Gifted and Talented

Audrey will be starting Kindergarten this August.  In our school district (Adams 12), there are many "Choice" schools and charter schools, other than the assigned neighborhood school.  As our default neighborhood school is not that great, we have toured and reviewed many of the Choice and Charter schools for the kids.  Choice and Charter schools take 100% of their kids from a lottery of the applicants, with priority given to siblings, in district, and then out of district kids. 

For Mason's Kindergarten, we went through the same process and got into/chose the STEM school through the Choice program.  We were assigned tot he new STEM Launch K-8, as in that year they didn't distinguish between the existing STEM Lab and Launch.  Although he had a fabulous teacher (Mrs. Hevers who we are still friends with) the school turned out to be much less than promised and it will take several years to get on track.  That is why we moved him to a private school this year, Broomfield Academy.

When entering Kindergarten, one has the best chances to get into their Choice or Charter school, but these schools still get many more applicants than their have room to accommodate.  Bill and I are very pleased with Broomfield Academy, and would be fine leaving them there.  But although Broomfield Academy offers a middle school program, it is very small (30-40 students).  In my opinion that is too small and doesn't provide a good transition to a High School environment. 

So, we decided to enter Audrey in the lottery for a Choice school called Hulstrom.  Hulstrom has one of the highest elementary school scores in the state and goes to 8th grade.  If she were to get in, even if Mason didn't get in this year (most spots only open up as families move out of the area), we could waitlist him and he would get sibling preference.  Hulstrom is a GT (gifted and talented) school, with 2 tracks: one that teaches 1 year ahead (GT) and one that teaches 1/2 year ahead (Advanced Academic).  We really liked Hulstrom when we toured it 2 years ago, and we got the same good feeling this time around.  We didn't feel the same when we toured another GT charter school called Stargate, although it has great scores and many of her current classmates will end up there.  I am sure it is a fine school, just not for us.

Although Hulstrom also draws from the district Choice lottery applicants, because they are a GT program, the kids have to have an "interview" and provide an IQ test (optional, but recommended).  The good news/bad news are: Audrey qualified for the GT program at Hulstrom, but we are wait listed because she didn't get selected through the lottery process.  However, more spots are likely to open up as family decide between schools before the school year starts.  Fingers crossed!

We are proud of Audrey for doing well on her "tests", since she can get distracted and bored easily.