We only found out mid-August that Summit was not going to be in operation this year. On the off-chance, though, I had tried to apply for "Schools-of-Choice" status to all of the local school districts that seemed a good fit for us (i.e. smallish, conservative, good reputation, close)*. Most were not taking students in one or another of the childrens' grades. Or, they were not open at all, or I'd just mssed the deadline. I ended up applying to three of them, and got rejection letters from two (the two nearer my work). It is an odd phenomenon, but over the years, it has seemed that while our house is in the south part of Lansing, we actually live in East Lansing. The people we know are over there, the places we shop are there....it is really "home". Summit was over there. My mom lives there.
Anyway, those districts (East Lansing, Haslett, Okemos) didn't work out. The one that did (Holt) is contiguous to us on the south side, and the HS is about fifteen minutes away, just on city streets. It is a fair district. It was a relief to get in. I enrolled everyone (everyone except Zhen - more on that another time). But, it was actually an exercise in frustration - I wouldn't have just the right papers (for example, they require proof of residence, and wanted a utility bill - well, I pay on-lne, so didn't have that; they wanted tax papers; I coudn't find them. I thought my Voter's ID card would work. No. Or a letter from my insurance company. No. And, for some reason Ilya's immunization records were not acceptable.... It was hugely frustrating.....and after several trips down there, the kids were still not enrolled.)
Meanwhile, Sergei was agitating about Grand Ledge. Several people he knew from Summit were going to Grand Ledge. I pointed out that they lived over there! Grand Ledge is a small town to the west of Lansing - not a suburb (like Holt, where we were enrolling), but actually a different town. His friends, at least, lived in west Lansing! But, because of his enthusiasm I did look - and they were not accepting schools-of-choice students. Case closed. Or, so I thought.
Then about a week before school started Sergei found out from one of these friends, that Grand Ledge takes tuition students. Right. Just what I thought - but the tuition? One dollar per child, per year. So, I jumped through all the hoops to enroll them (which actually was much, much easier than enrolling them in Holt.) So far, so good. At least as far as school is concerned. Sergei is very happy. They had just decided to put together an ESL classroom for Ilya and about four Exchange Students, so that worked out great. The only downside at this point is the time - when I take them it is an hour or more from our door to my office - and the gas - about $10 a day.....
However, everyone is hugely friendly; the teachers seem to communicate pretty well. The one exception was a requirement for me to sign a sheet that I'd read the syllabus for a computer class. I said to Sergei, "Where is the syllabus?" He said, "I didn't get one." I wrote on the form that I promised to read the syllabus when I got it (he was mortified). But, he came back with a message - Oh, that's OK; she didn't hand out a syllabus! What? She also doesn't seem to know much about computers. I bet this was a last-moment assignment for this poor woman. Anyway, that's the only glitch so far. Sergei and Ilya accounted for. Wish us luck.
More on Anastasia and Zhenya to come.
*Lansing Public Schools, our district, has abysmal test scores, and the ambiance in the schools is not what I'd hope for. You would also think - if you either try to contact them by phone, or use their website - that they deliberately set out to discourage enrollment. It is a weird place. But, due to a fluke, Lydia did attend her final semester at Eastern High School - and ended up getting her diploma from there!. It is nothing I'd turn to, however, unless desperate....
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