Preschool Wars

After reading this and this last month I began having nightmares about getting Ruthie into preschool next year. I’m not very happy with the program she is in now so I was planning to put her into my local community center’s program that is walking distance from my house. I should have done that this year, but, you know, hindsight.

Several weeks ago I called the community center to ask if they had space for me to transfer Ruthie over for the rest of the year, but they were completely booked with a waiting list a mile long.

I panicked, and asked how many kids were in each class, and he said there was only one class for each age, and there were fourteen kids in each class.

Fourteen.

A city of thousands, vying for fourteen spots.

I asked when registration for next year began, and he informed me that the three-year-olds were given early registration priority for the four-year-old class, and that the morning sessions would likely be filled up before general registration even began.

I tinkled my pants just a little bit. My perfect utopian world was slipping through my fingers. WHERE WOULD MY CHILD GO TO SCHOOL????

This morning I set my alarm for 5am. I was out the door by 5:50 with my coffee and my breakfast. I was at the community center by 6am, and there were already five people in front of me in line. PANICK! I remained calm. I casually asked the gal in front of me which class she was registering for (THREE’S! YEA!). I tried to act natural.

When my turn came up, I was asked which class I was registering for.

I was nonchalant. ‘Morning fours,’ I said.

‘That class is full, but I can put you on a waiting list.’

‘Sure.’ I said. ‘How long is it?’

‘You’re number 2, and there’s a pretty high turnover so you should get in.’

HOT DOG!

I registered for the afternoon class just in case, and as I walked away I heard the woman as the desk say to the lady behind me, ‘I’m sorry, ma’am, but that class just filled up. The woman in front of you took the last spot.’

I tinkled my pants just a little bit again and scurried out the door in case my life was in danger.

I never looked back.

One thought on “Preschool Wars”

  1. Isn’t it crazy?? We had thought that Lora would be in developmental preschool through the school district, just to find out yesterday that she doesn’t qualify…which is good but panicked me since we didn’t have her on any lists, etc. But, my son’s in a co-op and his teacher told me yesterday she would love to have Lora…we just have to get in. I just had one person tell me that we get no preference because my son is in the same school. WHF? But I just found out we do get preference so we should be in for mornings next year. Its crazy…with the waiting lists and the costs! Co-op is about the only thing we can afford! So another year or two of co-op for me. Good Luck and Godspeed!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *