easterly parkway & final decisions

So yesterday I had my meeting and tour with Easterly Parkway Elementary. I have to say, while it seemed like a pleasant school, I don't think that I will be choosing it. From what everyone was telling me, I was expecting it to blow Ferguson out of the water, but I didn't get that impression at all when I was there. I liked the principal, Michael Maclay, but I just didn't get the same go-get'em attitude from him as I did from Charlotte Zmyslo. While Smyslo had a team of several people assembled for our meeting and had an entire host of questions for me and facts/figures/examples ready to share, Maclay was on his own and seemed helpful but not fired-up. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with not being a person who is on their toes every second of the day, (it is indeed that is a hard thing to aspire to no matter who you are) but when placing my child in a school because he has special needs, I want as much enthusiasm as possible from the entire network of people who would be helping him. The Ferguson crew wants to send in people to observe him at his preschool, they were throwing ideas at me left and right as to how we can best facilitate the transition for Johnny, and in general just seemed excited. Maclay had a great idea for helping Johnny become more independent toward the end of the school year when it comes to sharing with mom what he did at school, and I think it is a really cool and insightful concept, but that is all I was given. I get the impression that Maclay is very sweet and very good at his job, but that Zmyslo is a powerhouse. When it comes to getting a team to back me in supporting Johnny's educational experience, I think I'll choose a group of people as head-strong as I am.

All of that said, Easterly Parkway really was a beautiful school that I think most students probably thrive in. Would it work for Johnny? Most likely. However, I'm choosing to go a different route. Kindergarten sign-ups begin in 3 days. I'm glad to have gotten that meeting in so that I could make an informed decision. This is especially true because before going in, I had been leaning towards Easterly Parkway simply because they were more centrally located and I'm not quite sure where we will be living. However, I think that an out-of-the-way drive would be totally worth it to have Johnny placed in the school that is the best fit for his situation. Ferguson it is! 4th generation student in the building!