First snow day and "too cold" day of the decade!


The TV weather forecasters were actually somewhat accurate this time and with about 3 inches of the cold white stuff on the ground, we received the arctic blast of cold air last night. Since my son had the day off from school yesterday (which was supposed to be their first day back) I decided what is good for him is good for me and I took the day off too, even if I only would have had to drive one mile to the Brentwood Metrolink Station. Then last night we received the fateful call at 9:45 telling us that Ladue Schools was closing classes again today due to the cold weather, We had seen many of the neighboring districts (Clayton, Brentwood, Webster, U City) already scroll by on Channel 5 while watching the Jay Leno Show, so we were expecting it, but needed confirmation so he could turn off his alarm and sleep in again. So my son was able to get the full week off from school, giving him a full 2 1/2 week winter break. I, however, decided I should come in to campus today so I drove over to the Metrolink station and made the cold walk from the Skinker station to our building.

Talking about local schools made me think of the news that Missouri lawmakers are considering whether to allow parents to choose which public school their children attend. That would definitely be an interesting issue here in St. Louis County where there are so many different districts of different levels of quality. Being a parent who has recently moved to one of the districts in the state where it is most expensive to purchase a home, I can see why some people would be against this proposal. Many families sacrifice a lot to be able to afford to live in a district best suited for their children, and to have someone else simply decide to send their children to the same school while living in a much more affordable home does not seem completely fair. However, it  seems requiring parents to provide transportation for their own kids to travel to non-resident schools will help limit how far parents are willing to send their kids. I doubt many parents from North County will be willing to drive their children out to Rockwood schools, but they may be willing to drive them over to Clayton schools. This would make the top ranked, closer in districts (Clayton, Brentwood, Ladue) much more favorable to many over the good schools that are further out (Parkway, Rockwood, etc) but these same districts would also cap off their enrollment much faster too. I know Ladue is already experiencing an over enrollment problem, and I could see them limiting their allowed number of students, and Brentwood is so small they could probably only accept a small number of students if they want to maintain their highly desirable low student to teacher ratio. A district like Pattonville would probably be affected the most, since they would have residents living there who may want to send their children to Parkway or Ladue, whereas neighboring residents in Ritenour or Hazelwood may want to send their children there to Pattonville instead. I know when we lived in Pattonville, our house (and Willow Brook Elementary, in fact) was actually closer to both Parkway North High and Ladue Horton Watkins High than to Pattonville High, way up there on Creve Coeur Mill Road. I could see Pattonville administrators having fun trying to figure out enrollment as students go out and come in at the same time. It could definitely have an effect on housing prices and desirability. I know there are a few homes in Brentwood Schools in our current subdivision which does not make any sense to me and makes them much less desirable despite Brentwood being a great district. Who would want to live north of 40 and send their kids to Brentwood schools, especially with no bus service and being nestled in a subdivision where all the other kids go to school somewhere else? If those homeowners had school choice, they would pick to send their kids to Ladue schools with the rest of the subdivision and would even be one block from a Ladue school bus stop. Some of these school district borders do not make any sense!

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