My Vanguard & Magnet School Advice

As the mother of two kids who are in Vanguard and Magnet schools, I am often asked questions by soon to be and new parents. They want to know how they can send their kids to good schools inside the loop (or close to it) without having to pay for private school or having to move to the suburbs. Here are links to some of my top blogs with advice on how to navigate the Houston Independent School District Vanguard and Magnet system. 

The Kids and I, Seth is in 8th grade at Hamilton in Vanguard and Miranda is a junior at DeBakey H.S.

If you have a child starting Kindergarten the Fall of 2018 you've missed the application deadline- it was in December. You'll have to check with HISD if they have a second phase application for Kindergarten. I'm not sure about that.

If you have a child starting Kindergarten the Fall of 2019 the application is due in December of 2018. Start drilling him or her on their alphabet, sounds, colors, shapes, now because they will have to take the Vanguard test January or February of 2019. That's only one year away! My best advice on this. Buy those workbooks at Walgreens and CVS in the book/magazine area. They were great for teaching the kids the basics and inexpensive.

My personal experience

http://shoegirlcorner.blogspot.com/2011/03/controversy-about-magnet-schools-in.html

Elementary School

http://shoegirlcorner.blogspot.com/2005/11/im-back-in-school.html

The Vanguard Test when they are 4 years old (for Kinder)

http://shoegirlcorner.blogspot.com/2006/01/i-forget-im-mama-now.html

Middle School

http://shoegirlcorner.blogspot.com/2012/04/update-on-vanguard-middle-school.html

Second Phase Application

http://shoegirlcorner.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-quest-for-hamilton-vanguard.html

High School Application
http://shoegirlcorner.blogspot.com/2014/12/vanguard-and-magnet-school-applications.html

The Kinkaid EMSI program- a well kept secret. 

http://shoegirlcorner.blogspot.com/2015/05/update-on-schools-and-kinkaid-emsi.html

Not everything is always rosy. If you aren't lucky enough to have a child attending a Vanguard or Magnet school, things can be tough. Or if your child has a special education challenge. Here is my experience when Miranda went on to middle school and Seth had to leave a really good elementary school to go to our neighborhood school because his sibling transfer wasn't renewed, before he was in Vanguard.

http://shoegirlcorner.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-disproportionate-schools-part-i.html

http://shoegirlcorner.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-disproportionate-funds-for-school.html

Note: I added one more at 3:30 p.m. about high schools.

March Madness

March has been a pretty crazy month, thus the madness part. Miranda turned 15 and she had a karaoke party with a few friends. It's also the month of Spring Break so we went to New Orleans on the first weekend to visit my step-daughter and her new baby.  While we were in New Orleans I visited some of the oldest and coolest cemeteries, St. Roch 1 & 2. They were so old and so amazing. Here are some of the photos I haven't shared on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Kids on the St. Patrick street of the cemetery since it was the week of  St. Patrick's Day.

 

Creepy girl statue we suspected had blood on her forehead but we aren't for sure.

 

Shots of St. Roch Cemetery, NOLA

 

 

We came back from NOLA and Seth's cat had mysteriously had his jaw ripped off and broken. We had to take him to the emergency room that same night we got home and had him put to sleep. Tears from everyone.

I had to go back to work Wednesday-Friday. I had a short but very busy week as I felt myself getting more and more sick. I spent the better part of this weekend in bed sick with a bad cough because Murphy has a sense of humor like that.

We got a mild cool front, probably the last of the year because today is the first day of Spring, so the weather has been beautiful. I needed to cut the yard and treat it for fleas. I needed to spray in the house for fleas too as a precaution with all this cat activity going on in here. But since I was sick all I managed to do was stay in bed resting and trying to bring my fever down. It finally did come down and at 5 p.m. on Sunday I'm finally feeling better, just in time to go back to work tomorrow.

 Now it's on to a short week of school for the kids because they have Good Friday off but I don't.

Since the year started I've only written a blog per month. My goal is to increase that to at least 2 blogs per month or one a week if I'm really being ambitious.

I'd like to start blogging about the Houston Independent School District and the Vanguard and Magnet programs a little more consistently. I think it's a topic a lot of parents have questions about and now that I've been through it a few times I feel like I can be a source of information for parents with questions. I'm still interested in doing some grassroots outreach to lower income and minority parents to educate them about what opportunities there are for their kids. That's on the agenda of things to do as well. Stay posted!

Update on Schools and Kinkaid EMSI

Update on the schools:

Great news! Miranda was accepted into DeBakey High School for Health Professions and Seth was accepted into the STEM program at Hogg Middle School. My babies are growing up!

Miranda's first day of Kinder and Seth trying to get into the picture.

Kinkaid EMSI:

When I was in elementary school I thought I was really smart. I was chosen by my principal to take a test to attend a Vanguard middle school and I passed and was accepted. When I arrived at Hamilton Middle School in the Heights I quickly found out that I wasn’t as smart as I thought. I found out that I never really learned the seven continents, where the Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn were and other important geography lessons I should have learned in elementary school. Thank goodness I at least knew about the equator!  So although, yes I probably was the smartest kid in my class in elementary school, I learned that other kids at other schools had received a better education than I had.  That was the first time I really understood that different schools received different funding and different resources and that this affected the quality of education that kids receive. (A topic I have written about in the past.)

I struggled in the Vanguard program but I never gave up. I worked hard until the very last 9 weeks of the 8^th grade when I finally made honor roll for the very first time in my three years in middle school.  Also in 8^th grade other kids who were taking Algebra, and had probably made good grades all along, were invited to apply to a summer program. I first heard about Kinkaid when I was in 8^th grade and only 14 years old. Before the school year was over we knew what students had been accepted so I had an idea of who was going. I remember feeling a little jealous but I also realized and accepted that my strengths did not lie in math and science.

I forgot about Kinkaid but later throughout the four years of high school I would hear about it now and then from some friends who were attending the program each summer. All I knew was that Kinkaid was a very prestigious private high school in Memorial and that every summer they had a math and science program for public school students.

Around 15 years later when my step-daughter was living with us and attending middle school she was invited to apply to Kinkaid and she was accepted. This was a wonderful opportunity for her and she thrived that summer. She was accepted to return but sadly she decided to return to Louisiana to live with her mother so she didn’t get to complete the program.

In the years since Facebook became a place to reconnect with old friends I have been back in touch with middle school friends. I quickly noticed something interesting.  All of my middle school friends who attended the summer program at Kinkaid are successful adults. At least two are attorneys and one is an aerospace engineer. Others are HR executives and sales managers.  I found that trend interesting.

Now my daughter is 14. Unlike me, she’s very good at math and science and she attends a Vanguard middle school like I did. I hadn’t heard about Kinkaid in a long time but I assumed the program still did exist so I decide to Google it. It does and I was very interested to learn the history. The summer program is called the EMSI- The Kinkaid Engineering, Math and Science Institute and it was founded in 1975. It is completely underwritten by Houston companies, foundations and generous donors.

I told Miranda about it and she was very interested.. She applied and we were so excited for her when she was accepted. I’m so proud of all of the things that she’s accomplished thus far and I hope that she builds on that foundation this summer at Kinkaid.

When she was accepted, and I checked to make sure that they had received our postcard, I told the program’s director the trend I had noticed in friends who attended Kinkaid. She thanked me for sharing that note and she said she would share this with their donors. I’m glad because I think it’s important for organizations and individuals who give to educational programs like this to know that they truly do make a difference and that they'll make a difference in this little girl's life.

I can not stress enough how the quality of education that our children receive makes such a difference in their future. I didn't attend an elementary school with a lot of funding but thank goodness I attended a better middle school and high school. Thank goodness I was a part of the Magnet programs at these schools and I received an even better education because of the Vanguard and IB programs.

Now that I'm a mother I understand how these programs shaped my life and I want even more for my children. That's why I've worked so hard to make sure that my kids also attend magnet schools and that they have the best education available to them. I want them to do more and to be more than I was. I want for them what every parent wants for their child.

Next stop- Middle School & High School

Today I find out where my two children will be going to high school and middle school. Yes, that little girl who I blogged about nine years ago when she was taking the Vanguard test for the first time is about to go to high school. And that little boy who was just born 11 years ago (in April) is going to middle school. We are playing the waiting game today!

Last year at the Rodeo carnival on the death machine that takes you across the park.

This year the application process was all online so all the parents are receiving email notifications starting at 4 p.m. today. I can barely stand it! I have been keeping busy at work and I worked on some lacrosse charity stuff during lunch, but I keep watching the clock. I know the kids are thinking about it at school today too.

Miranda applied to four high schools and I applied to about six schools for Seth. I am praying that Miranda gets her first and second choice schools and I am praying that one of the schools with a great Magnet program accepts Seth. He has made so much progress this year and he needs a good school where he can continue to thrive and grow.

As a mom it's so heart-wrenching when your kids don't get accepted into a program or a school they want. It's the first step in that realization that you can't protect them from everything, from heartache and disappointment. It's a learning experience for me as a mom too. It's part of learning about life for them and about reality. It's also a lesson about how we have to work hard to get what we want in life. I wish my babies the best today. 

Vanguard and Magnet School Applications Round 3

Vanguard/Magnet application time Round 3 for me. On April 11, 2006 I wrote about Miranda being accepted into the Vanguard program at Oak Forest in Kindergarten. Then on April 1, 2012 I blogged about middle school. Now here we are almost three years later and we're applying to four different high schools.

Miranda's medal, 3rd Place UIL with Lanier Theatre Group

This past October I wrote about Seth and what an amazing year we're having in the 5th grade. We had a good 3rd grade but then in 4th grade his school went through a terrible ordeal Seth had a really tough year. He lost half of his teachers and he had a whole new administration. This year he had new teachers but it has been a completely different experience. He just made a 360 and I couldn't be happier.

His teachers, especially his science teacher have recommended that he apply for Vanguard. I'm not limiting him to just Vanguard. We're also applying to Magnet programs like STEM, a science/Montessori school and foreign languages. Miranda is applying at DeBakey for health professions, Carnegie Vanguard, Lamar and Bellaire IB. If she goes to Bellaire she wants to pursue her love of languages like German and Japanese and she can learn Russian.

It's amazing that I'm doing this for the third and final time with Miranda. This is it. Next we'll be applying for colleges. Wow! Just wow!

After this I will be a pro in the whole application process. I hope that parents come across my blog when they Google Vanguard in HISD or Magnet Schools and that I can offer up some advice or direction. I should write a blog on best tips and I can get input from other Vanguard/Magnet experienced parents. There's an idea for a future blog post.

For now, I need to finish Seth's applications. I still have one more document to upload. HISD has really impressed me with the online application process. It has made everything so much easier, especially when applying to multiple schools. New parents will never know the joy of paper applications and making copies of all the paperwork that us pioneers experienced.

Miranda's applications are done but she needs to take an admissions test for Debakey. Now we wait on decisions until Spring Break or shortly after.

Carson Reading Room at Jefferson Elementary

I've written a lot lately about disproportionate funding in HISD and two of the things that bother me the most about this sad situation is the fact that Jefferson Elementary doesn't have a nurse or a library. Both are equally important in my book. This week I was happy to learn about the Carson Reading Room at Jefferson that just opened this past fall.

I had a chance to meet one of Seth's assistant principals on Friday and she asked if I had time to see the Carson Reading Room. She asked if I knew who Dr. Ben Carson was and I'm ashamed to say that I didn't, considering that he was the keynote speaker at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast just this month and a lot has been said about that.

Dr. Carson and his wife run the Carson Scholars Fund and with the help of the Hearst Foundation they sponsor Carson Reading Rooms around the nation. Jefferson Elementary is one of only three schools in Houston who received a Carson Reading Room. The other two are close by in the northside of Houston, Looscan and Clemente Martinez Elementary Schools.

The Carson Reading Room at Jefferson is beautiful! There is a mural on the wall painted by local artist, Kay Sarver. She also painted the welcome sign outside.

It's a comfortable, warm space where children can curl up with a book. The sofa and the pillows in the corners looked so inviting that I wished I didn't have to go back to work so soon. It was wonderful to see a room that is every bit as great as a library.

Ms. White told me about the beautiful mural and the local artist Kay Sarver and how the dads who meet once a month with the principal for Donuts for Dads painted the room. I asked her if they take donations and she said that they do. I told her that I just recently cleaned out the kids' room and I have 3 stacks of books. She said they would be happy to take any books I wanted to donate.

I was so excited to learn about the Carson Reading Room and more about Dr. Carson's inspiring story. He was raised in poverty and overcame adversity to become a successful surgeon and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He understands that students at schools like Jefferson need all the help and encouragment they can get to read and that they need a space to do this.

If you want to donate to the Carson Reading Room at Jefferson, either books or money, contact principal Mr. Hamilton or Ms. White at Jefferson Elementary. The children at Jefferson will really appreciate it.

The Disproportionate Funds for Schools- Part 2

Last week I blogged about my experience at two different schools in HISD and even my two different experiences with two children at the same school. I had to tell the whole story about my son and what we went through to finally have him identified by the school district as having Asperger's Syndrome so that I could explain how we found out first-hand what some schools have and others don't have.

Image from education blog

Just to recap. Oak Forest Elementary is in the Oak Forest neighborhood. It's on 43rd Street between Ella and TC Jester. They have a beautiful big library with a librarian, a school nurse, a music teacher, a band teacher, a science lab, a science teacher, a computer lab, an art teacher, an arboretum with little theater seating benches, a beautiful garden of milkweed for the monarch butterflies, and a nice black top playground with basketball hoops. It has great teachers and a very active PTA. It also has a great Vanguard program and they are a National Blue Ribbon winner school.

Jefferson Elementary is on Sharman St. off of Cavalcade and the 45 North freeway. It is right next to the Lindale Park neighborhood. When my son started attending this school I was mostly shocked to find out that they didn't have a school nurse, a library or a librarian. In my mind these are essential for any school.

I also found out that they don't have an art teacher, a science lab or a science teacher. I know these aren't essential, but they would be nice. I wondered about the toilet paper but a teacher friend explained to me that the main reason students are only given so much toilet paper at some schools, especially the older schools with older plumbing, is so that they won't clog the toilets or make a mess.

I know that the parents at Oak Forest are the reason why they have such a beautiful garden with the milkweed and other flowers. The parents volunteer their time to make the school beautiful and a great experience for the children.

But back to Jefferson Elementary. When I found out about all the things that Jefferson does not have as compared to Oak Forest it made me wonder about all the reasons why. I realize that the parents and their donations have a lot to do with it. I know that the parents at Oak Forest are very involved. I haven't been at Jefferson long enough to find out about their PTA or the average household income of the parents.

Of course the schools get money from the state. I've read and heard that their test scores on standardized tests have a lot to do with how much schools receive. But I wondered, how do they decide exactly how much each school gets?

I first went online to the HISD website to find out. It only makes sense that since it's a public school system that information should be public. It's not.

When I didn't find the answer there I Googled the subject and I came across this great article written by Lynne Walsh on the Texas Watchdog, "Rich school, poor school: How much Houston ISD spends to educate each child varies greatly between schools."

Walsh points out that "Some of the confusion stems from the numerous pots of money from which HISD’s 300-plus schools get cash each year." To explain all the different places that the money comes from she refers to this other article on Texas Watchdog, "See all of your HISD school's funding data" by Jennifer Peebles. 

If this calcultor is accurate, what I found out really surprised me. I typed in both Oak Forest and Jefferson and I found that in fact Jefferson receives slightly less money than Oak Forest but more money when it's divided per student because they have less students. Oak Forest receives $3,659,859.74 or $4,847.90 per student. Jefferson receives $2,892,607.47 or $5,509.40 per student. Oak Forest has 755 to Jefferson's 525 students. Still, that's $767,252 more for Oak Forest, taking away the per student formula. That's a lot of money!

I called HISD to ask them for clarification and the answer that I received from two different people was very interesting. They told me that the reason that there isn't any information on the HISD site regarding how money is allocated to each school was because it was "too complicated." I wondered how complicated it could be. When I used the calculator on the Texas Watchdog site I figured it was pretty clear and it shows how much each school gets for different categories like resource student funding, magnet programs, and stimulus, to name a few.

Just for the record this is what HISD had to say about where the funding comes from.

"The school funding formula is complicated, but it basically works like this: Schools are funded based on a per-student basis. The more students you have, the more funding you get. The per-student amount is weighted to give more money for students in various categories: Special education, gifted and talented, magnet, limited English skills, low income, etc. There is also a funding subsidy for the smallest schools. In some cases, smaller schools are unable to afford some of the same services that are offered at larger schools. Jefferson has 509 students, compared to Oak Forest’s 760 students. In addition, it’s important to note that in HISD, principals are given broad discretion over how to use their budgets. After consulting with their campus Site Based Decision Making Committee (which includes parents and teachers), the principal establishes a budget. They may decide that they’d rather hire an extra math teacher instead of a nurse, for example. I hope this helps."

After all of this I came to the conclusion that the biggest difference between Jefferson and Oak Forest is the amount of money that they receive from the parents and the community. It has to be that. When the kids were at Oak Forest I saw the parents donating a lot of money, raising money, and I also saw businesses, like the credit union across the street, giving them money. Businesses in the area feel that supporting the neighborhood school is good PR for them and will in turn bring them business and they are probably right.

What is the answer? I'm not sure. Jefferson doesn't have a great business community around it like Oak Forest does. Oak Forest is surrounded by shopping centers and great neighborhood businesses.

 

The only thing we can do as parents is to make the businesses that we do have around us aware of the needs at Jefferson Elementary if they themselves are in a position to contribute and if it will be beneficial to them. Lindale Park is not a poor community but many of the parents either send their kids to private schools or to Magnet and Vanguard schools like I did when the children were at Oak Forest. When my kids were there I donated my money to that school and that's what many parents in Lindale probably do and we forget about the school in our neighborhood because it doesn't affect us when our kids don't go there.

 

I may not be able to donate a lot of my time to the school, to the PTA, or a lot of money, but I can donate my voice. I can be a voice to the community about the needs at Jefferson Elementary and not just this elementary school. There are many schools like this in our city, even in the different school districts. Maybe people will become more aware of the elementary school in their community and they will take the time to donate just a little to make a difference.

The Disproportionate Funds for Schools- Part I

I have said it many times, especially on here, I am a product of a the Houston public school system. I have always believed in the public school system, especially the magnet program in HISD and especially the Vanguard and IB programs.

Now as a parent I have experienced two totally different schools in HISD, a Vanguard recognized school with all the resources a school could want and a neighborhood elementary with not even enough resources for a school nurse.

When my then husband and I decided to stay in the city we knew that our future children's education depended on the Magnet and Vanguard program and if our children would be accepted in one of these. When our daughter was accepted into the Vanguard program I was ecstatic. The fact that she got into our first choice school made it even better.

Our first choice had been Oak Forest and a lot of thought had gone into that choice. One of the reasons I chose it was because it was so diverse and I thought the teachers were also diverse. At least that was according to the Report Card on the Schools published in the Houston Chronicle. Sure it meant driving out a little farther every morning and afternoon but I felt like it was worth it and it was. Our daughter did really well in her years at Oak Forest and excelled in all subjects. I know the education she received there had a lot to do with where she is now in middle school.

The school has great parent involvement and they give a lot to the school, in both time and money. I just took for granted all the things Oak Forest has. They have a nurse, a beautiful library, a librarian, an arboretum, a science lab, a computer lab, an art teacher, a music teacher, a band teacher and so much more. I thought the world of Oak Forest.

That is until I had a son that wasn't in Vanguard. I was so excited when he was accepted on a sibling transfer so that I didn't have to drive to two different schools. He would get to attend a great elementary school with his sister.

It wasn't long before the concerns started. They started in Kindergarten and escalated in first grade. It wasn't until second grade that the terms ADHD and Asperger's were used to describe him. I had started seeing a child psychologist who agreed that Seth was probably ADD but when I mentioned Asperger's to him he was outraged that the teachers and assistant principal would use that term so loosely. I agreed, until I had to see a different doctor for medication to manage the ADHD.

This doctor asked me right off the bat, "Has anyone said Asperger's?" When I finally accepted that my son probably had Asperger's, which is protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act, it was too late for my son's future at Oak Forest.

When I went back to the doctor to ask him if he could give me a diagnosis of Asperger's he told me, "The school district will test him for you. That's what your taxes pay for. They will diagnose him and  they will make accommodations for him."

So even though it was the school who brought up the term ADHD and Asperger's first, they didn't tell me this. I guess they thought I should figure it out on my own. By the time I could request that the district test him so he could receive the official diagnosis from HISD the school year was ending and it was a lot easier for the principal to say, "DENIED" on his sibling transfer due to too many behavior and disciplinary issues. Besides, they justified it, his sibling wasn't attending any more.

Welcome to the flip side of not having what the schools consider a "model student." He wasn't important enough because he wasn't a student who helped them with their test score average and thus how much money they would receive from the state. My daughter was that kind of student.

The great great irony in this story is what happened next. I didn't fight Oak Forest even though one of the moms was outraged and told me I should. I figured why should I stay at a school that didn't want him.

This school year my son is attending a much smaller elementary school adjacent to our neighborhood. It is not Vanguard or even Magnet. It doesn't have anything that makes it stand out and probably gets lost in the shuffle of the many schools in HISD.

But when my son started attending this school I saw such a dramatic change in his grades and in his behavior. Granted he was on medication regularly now but he also has two awesome teachers that get his off the wall sense of humor and quick wit. They learned how to channel his boredom to drawing and always provide him with paper and pencils to draw. They have just been great. Yes, they got started a little slow at the beginning of the school year because he was new and they didn't really see any challenges right away since he was doing fairly well in school.

When the challenges started, especially towards the end of the school day when the medication was wearing off, the school took action, especially the Assistant Principal, Principal, and the Special Education teacher. It only took one semester and a couple of challenging episodes for the school to have him tested by the district.

The district found that he does not have any learning disabilities and is in fact reading and doing math at 4th and 5th grade levels while in the 3rd grade. His challenge is staying focused and not getting over stimulated by too many children or getting upset.  Now he will receive accommodations if needed when he takes the STAAR test and other standardized tests this semester. Meaning he can take the test in a smaller group if necessary.

What's the point of my story? That this school, with all of its limited resources, is the one who took action and made things happen. This elementary school does not have A NURSE, a library, a librarian, an art teacher, a science teacher, a lab, an arboretum and there is no toilet paper in the restrooms. The teachers allocates a little toilet paper to each child when going to the restroom.

A school like Oak Forest with all its resources was able to send my son to the Principal's office a hundred times, suspend him, write him up and suggest that he had Asperger's but not once did they inform me or educate me that I could have him tested by the district. It was obvious that they wanted to have a big enough paper trail so that they could justify denying his transfer. They wanted to wash their hands of the "challenging" child who didn't help their test scores.

It took the smaller school with the limited resources and the disproportionate funding to take action. When telling this story to a friend today I likened Oak Forest to a beautiful woman with no soul and Jefferson an ugly duckling with a big heart. As a parent that is how I feel and I'm sure that there are many parents out there who feel the same way.

What I want to do here is to educate parents and make them aware that this kind of situation does exist. You can have one child in the Vanguard program with no problems and then you can have a child with special needs and you won't receive the same attention at the exact same school.

I also want to make parents aware that there are schools out there in HISD that have VERY limited resources yet they do an excellent job with what they have. The question that baffles me is this. Why don't these smaller schools with an obvious need receive more money from the district and from the state?

P.S. Just to clarify. Seth has 2 challenges. He has ADHD and Asperger's. The medication helps control the ADHD but not Asperger's. There is no medication for Asperger's.

Next Post: Why do some schools get a school nurse and a library and others don't?
Part 3 will look at race/ethncity and if it plays a role.

And We're Out of the Waiting Place

The wait is over!

On Friday I got out of teaching a class and I had a couple of missed calls so I checked my voice mail. And there it was... The call we had been waiting for all week. The call telling us that Miranda made it into our first choice middle school for Vanguard. I was thrilled!!

Apparently they moved down the waiting list quickly because Miranda was #65. The voice mail message said that I have until 8 a.m. on Monday to accept the invitation. Just on a fluke that they were still there working late I called. Of course they weren't working on a Friday at 5:30 so I left a voice mail message for the Vanguard coordinator and also followed up with an email. I'm making sure I cover all my bases and I'm calling again to confirm at 7:30 on Monday.

After that excitement I debated how I would surprise my little girl. I didn't want to just call and give her the news over the phone. I finally decided on some cupcakes from Kroger so I called my niece Hannah who takes care of her and her brother after school and told her that I'd be a little late. I had already worked late for a Friday too.

So I ran off to Kroger but when I got there I saw this cute little purple cake (above) and I asked the cake lady if she could add something real quick. She said she could and I debated what to write. I didn't want to just write a lame, "Congrats on Lanier" and "Congrats on Being Accepted at Lanier" just seemed way too wordy for such a little cake. Finally I remembered that their mascot was the Purple Pup. That just seemed very appropriate and I knew that it would take her a minute to get the message when she saw it.

My plan worked. When she saw the cake it took her a full 5 seconds to get what I really meant. When she realized that she'd been accepted she jumped for joy. I was so happy for her! It was so worth the wait and getting the cake. One of the wonderful joys of motherhood.

I know that Lanier is a really great school (not only one of the best Vanguard schools in HISD but also one of the best city wide) and I want for her to have the best foundation now for her future. That little girl has big goals and I want to give her all the support that I can as her mother. I want her to achieve more than I did because that's how it should be. Hugs to my big girl!

Update on Vanguard Middle School

Just yesterday I was blogging about my daughter going off to Vanguard kindergarten. I was blogging about the Vanguard test and waiting to find out what school she would be attending. I've blogged about public education and the Vanguard system several times over the years.

Cute image from michigan.gov

Well here we are SIX YEARS later and we are in the waiting place waiting to find out what middle school Miranda will be attending. We didn't have as many choices inside the loop, as we did the first time around for elementary school. We really only had one first choice. The others were okay choices, but not the best. We had one great choice for a magnet school back-up and thank goodness she did get into that one. However, she was wait-listed #65 for the our first choice Vanguard school.

What does this mean? When you apply for Vanguard you have to list  your 3 school choices in order of preference. First they check all your test scores, report card grades, and teacher recommendation to see if you even made it into Vanguard. Next they do a lottery. They choose their designated number of students and wait list all the rest who want to go to their first choice school.

We received a letter on Monday telling us that Miranda was accepted into the Vanguard program for middle school, however she was #65 on the waiting list for her first choice school. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that our first choice school is also everyone's first choice school. My initial reaction was sadness and then as the day went on, and via facebook conversations and comments, I found out that #65 is actually really good. I found out that the school got as high up as #242 on the waiting list last year.

How is this possible? They send out the letters and parents start calling in to accept or decline. Once they have all the replies on April 9 they start calling down the waiting list. So that's when we get called. One mom told me that anything under 100 is "golden."

Now to wait until April 9 to get the official offer so we can celebrate!

Good School News

I received some good news today. Little one was accepted into the paid Pre-K program in an HISD school. It's a dual language program, which means that the class will be taught 50% in Spanish and 50% in English. He'll be starting in the Fall!

The school isn't that far from my daughter's school, so I'll be able to drop him off on the way to leave her.

It's weird to think that my baby will be starting school soon. I know it will be very sad for my babysitter. She's taken care of both my kids for seven years. Of course she still has them both for the summer before school starts again.

I tell my daughter that they are going to spend summers with their "Mana" until they are 18. I tell her that that's how kids get in trouble, when they're left at home unsupervised and up to their own devices. Oh my! I sound like my mother! Scary!

Neighbors Project Article

Check out this interview about my belief in the Magnet/Vanguard program in the Houston Independent School District.

How exciting! Although I wish I had a better picture than this one. I look old!! And this picture was taken around 4 years ago! I think I'm pregnant with my son in that picture.