Its been an interesting couple months for me as a parent. Our 5 year old twins start kindergarden next fall and we have the tast of deciding which Minneapolis public school to enroll them in, sort of…

Now in Minneapolis with the more open enrollment program, parents have to prioritize and fill out their options on a form that is mailed into the school district. Most families get two options. We however are suppose to get 3 choices since our address falls into a “open” or no neighborhood school pre assigned. Oddly enough, the forms themselves do not have the 3rd space nor any extra room to really write in the option.

The real hurtle is deciding which two (or three in our case) schools to fill in the blanks. I have been touring the Minneapolis schools that are nearest our home and have programs I am most interested in. Im doing the tours alone because my wifes work schedule does not really allow to take off the time. And so I have toured the following:

Lake Harriet school
Windom
Barton
Ramsey

My first choice pre-tour was Lake Harriet. If for no other reason because I went there. Now, Barton is certainly my first choice. It is nearest our home AND has the best type of program that I desire for our kids. The catch is the majority of people I have talked to say that Barton is nearly impossible to get in to. So, for me the hard part is picking which is the second choice.

Ultimately I am very interested in Ramsey. Its more of a fine arts school. It has a second language AND string instrument program from the onset, which I think is amazing. It is also very diverse.

A Minneapolis parent writes that their child goes to Ramsey and is pleased with that.

This archived conversation has some good insight. Im hoping to hear from some of the parents as to what choices they made, and how they feel about it. I am particulary interested in this persons opinion as they made a concerted effort to explore the schools I am most interested in. They also appear to live near my own home.

If you have any opinions or feedback, we would love to hear it.
Derrik Dyka, Minneapolis tennis player (learning!), and realtor