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Chicago public school lottery support thread?

post #1 of 34
3/7/10 at 2:53pm
Thread Starter 
Anyone waiting to hear about lottery results from CPS?
I know results aren't due to be sent out until the week of March 15th. But I hate the waiting period...

Where are you waiting to hear from? Do you have a back up plan?
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post #2 of 34
3/8/10 at 2:17am

CPS Lottery

I am not convinced that we'll actually hear anything in March. Now that they've changed the admissions criteria I am fully expecting it all to be delayed. We'll see. I am really trying to be zen about this whole process because really what else can I do?

Our neighborhood school is Peirce -- that's our backup plan. I also applied to a few other Magnets, and did the GEAP testing. I am trying to take this one year at a time.

Oh -- the other schools I applied to:
Stone
Hawthorne (super long shot)
Franklin

GEAP:
Coonley
Edison
Prtizker
post #3 of 34
3/8/10 at 1:32pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I am expecting a delay too.
Our neighborhood school is not a great option. (That is what makes me nervous!)
DD is in preschool at Jahn, so that is the back up. Although I'd be happy to stay there either way.

We also applied to:
Drummond
Inter-American
Ravenswood
and Goethe (which is a neighborhood school close by, not a magnet)
post #4 of 34
3/9/10 at 4:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rosesarered View Post
Yeah, I am expecting a delay too.
Our neighborhood school is not a great option. (That is what makes me nervous!)
DD is in preschool at Jahn, so that is the back up. Although I'd be happy to stay there either way.

We also applied to:
Drummond
Inter-American
Ravenswood
and Goethe (which is a neighborhood school close by, not a magnet)
There are three Kindergarten classrooms at Ravenswood, so your chances are pretty high that you'll get in there. My DD attends the TBPK there.
post #5 of 34
3/9/10 at 9:12pm
A couple of kids at my daughter's preschool went on to Ravenswood and they really like it. There's one child in my daughter's class with an older brother at Inter-American. Now I kind of wish I had applied to Inter-American. A completely bilingual environment would be terrific. But I don't want to drive to Wrigleyville every day.
post #6 of 34
3/9/10 at 9:13pm
Oh and I also visited and applied to Hamilton -- mostly because my younger child is Hearing Impaired and they have a D/HH program there. But now I hear it's closing, is that true?
post #7 of 34
3/11/10 at 12:52pm
Thread Starter 
I am happy to hear good things about Ravenswood. And that there seems to be space. Are there 3 kindergarten classes because they are expanding or just to keep class size small?

Thistles in Snow- I haven't heard anything about Hamilton closing. It wasn't on the "list" brought to the school board in Feb. But I don't have an insider ear or anything. I hope it isn't closing, seems like a unique school.
post #8 of 34
3/11/10 at 1:16pm
Okay... since I'm relocating, can someone explain this to me? Is it like, you're guaranteed a spot in your "home"/neighborhood school but can apply for open spots in other schools if you don't like your home school?

I ask because if that's the case, I want to take a much closer look at where we buy if we wind up in Chicago proper (which is a decent possibility).

TIA
post #9 of 34
3/11/10 at 2:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thistles_in_Snow View Post
Oh and I also visited and applied to Hamilton -- mostly because my younger child is Hearing Impaired and they have a D/HH program there. But now I hear it's closing, is that true?
Hamilton was on the closing list 2 years ago but the parents fought to keep it open and since then they got a new principal. They have good test scores but they need to raise the enrollment numbers. The upper grades are a little rough but the younger grades are fabulous. And the perk is the low number of kids per class.
post #10 of 34
3/11/10 at 2:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rosesarered View Post
I am happy to hear good things about Ravenswood. And that there seems to be space. Are there 3 kindergarten classes because they are expanding or just to keep class size small?

Thistles in Snow- I haven't heard anything about Hamilton closing. It wasn't on the "list" brought to the school board in Feb. But I don't have an insider ear or anything. I hope it isn't closing, seems like a unique school.
No clue why there are so many Kindergarten classes at Ravenswood but seeing as this year they opened a second TBPK classroom that might have something to do with it. The TBPK kids are guaranteed a spot in Kindergarten and from what I can tell 7 from my dd's room will be in the Kindergarten this fall.

In general though, there seems to be a lot of interest in the school by local families and that might also have an affect on lower grade classrooms.
post #11 of 34
3/11/10 at 2:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by heatherdeg View Post
Okay... since I'm relocating, can someone explain this to me? Is it like, you're guaranteed a spot in your "home"/neighborhood school but can apply for open spots in other schools if you don't like your home school?

I ask because if that's the case, I want to take a much closer look at where we buy if we wind up in Chicago proper (which is a decent possibility).

TIA
Something like that, I wouldn't do a lot of research into this school mess unless you're seriously looking at living in Chicago.
post #12 of 34
3/12/10 at 12:12pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommy2naomi View Post
Something like that, I wouldn't do a lot of research into this school mess unless you're seriously looking at living in Chicago.
And even then, your research might sway you to not move to Chicago!
post #13 of 34
3/12/10 at 11:10pm
Lovely. My husband's company has offices in Mettawa and Downtown so we WERE going to look at Chicago city.

*sigh*
post #14 of 34
3/13/10 at 2:51am
heatherdeg - definitely choose carefully if you come to Chicago. There ARE decent areas. And areas change - are you looking at school for now or 5 years from now? I no longer have the site bookmarked since we bought/moved 1.5 years ago, but somewhere (I think on the chicago public schools site) is a map showing district boundries. We landed in Jefferson Park.

Having a 'good' school is only half the battle, the other half is being an involved parent. My DSD goes to a "great" school (far suburbs of Chicago) and I honestly don't think it's any better then she could do if she lived with us and had our very active involvement. I think most of us on MDC have a head start on that one
post #15 of 34
3/13/10 at 10:54am
Thread Starter 
heatherdeg- Sorry to be so discouraging, mostly my comment was an exaggeration. There are good schools within the cps system. It is so much easier if you live within the attendance boundry of a one of those schools. Some of the good schools are magnet schools, so they don't have an attendence boundry but accept students based on a computerized lottery. This is the part I find so nerve wrecking.
The cps website might be a good place to start...then there is Northside Parents Network that has a discussion board. It is a good place to get opinions from people actually at the schools.
(Also Oak Park and Evanston are two close-by suburbs with easy access to the city and good-not-confusing school systems.)
post #16 of 34
3/13/10 at 12:28pm
I teach at a magnet school. The lottery pull was supposed to happen last week and didn't due to budget issues. Expect your letters to be very delayed. Also, due to the changes in criteria, lots of brilliant 8th graders at the good schools did not get into selective enrollment high schools. They changed it up so the good students at the struggling schools had priority.

Thistles in Snow, Pierce is a really nice school. Based on my observations as a sub for many years for CPS, I'd choose that school over Pritzker and probably Coonley too.
post #17 of 34
3/13/10 at 2:38pm
Mimim: I KNEW there was going to be a delay!! I am really trying to be Zen about this whole thing. We will find the best school for us. Thanks for the info about Peirce. That's definitely the way we're leaning. Do you know anything about Stone? Peirce and Stone are our top 2 choices right now.
post #18 of 34
3/13/10 at 7:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thistles_in_Snow View Post
Mimim: I KNEW there was going to be a delay!! I am really trying to be Zen about this whole thing. We will find the best school for us. Thanks for the info about Peirce. That's definitely the way we're leaning. Do you know anything about Stone? Peirce and Stone are our top 2 choices right now.
I don't have any experience with Stone, but it has a great reputation.
post #19 of 34
3/15/10 at 12:52am
Mimim, thank you for the information on the delay.

Thistles in Snow, I live in Rogers Park and know a few families who have been *very* happy at Stone. Would be thrilled if my DS was accepted there.

We applied to Stone as well as Interamerican, Hawthorne, Burley and, of course, we gave the GEAP process a try. There were a couple other magnet schools that I can't remember off the top of my head. Honestly, I've tried to remain somewhat detached from the process all along. In fact, we'd hoped to move out of Rogers Park by next year, but it's looking unlikely that that will happen now.

As of tonight, I've begun researching homeschooling a little more carefully... As a person from a relatively small town, I just have a hard time believing that all the stress involved with making CPS work (the testing, the application process, the long commutes to *kindergarten* in many cases) makes sense for me.

In any event, I'm glad this thread is here.
post #20 of 34
3/15/10 at 12:15pm
I have a former student who is now in Graduate School at IIT. He was one of the students doing the GEAP testing and he says that GEAP letters are scheduled to go out today! Bulk mail so we should have them by the end of the week.

I didn't apply to Interamerican but now I'm kind of wishing I did.
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