Tag Archives: Green Woods Charter

wissahickonchartermap

Why I Chose Wissahickon Charter: 2011-10-13 School Selection Report

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This is a snapshot of one parent’€™s school choice. You can read other parent testimonials and help other parents. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

What school did you decide on? Wissahickon Charter School

Calendar year your child entered 2011

Grade your child entered Kindergarten

What neighborhood are you in? NW Philly

What schools did you consider? Applied:

Cook-Wissahickon

Henry

Green Woods

Wissahickon Charter School

Independence

Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School

Miquon

Green Street Friends

Plymouth Meeting Friends School

 

Accepted:

Plymouth Meeting Friends School

St. Bridget

Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School (from the waitlist – no # given)

Wissahickon Charter School (from the waitlist – #6)

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Location, Financial Aid Package, Teaching Philosophy, Public Eduction, Teacher Quality, Principal Quality, Diversity, Special Programs (language immersion, music, etc.)

What first attracted you to the school? Appreciation for the environmental focus of the school.  (In the end, many other things make me happy with our decision…some of which are highlighted on their website, and in other parents’ choice questionnaires.)

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? Feeling of a right fit, finances, location.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  open-minded

Please share anything else about your experience This was such a long and drawn out process.  We loved many of the schools we visited and applied to.  We enrolled in the neighborhood Catholic school in May, when we determined that that it would be irresponsible in our current situation to try and make even aid supported tuition at PMFS.  At the end of June, we were accepted off the waitlist a PPACS, and then at the end of July, at Wissahickon Charter School.  While the idea of the arts enriched curriculum at PPACS was a strong draw, the location and logistics did not work for us.  We are, so far, very pleased with our final decision, and….so glad the process is over.

This is a snapshot of one parent’€™s school choice. You can read other parent testimonials and help other parents. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

GWCS_MAP

Why I Chose Green Woods Charter: 2011-09-25 School Selection Report

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This is a snapshot of one parent’€™s school choice. You can read other parent testimonials and help other parents. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

What school did you decide on? Green Woods Charter School

Calendar year your child entered 2011

Grade your child entered K

What neighborhood are you in? NW Philly

What schools did you consider? Greene Street Friends, Project Learn, Houston, Henry, Jenks, Powel, Independence Charter

What factors were most important to you? Public Eduction, Diversity, safety

What first attracted you to the school? The setting

What were the critical factors that led to your choice?  In the end, we got ZERO from the SDP voluntary transfer program and our local catchment school was not an option for us…making the choice between private and charter.  I am a product of public schools, the daughter of 2 public school teachers.  I really wanted public school to work.  So when we “hit the lottery” and got a spot at GWCS this was the next best thing.  Our son was excited about going to school in “the jungle” and we were excited that this guaranteed his younger brother a spot, saving untold $$ for college instead of grade school!

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  Democrat

Please share anything else about your experience I still have greater philosophical issues with GWCS.  Realizing that admission is a lottery process, the lottery itself and application process are far too complicated and non-transparent for my taste.  Further, I think they could do a far better job with outreach to increase diversity.  Many demographics are simply unable to apply to GWCS given the inaccessibility to the school itself by public transit as well as the convoluted process to even obtain an application.  This does really bother me and it is my hope that as a parent I can work from within to make some relatively easy changes in these areas.

That said, my son is doing fantastic.  He is well above his grade level in math and reading, but far from bored and really exploring things and issues I never thought about in kindergarten!

This is a snapshot of one parent’s school choice. You can read other parent testimonials and help other parents. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

all-school heart small

3 Parents Share Why They Chose Greene Street Friends [School Selection Report]

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This is a snapshot of three parents’ school choices. You can read other parent testimonials and contribute your own thoughts. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

Parent #1

What school did you decide on? Greene Street Friends

Calendar year your child entered 2011

Grade your child entered PreK

What neighborhood are you in? Fairmount

What schools did you consider? We considered doing the voluntary transfer for public schools and charters.  We looked at other private schools but found this to be much more affordable.

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Teaching Philosophy, School Performance (test scores, success of graduates), Teacher Quality, Principal Quality, Diversity

What first attracted you to the school? The size (small) and the fact that it is a Friends school.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice?  When we went to see it and met some of the staff, it seemed to be a very gentle and nurturing environment.  Also, much more affordable as it only goes up $100 each year.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  Progressive

Parent #2

What school did you decide on? Greene Street Friends

Calendar year your child entered 2011

Grade your child entered kindergarten

What neighborhood are you in? NW Philly

What schools did you consider? Wissahickon Charter, Miquon, Germantown Friends, Perelman, Project Learn, Greenwoods

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Location, Teaching Philosophy, School Performance (test scores, success of graduates), Teacher Quality, Principal Quality, Diversity

What first attracted you to the school? We heard great feedback from families who went there, plus that they focus on quality education and affordability.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? Quality education, school values and environment, strong teaching and leadership, relative affordability

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  progressive

Please share anything else about your experience We love the small school experience of Greene Street, the focus on educating the whole person, the excellent sense of community and commitment to diversity and inclusiveness that a relatively low tuition allows.

Parent #3

What school did you decide on? Greene Street Friends

Calendar year your child entered 2011/2012

Grade your child entered K

What neighborhood are you in? NW Philly

What schools did you consider? Henry, Jenks, Greenwoods, Wissahickon Charter, Project Learn, and Perlman JDS

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Location, Teaching Philosophy, Diversity

What first attracted you to the school? reputation

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? We wanted a school that was local, diverse, and offered a holistic view of child development. Cost was a factor as well.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  progressive

This is a snapshot of three parents’ school choices. You can read other parent testimonials and contribute your own thoughts. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

Bache-Martin

Why I Chose Bache Martin: 2011-10-11 School Selection Report

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This is a snapshot of one parent’€™s school choice. You can read other parent testimonials and help other parents. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

What school did you decide on? Bache Martin

Calendar year your child entered 2011

Grade your child entered Kindergarten

What neighborhood are you in? Fairmount

What schools did you consider? Independence Charter, Wissahickon Charter, Russell Byers, Green Wood Charter.

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Location, Reputation, Teacher Quality, Diversity, Special Programs (language immersion, music, etc.)

What first attracted you to the school? The involvement of parents and the positive changes that is happening at the school.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice?  The quality of teachers and the fact I am able to walk my child to school and I am able to social with the parents in the neighborhood who are also sending their kids to this school.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  democrat

Please share anything else about your experience So far we have been very happy with our choice and our daughter looks forward to going to school everyday. Great teachers, great resources, great parents.

This is a snapshot of one parent’€™s school choice. You can read other parent testimonials and help other parents. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

fireworks

This Acceptance Will Self Destruct In 3…2…1…

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I’ve heard the anecdotes left and right, including a few first hand accounts.  In my optimistic outlook on this process, I still assumed that this didn’t happen often.  Well, boom goes the dynamite! It’s happened to me.  Originally waitlisted at #18, my son was just offered a seat at Green Woods Charter for this September.  Yesterday.  And I had to let them know by today.  Yep, that’s right.  24 hours.  Back when I was a college career counselor helping students weigh job offers, we referred to these as exploding offers.  (seems so quaint now in the age of the Great Recession, doesn’t it?)

I understand how this sort of situation arises with charter or private schools.  A family will drop out at the last minute and a school wants to both maintain it’s enrollment number and offer another family the opportunity.  They just can’t give a family the luxury of a week to decide, because they want to offer the slot to someone else with enough time for them to make a decision.  I don’t fault the schools for doing this at all–in is an unfortunate side effect of the expanded school choices we have today.

The concept of an exploding offer is certainly dramatic, but the real drama for me is not the 24-hour window, but rather when the offer was tendered–just a couple weeks before school is about to start.  If I had a week to mull over the acceptance, my decision would not be any different.

So what is my family doing?  So many factors to consider–all of the preparation in place for plan A–my son has visited his original kindergarten, he knows which friends will be joining him and we’ve had playdates with some of his new classmates.  We’ve constructed a plans for child care, transportation, and some after school activities which would have to be modified.  Finances, of course, are a factor–it is now down to a choice between a free charter school and a tuition-based private school.  Of course, I was and continue to be really excited about my original choice.  Of course, I also have decreasing confidence in Philadelphia’s public schools as a result of events over the last year.  To be clear, my decreased confidence isn’t directed at Green Woods specifically, but rather at the bankrupt system that they are working within.  In fact, all along I felt like Green Woods would be a great fit for my son.  In the end, it wasn’t a slam dunk decision, for sure, but #19, you should expect an explosive call today…