Need Information About Magnet Schools

I have two kids attending Collinswood Spanish Immersion on Scaleybark. Half of their day was spent with an English speaking teacher learning English, gramer, science. The other half of the day was spent with a teacher speaking only in Spanish. With the Spanish teacher they study the language, reading, spelling, math and social studies all taught in Spanish. My kids really like it. My son is slatted to attend Smith Middle school which is also a language immersion. I found the staff to be awesome teachers. And the school atmosphere is very warm and friendly. This school did not offer any after school clubs. The principal didn't find the children's social skills to be her responsibility. I would wait until after this summer to make any decisions as the school board is going to cut out some of the magnets. Good Luck.

I don't have experience with magnet schools other than my neighbor has applied for her daughter to attend one after having a horrible year at Elon Park Elementary in South Charlotte. It's a lottery so she really has no control over whether her daughter gets in. I can tell you about Montessori since that's where I send my children. If your child is 2 1/2 then now is the time to start looking into Montessori. The schools in Charlotte generally start kids around age 3. If there's room in a class, it's not uncommon for a child to start mid-year. Or you'd definitely be looking at it for next fall adn the earlier you start looking at a school the higher on the waiting list you'll be. I won't expound on the benefits of Montessori here, but I'm happy to go on and on if you want to email me. I will tell you this- there are good Montessori schools in the Charlotte area and I think that even if you only send your children to Montessori for preschool and kindergarten, it's the best educational foundation you can give them.

Visit websites that rate schools to get the best idea.

Here are a couple:
www.schoolmatters.com
www.psk12.com

Just a note to let you know that you may want to make your housing decision based upon the best general schools in your area as the magnet schools have just been ordered to under cuts due to lack of funding. Thus, a magnet school that is there today may very well be gone tomorrow - or by the time your children reach school-age. This is the same issues that my family is dealing with.