For years I’ve heard people say choosing a school in Mecklenburg County is so complex that someone should start a business offering guidance.
Now three south Charlotte women are doing just that. For $100 an hour, Charlotte School Search will offer personalized help with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools options, charter schools and private schools in central and south Charlotte.
Rachel Hunt says the idea started when her father, former N.C. Gov. James Hunt, noted that other cities have school-search consultants and suggested starting a firm in Charlotte. Rachel Hunt is a CMS parent, a lawyer and a recently certified college counselor.
She connected with two friends who also bring personal and professional expertise. Amanda “Boo” Raymond is a former teacher and volunteer child advocate who also has kids in CMS (local political junkies know her as the force behind League of Women Voters televised debates). Suzanne Cormier is a former guidance counselor who has taught educational psychology at Winthrop University – and yes, also a CMS mom.
“We’ve been doing this informally for years,” Hunt said.... MORE http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/your-schools-blog/article30634032.html
Now three south Charlotte women are doing just that. For $100 an hour, Charlotte School Search will offer personalized help with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools options, charter schools and private schools in central and south Charlotte.
Rachel Hunt says the idea started when her father, former N.C. Gov. James Hunt, noted that other cities have school-search consultants and suggested starting a firm in Charlotte. Rachel Hunt is a CMS parent, a lawyer and a recently certified college counselor.
She connected with two friends who also bring personal and professional expertise. Amanda “Boo” Raymond is a former teacher and volunteer child advocate who also has kids in CMS (local political junkies know her as the force behind League of Women Voters televised debates). Suzanne Cormier is a former guidance counselor who has taught educational psychology at Winthrop University – and yes, also a CMS mom.
A $100 an hour? My take home salary as a NC public school teacher was $2,215.00 a month this past year - with a master's degree from a prestigious university. At someone's suggestion, I discovered I can make more money renting out my 1,600 square foot log cabin I live in for 4 months vs. working 10 months full time as a teacher. No kidding. I made $1,650 a week for seven straight weeks this summer undercharging people to stay where I live. Why teach math? I've since been offered the opportunity (opportunity culture?) to be a property manager for a family moving back to CA whose son was in my 5th grade class last year. They have a house here and in CA. Yeah, I can make $100 an hour too for doing something else besides teaching your kid.
ReplyDeleteIn a nutshell to the people willing to pay $100 an hour to chose their children's school.
ReplyDelete1. At the elementary level, run from any school with over a 30% free and reduced lunch population.
2. Don't ever chose a school within CMS without visiting it first during school hours. Ditch the Open House. Talk directly to teachers. Have lunch in the cafeteria. Ask the art and music teacher if they feel supported. A supported arts program says a lot about a school. A school that is academically struggling doesn't give a rats ass about their arts programs.
3. Don't assume charter school outperform tradition public schools when comparing apples to apples. My charter school received the same letter grade from the state this past year compared to our traditional public school counterparts.
4. Shut out what everyone else at your South Charlotte neighborhood enclave pool thinks. You know your child best.
5. Relax, because the mother who is convinced their kid is headed to Harvard will be grateful when their child graduates from App. State with a job and a nice girlfriend.
And that will be $150.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Well, if you run from every school with over 30% FRL, that leaves what, about a dozen schools K-12?
ReplyDeleteIf you have $100 to spend for someone else to decide where your kid goes to school, you must need them, as you have more money than sense.
It still amazes me that after the past 45 years of dismal failure in public schools, particularly in large urban areas like Charlotte, politicians and educrats still don't get it.
All I ever needed was the latest Census data and a good map with zip codes and schools.
DeleteJust a little real estate trick I learned long ago.
And if I had to wager a bet, the "experts" charging a $100 an hour have their children enrolled at one of those dozen or so schools. Once kids are in middle school they are academically tracked so I think the FRL population is less of a factor. I'd think twice about an elementary school with over a 30 - 35% FRL population. Especially if class sizes are large. My children attended a CMS school that was 50% FRL. When CMS added 15 trailers, we left - along with 25% of those actually paying for their kid's own lunches. The wealthier CMS school we switch to was in fact a better school. It just was.
ReplyDeleteYou're preachng to the choir here....
DeleteCan't these women find better things to do with all their husbands money? Reading this article made me sick to my stomach. Can't they go volunteer at a half way house (The Relatives) or start a chess club at Ranson Middle? Give me a break with these kind of people. You would need to be some sort of a-hole to hire them. I completely understand if your kid had disabilities and you are truly loss, but for a typical Johnny or little Lucy, just sit at the pool and see where all the other moms are going because their answer is as good as these consultants.
ReplyDelete