. The school had a contract with some fast food vendors. She witnessed many confusions in the cafeteria. Students often experienced they didn’t have the right meal that the parents ordered for them.
— Same as her previous charter school, our charter school does not have a kitchen where they can cool hot meals. They have a contact with Pizza Hut, Arby’s, Panda Express. The parents order their children’s lunch online. I don’t know about the exact fee, but probably it will be around $5. When the expenditure comes to every day, it will accumulate to a big chunk amount of money for us. Not to mention, I don’t want my daughter to keep eating a fast food every day. Besides, I want to provide her a hot meal, rather than a cold meal.
The other is the transportation issue. Most charter schools don’t have a school bus, so that the parents need to give their children a ride twice a day in the morning and evening.
— This is what I concern a lot. I don’t like driving. I am not an aggressive driver at all. The school has more than 700 students. That number of parents will pack to the small parking lot every day. I can easily imagine the parking lot to be a disaster every morning and evening at the parking lot.
The teacher also shared her personal experience. She knows about our local charter school well, because her nephew went to the charter school this school year. The nephew didn’t like the school, so he decided to come back to our public school from this coming school year. That tells me a lot.
At the last the teacher advised me to visit the charter school often. It will be helpful to meet and talk to many people who are actually involved in the school, such as the teachers, the faculties, the students, and the parents. Also it will be helpful to go to the school at the exact time of dropping off and dismissal time, so that I can see the game. When she used the word “game”, we all laughed out loud. Indeed it is a game to see parents fight each other in the hectic time frame in the small jammed parking lot.
I appreciate the teacher to share lots of helpful tips and advice about the charter school.
♬ Any feedback? (^^♪
three wisdom 