Would you put your dc in a different h.s. because it had better sports program?

[OK!]

My parents did something sort of similar for my brother and me. The street on which we grew up is now required to send kids to one school in the district, but at the time we were in school, we had the choice to go to 1 of 2 schools. We picked the one that had one of the top swimming programs in the state and had a much better chance of enabling us to get scholarships and/or win state championships while we were there. My team never ended up winning (3rd my freshman year and 2nd the other 3), but it was where all of my friends were going and the school building itself was upgraded my junior year (the school moved from 1 bldg that was basically identical to the one in which the other school we could have attended was housed to a new, modern campus with a multimillion dollar aquatic facility), so it was a win-win all the way around. I believe my brother (3 years younger than I am) was the last kid allowed to be grandfathered in and choose the school he wanted to attend.

If the academics are comparable and it's what your DD wants to do, I say go for it.

 

[clovergirl5]

There are many possibilities that could throw a monkey wrench into the plan. Kids get injured, some could move out of the district, some could lose interest and not want to play at a high level anymore. It is also possible that other, better players could move into the district or could emerge from the current players. I have seen these things happen with HS basketball teams. Also, scholarships for athletics are very tough and I wouldn't want to plan on that.

Now, if the academics are better or at least as good as her current school, and she is comfortable with the social scene at the new school, I would certainly consider giving it a shot.

Good luck in your decision!

Points taken and something to discuss with dd. Thank you.

 

[tasha99]

Our local school district lets people move around, and even trade with other districts (I have a younger sister who went to an out of city school because she liked the music program better). I say go for it and be glad your daughter has a passion that you can encourage. That's if you're up for the driving--I think it would be a big commitment, but potentially worth it.

 

[mhsjax]

Hell no!!!!!! My child is in school to get a great education. Sports are for fun and a few who are naturally great will make a living at it.

wow, do you have to be so rude about it. A simply no would have been good enough. As far as sports being for fun, what about scholarships for sports, they come in handy for college. Colleges also require extra activities these days. Gone are the days where they only look at grades. If your kid has good grades and nothing else, chances are that most colleges will pick another child that has done sports and other things. If the schools are the same, all things considered I would let her go to the different school if she wants to.

 

[clovergirl5]

I would make sure that this school has classes in their hs that your daughter may be interested in ...electives and various AP courses.

Yes, definitely ?'s that will be brought up to the superintendent of the other school if we decide to persue.

 

[clovergirl5]

I think it would be a good idea. She already has friends at the other school and you say the academic quality is about the same at both schools.

The one thing I would look into is that in some states, even with school of choice, if a child uses the choice option to transfer, they are ineligible for athletics for a year.

Never heard of that, will make a note to ask, thank you.

 

[golfgal]

This happens all the time around here. In MN there is statewide open enrollment so any child can go to any school, providing there is room. The vast majority of the public schools in MN are excellent so that usually doesn't factor into the equation so it comes down to various programs. We have many kids open enroll into our high school for the band program, one other high school in our district has a national level wrestling program and they get a lot of transfers because of that, another school has a national level speech and debate program so there are transfers for that too. There was a story in the Minneapolis paper last winter about one family that has their boys in 3 different high schools that all qualified for the state tournament last year--to me that is a little extreme but they make it work.

I don't see anything wrong with it if everyone is on board. Some of the things about having your kids in different districts are differing calendars and such but I am sure you have thought about that. The other thing to consider is a back-up plan if your DD gets hurt and can't play softball again. One of DD's friends was an up and coming pitcher for fast-pitch, got moved up to varsity last year as an 8th grader, ripped out her shoulder in her first game, can't pitch any more. This is the problem with year round sports--just to give you a heads up on that one.

 

[barkley]

if the education is comparable and it's what you (both parents) and she want i don't see an issue with it.

if all the kids won't be going to the same district i'de suggest first looking at the other district's calendar to compare with the one the rest of the kid's will be following. i currently deal with 2 different calendars, dd's school does'nt follow the calendar ds's does-and it can get tricky when one kid gets out certain days a time that does'nt allow me enough time to pick him up and get to the other one's school on time for that pick-up. it's a real p.i.t.a. when one has a 2 hour late start one day a month which means if i'm driving in order to get her brother to school on time she and i have to sit with her in the parking lot at the highschool for close to an hour and a half (not enough time to drop him off, come home and pick her up to drop off on time-and campus does'nt allow kids there before a designated time. it can get challenging when different schools do different vacations as well (they never have spring break the same week).


i'll pass on something i learned on the dis that's been a godsend for us-look up your state's educational code and see what the laws/rules are on school transportation. when i did this i found out several things i never would have guessed our state requires-including if a student is granted the ability to attend a school outside their assigned district, the granting school HAS to provide them the same access to transportation other students IN that district are afforded. the district that is nearest us (but we're not in for some crazy mapping reason) has lots of kids near us attending it on out of district agreements and they interpret the law such that they send a bus out into our neighborhood to pick up those kids everyday. some districts interpret it to mean a parent can drop their kid off at the closest bus stop within their normal system-but depending on big a district is this can save miles and miles of commuting for the parent.
the real gem i learned from my legal search was that if a public school bus in our state passes any school (public or private) on it's regular route-a parent can arrange for their student who attends that school to ride the other school/district's bus and be picked up and dropped off (ds attends a private school that our district bus passess coming and going to the public school-it picks ds up at the regular school bus stop but stops at the entry to his private school every morning and afternoon just for him).

you might find that there's a transportation source that can make any decision to send her there easier to handle.

 

[lovetoscrap]

My neighbors have-- but in the same district. Their boys are very good at baseball and the other middle school and high school have better baseball programs. They are really counting on a baseball scholarship to pay for college for the boys. I don't think they really have any dreams of major league play (maybe they do?), but for them it is all about giving them the best opportunity to succeed at what they excel at and giving them to opportunity to go to college.

The education in our district is pretty standardized at all the schools-- it is all excellent so that isn't a problem. If the educational experience will be comparable and it won't be a huge hardship on your family to adapt to the schedule of another school then I would do it. I would probably keep the other kids in the schools they are in now though. No use disrupting their lives for her sister-- that could cause some resentment.

But the opportunity to do something she loves and is good at, and hopefully earn a college scholarship is huge and not one I would pass up.

 

[golfgal]

I think it would be a good idea. She already has friends at the other school and you say the academic quality is about the same at both schools.

The one thing I would look into is that in some states, even with school of choice, if a child uses the choice option to transfer, they are ineligible for athletics for a year.

In MN you have to transfer into a school your freshman year or you lose a year of eligibility--unless it was for a family move.

 

[clovergirl5]

Like someone else pointed out, it might not be that easy to just switch schools. In the past five years we've seen two lawsuits about this. One involved a girl who would not be a starter on the softball team, her parents put her in the nearby town, coach was one of her rec league coaches. They said this was for "scholastic" reasons. If you know where they took her from and the school they enrolled her, you know that this is the biggest line of BS ever. The second was for a girl whose mother had lost her job. She moved her daughter from there to her to the same nearby town to live with family. In both cases the High School Athletic Association was bound to look into it because of complaints filed by the original high schools. Both girls were allowed to play at the new schools but in the case of the first girl, by the time all of this was looked into, she had missed probably half of the season. There was one other girl I know who played golf who was very unhappy at the larger school. Her parents allowed her the choice between the public high school or the private high school. She was allowed to move, wasn't for athletic reasons, but she was not allowed to play golf for her sophomore or junior year, can't remember which. She was also ranked sixth in the state at that time for ladies golfers. Her parents didn't fight the HSAA on this, they knew their daughter's ability would shine through no matter what.

I would seriously look into it. If the old school gets any idea that you are moving her for athletic reasons, they can (and usually do) do this.

Side note, don't know what happened to the first girl, softballer. Second girl, received a full scholarship to Notre Dame, third girl is in college and still plays golf. I don't know if she received a scholarship or not.

Thanks for the heads up...dd had her softball xmas party last night and dh was talking to the coaches and they said that a girl in one of their older daughters class just transferred from a different school to play softball in their district too. She is a teammated of the older daughter. So same situation.

 

[clovergirl5]

My parents did something sort of similar for my brother and me. The street on which we grew up is now required to send kids to one school in the district, but at the time we were in school, we had the choice to go to 1 of 2 schools. We picked the one that had one of the top swimming programs in the state and had a much better chance of enabling us to get scholarships and/or win state championships while we were there. My team never ended up winning (3rd my freshman year and 2nd the other 3), but it was where all of my friends were going and the school building itself was upgraded my junior year (the school moved from 1 bldg that was basically identical to the one in which the other school we could have attended was housed to a new, modern campus with a multimillion dollar aquatic facility), so it was a win-win all the way around. I believe my brother (3 years younger than I am) was the last kid allowed to be grandfathered in and choose the school he wanted to attend.

If the academics are comparable and it's what your DD wants to do, I say go for it.

Thanks...Our feeling is that she has a better shot at playing competively with that school than she does with the district she's in. She has worked so hard and we have put a great deal of $ into her being in travel ball. We just don't want her to have come this far and want to quit because the team is only as good as their weakest player.

 

[minkydog]

Are these public schools? If so, you may not just be able to switch her depending on the rules in your state.

Yeah, in our district it's pretty hard to get dispensation for a child to go to any school but their "home" school. Sometimes they will do a hardship transfer, such as when a family moves to a different school zone and there's only 3 months of school left. Or if the "home" school is not meeting NCLB standards for improvement. It would be nigh impossible to get a principal to approve a transfter just because a kid wants to play ball.

If your daughter is that good, I'd keep her in the travel team. College recruiters scout travel teams at least as much, or more, than they do public school.

 

[clovergirl5]

Our local school district lets people move around, and even trade with other districts (I have a younger sister who went to an out of city school because she liked the music program better). I say go for it and be glad your daughter has a passion that you can encourage. That's if you're up for the driving--I think it would be a big commitment, but potentially worth it.

Lol, Im used to the driving believe me You couldn't imagine with 4 in school--preschool, elem. and m.s. plus sports practices and games in different cities, dh and I run our butts off

 

[clovergirl5]

wow, do you have to be so rude about it. A simply no would have been good enough. As far as sports being for fun, what about scholarships for sports, they come in handy for college. Colleges also require extra activities these days. Gone are the days where they only look at grades. If your kid has good grades and nothing else, chances are that most colleges will pick another child that has done sports and other things. If the schools are the same, all things considered I would let her go to the different school if she wants to.

Thank you for the support

 

[clovergirl5]

This happens all the time around here. In MN there is statewide open enrollment so any child can go to any school, providing there is room. The vast majority of the public schools in MN are excellent so that usually doesn't factor into the equation so it comes down to various programs. We have many kids open enroll into our high school for the band program, one other high school in our district has a national level wrestling program and they get a lot of transfers because of that, another school has a national level speech and debate program so there are transfers for that too. There was a story in the Minneapolis paper last winter about one family that has their boys in 3 different high schools that all qualified for the state tournament last year--to me that is a little extreme but they make it work.

I don't see anything wrong with it if everyone is on board. Some of the things about having your kids in different districts are differing calendars and such but I am sure you have thought about that. The other thing to consider is a back-up plan if your DD gets hurt and can't play softball again. One of DD's friends was an up and coming pitcher for fast-pitch, got moved up to varsity last year as an 8th grader, ripped out her shoulder in her first game, can't pitch any more. This is the problem with year round sports--just to give you a heads up on that one.

Actually haven't thought about the different school calendars. Have to check that out too. Thanks. I know about worried that she will get hurt. She pitched last year but isn't so much this year. She is going to a pitching coach once a week though to get her speed and accuracy better. Right now, coaches have her playing center.

 

[luvmy3]

Never heard of that, will make a note to ask, thank you.

I have heard that is a very common thing in school of choice districts because it keeps a school from recruiting the best athletes for their own team.

I agree with all the other pp's that said if the education is comparable to the school she is in now, and she is okay with the sacrifices (not being with her friends) then why not.

 

[clovergirl5]

if the education is comparable and it's what you (both parents) and she want i don't see an issue with it.

if all the kids won't be going to the same district i'de suggest first looking at the other district's calendar to compare with the one the rest of the kid's will be following. i currently deal with 2 different calendars, dd's school does'nt follow the calendar ds's does-and it can get tricky when one kid gets out certain days a time that does'nt allow me enough time to pick him up and get to the other one's school on time for that pick-up. it's a real p.i.t.a. when one has a 2 hour late start one day a month which means if i'm driving in order to get her brother to school on time she and i have to sit with her in the parking lot at the highschool for close to an hour and a half (not enough time to drop him off, come home and pick her up to drop off on time-and campus does'nt allow kids there before a designated time. it can get challenging when different schools do different vacations as well (they never have spring break the same week).


i'll pass on something i learned on the dis that's been a godsend for us-look up your state's educational code and see what the laws/rules are on school transportation. when i did this i found out several things i never would have guessed our state requires-including if a student is granted the ability to attend a school outside their assigned district, the granting school HAS to provide them the same access to transportation other students IN that district are afforded. the district that is nearest us (but we're not in for some crazy mapping reason) has lots of kids near us attending it on out of district agreements and they interpret the law such that they send a bus out into our neighborhood to pick up those kids everyday. some districts interpret it to mean a parent can drop their kid off at the closest bus stop within their normal system-but depending on big a district is this can save miles and miles of commuting for the parent.
the real gem i learned from my legal search was that if a public school bus in our state passes any school (public or private) on it's regular route-a parent can arrange for their student who attends that school to ride the other school/district's bus and be picked up and dropped off (ds attends a private school that our district bus passess coming and going to the public school-it picks ds up at the regular school bus stop but stops at the entry to his private school every morning and afternoon just for him).

you might find that there's a transportation source that can make any decision to send her there easier to handle.

That is different for our school of choice. The granting school doesn't have to give bus transportation to the school of choice kids out of district. I have never had a problem though, they do pick the kids up even though we a soc. I will have to check that district to see if its a michigan law or goes by each school.

 

[RunningGirl]

I would do it, as long as I was happy with these issues:
-academics are comparable or better
-she will be eligible to play as a "transfer" student. (Here she'd have to sit out a year.)
-once you transfer it's good for all 4 years and you don't have to reapply every year
-the softball coaching staff is both kind and competent

I do agree that college coaches are more likely to scout at travel tournaments as opposed to high school games, so I don't think she necessarily has to transfer for that reason alone. But having a child who's very competitive athletically I understand the desire to play on a team that will be challenging and fun! I don't think that making this choice says you're putting sports above academics.

 

[clovergirl5]

My neighbors have-- but in the same district. Their boys are very good at baseball and the other middle school and high school have better baseball programs. They are really counting on a baseball scholarship to pay for college for the boys. I don't think they really have any dreams of major league play (maybe they do?), but for them it is all about giving them the best opportunity to succeed at what they excel at and giving them to opportunity to go to college.

The education in our district is pretty standardized at all the schools-- it is all excellent so that isn't a problem. If the educational experience will be comparable and it won't be a huge hardship on your family to adapt to the schedule of another school then I would do it. I would probably keep the other kids in the schools they are in now though. No use disrupting their lives for her sister-- that could cause some resentment.

But the opportunity to do something she loves and is good at, and hopefully earn a college scholarship is huge and not one I would pass up.

Thank you, that what our feeling is. I hate to disrupt the other kids schooling, I would rather keep them where they are. But next dd9 is just starting travel ball with the same team and city that dd13 is. So if she ends up in this scenerio too a few years down the road, I might be facing this again later with her lol.