Kindergarten: A Note to the Granddaughters

It looks like Williston is not the only place struggling with enough room for elementary students. It's also a problem in Boston. 

As regular readers know, there are few things that get between me and my blogging about the Bakken. My granddaughters take precedence.

We have been very, very fortunate -- or, I should say, they have been very, very fortunate -- with regard to early education.

They are fortunate because their dad has been very, very proactive in looking for best opportunities. In all my years I don't recall any father who has taken such an interest. That responsibility seems to rest with mothers, but for some reason our granddaughters' father took it on as a personal goal to find best opportunity for his daughters. I have some idea why his interest, but it is not germane to this discussion.

Last year, at some expense, and a bit of daily inconvenience, the younger one was able to attend pre-school for four-year-olds in a Boston suburb (prior to moving to Boston, both granddaughters attended pre-school in the Charleson, South Carolina, area). Their pre-school experience was incredible.

This year, the younger one is in kindergarten; the half day is "free" -- through the public school system. For a full day, parents pay tuition for the afternoon half day, which, of course, she is in.

It was amazing how much paperwork her mother had to take to the school to "prove" that she/they were truly residents of the suburb. I believe they had to have not less than five (5) pieces of documentation including utility bills, evidence of a street address, and a notarized declaration from the landlord that they indeed lived there. The notarized declaration under penalty of perjury/fraud was most interesting.

Now I understand why:

Demand for kindergarten seats in the Boston Public Schools for this fall has risen by more than 25 percent, an unanticipated increase that has left hundreds of students without an assigned school and has prompted officials to add more classrooms.

The enrollment boom surfaced in the past few months during the first round of registration for kindergarten classrooms that will serve students who will be 5 by Sept. 1. The School Department received 2,306 such applications, up from 1,823 during that same period last year.

Needless to say, we feel very, very fortunate that she found a kindergarten close to home, and at the same school where her older sister goes (third grade).