We decided to join a new church here.  We haven’t 100% decided to send Madison to private school yet (we have a school referendum on Nov. 4th.  If that passes, it solves all of my issues with the public school.  However, after watching the debates of Friday night, that may not hold true either.  If McSame, I mean McCain, wins he proposed a spending freeze.  In theory, that sounds great.  However, the schools don’t have enough money for No Child Left Behind as is.  If they keep the amount frozen, that means even less money going towards the kids.)  The church we joined is a part of hte private school we are looking at.  It is a very cool looking church, and we have been there before.  Bill’s friend got married there and his daughter will be baptized there this weekend.  We also started working on her tuition.  They have a program called VOICE.  That has you buy gift certificates from them for stores like Speedway, Kohls, Jiffy Lube, Walgreens, etc. to name a few.  A percentage of the purchase amount goes towards the school.  Madison has to raise $150 with that.  With the certificates I bought on Sunday, we are up $17.  Woohoo!  The cool thing is that everything we earn over the $150 gets taken off her tuition.  If we don’t end up sending her there, I just figure that money will go towards another family who can use it.  I just think that is super cool that we can start earning towards this now already! So, if anyone needs gift certificates come Christmas time, let me know!

I’ll be honest, this school decision makes me sick.  I get a stomach ache every time I have to think about it.   I would rather have to use a colon cleanser than have to make this decision. Public schools are suppose to be good. I shouldn’t have to worry about the class sizes or if subjects like music and art are being taught.  I just always assumed that my kids would be able to have the same education I have.

**okay, whine over.  I think** 

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If you follow me on twitter, you will know what this post is going to be about.  If you don’t, I’ll do a quick explanation of what’s going on.

I live in the Ridgeland School District 122.  We have had a school referendum fail twice.  After the last time it failed, my school district cut all of the music and art programs and supposedly the after school programs too.  After the last referendum failed, I had posted about it on my blog and had quite a response from both sides of the referendum.  However, here I sit, and Madison will go to kindergarten next year, and we have to decide where she is going to go.

I always said my kids would go to public school.  I went to public school and I turned out fine.  LOL  However, my class size was never higher than 25 kids and that was in high school too.  Since I have no experience with private school, I am reaching out to my readers to give me their opinion.

Here’s what I know for sure — there is no art class and no music class.  Instead it is being “facilitated in the classrooms” — whatever that means.  I had a huge concern regarding this “everyday math” I have been hearing about.  However, my public school is not teaching that.  Her class size would be 22 – 30 kids with only one teacher. In private school, she would have gym, music, art, and computer once a week.  Her class size would be around 15 – 19 kids with one teacher and a teachers aide.

Oh and let me add, the referendum is again destined to fail.  The administration gave them 10% raises over the summer!

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?  Public or private?

Edited to add:  Homeschooling is not an option.  Madison does way better learning when it isn’t me.  I can’t believe the amount of things she learned in preschool already.

Edited again 9/23:  The school principal will no longer answer my questions.  All my questions now have to go through the main district office.  According to the District 122 Ridgeland office, there is no music or art at all.  No classes will go over thirty.  However, they will not create another class unless there are 60 kids between 2 classes (I hope that makes sense), so it could happen that both classes could be 29 kids, and they would not make a new class.  They had no idea what the district was going to do if the referendum fails a third time.  In the past, it was threatened that one of the grade schools was to be closed and/or they would go to grade school centers.  When I asked about that, I was told that was up to the school board.

Also, the raise I talked about was given to the superintendent and the assistant superintendents.

Also the district was asked to put their finances online.  26 other local districts have.  Mine has refused and has publically stated that in a local newspaper.

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Much to our disappointment, the referendum did not pass. It lost by 53 votes. That’s it. Now Bill and I have some major decisions to make. Madison won’t be in the school district for 2 years, so hopefully they can get something figured out in that amount of time. We talked about moving, but this could happen in the school district we move into too. I think at this point, we are going to stay put and see what happens. It isn’t like we live in a rich school district (most of the cars here don’t have billet grilles), but I expected that people would step up and help the kids.  I guess not.  I wish these people could go out to Will County and see how people are getting taxed out of their homes (I know, we were one of them) out there.  Trust me, the taxes here aren’t bad at all — even with an increase the referendum would have brought.

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I am ready to pull my hair out. From what information I can gather so far, it is too close to call. Right now, with all but one precinct yet to be turned in, we are down by 47 votes. I am still keeping my fingers crossed. However, if this does not pass, Bill and I will be looking at moving. This will barebone our schools. We have classrooms with 40 students in them already. I am not sure what people are expecting. Oh yeah, their kids already went through school, so they don’t care anymore. Nice.

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I live in one of the states that votes in their primary today.  I just want to remind everyone to go vote!  Granted, it is a given the Obama is going to win Illinois.  However, for me, there is a school referendum that needs to pass.  It only lost by 144 votes last time, so every vote counts!  If doesn’t pass, Bill and I will seriously consider moving.  At this time, band and art have been cut.  If this doesn’t pass, they are talking about cutting recess too.  Some class sizes are already in the 40s, so I am afraid how much bigger they will go.

All in all, remember to go and vote today!

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