I feel like I’m dating again. I’m experiencing excitement and butterflies from not knowing what the future holds. I’m also trying to keep my head on straight, and not get ahead of myself, but take things slow and see how it goes. I’m trying to do my research (sneakily) and then it’s just waiting to see if those same feelings are returned.

I’m dating LAUSD.

And it’s about as fun as real dating (which means not that much).

Next year D-Bop starts kindergarten (nostalgic countdown alert!) and we are not yet sure where that will be. We don’t want to use the school we are assigned to, but luckily LAUSD provides options. There is the magnet option. There is the charter option. There is the SAS option. There is the move-into-a-new-house option.

I know—red flag alert, right? This new love interest of mine seems to have an identity crisis.

Problem is with all of those options (except the move-into-a-new-house option) you have no guarantee that you will get into any of the schools. Your little’s education is 100% dependent upon a RANDOM LOTTERY. The school I toured today (that I kind of fell in love with—No stop! It’s only been one date!—but I LOVE LIKE him and I CAN’T CONTROL MY EMOTIONS!) had 7 openings for kindergarten last year. The principal was kind enough to NOT tell us how many applications were submitted, but I’m guessing my odds are PRETTY TERRIBLE.

And please note—this is Tour #1 out of about– oh, I don’t know, depends on how stalker-ish I’m going to be– but probably #1 out of 12 (at least).

(Why hasn’t anyone thought of doing a speed dating application round for LAUSD charters??)

So a lot of my “adventures” on this blog will most likely be documenting The Great Love Affair of 2014/2015…aka The Great Kindergarten Search.

Get excited—we are going to have soooooo much fun!

I hope he likes me…

Since this is about the school system…

Vocabulary*

LAUSD: Los Angeles Unified School District aka “The One” ❤

Magnet: The Magnet Program was court-ordered and only students living within LAUSD can apply. It is my understanding that magnet programs have “themes” that the school specializes in, such as Science/Technology/Math, Visual and Performing Arts, Highly Gifted, etc.

Charter: My understanding is that Charter Schools were developed to create a shift to provide a bit of (healthy) competition within the public school system. Any student in the state can apply (meaning outside of the district), and enrollment is chosen by lottery. While the schools have to prove accountability, they can choose to be accountable to the district or the state.

SAS: SAS stands for Schools for Advanced Studies. SAS schools receive a block grant to provide extra training for their teachers. Your child has to meet a certain set of criteria to get into one of these…unless your child is in kindergarten. For incoming kindergarten students, you can claim that your child is SAS and they will be assessed later in the year.

*I’m new to this so if any of this is incorrect, please let me know!