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We received an offer from Bell and need to make decisions in two business days. Any insight on the school, especially 3rd grade and above?
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Apologies that I did not this before the cutoff to accept your spot! I will answer your question for any future readers and/or to help your transition. Did you end up accepting the spot? What grade is it for?
My daughter is a rising 2nd grader at Bell and has been in the options program since K. I have heard really great things about the 3rd grade teacher. Minimal to no homework, interesting/challenging projects during class time. I don’t know much about the teachers after that, except for the 7th grade teacher has rave reviews. He is a department head and runs quarterly options meetings with parents across all grade bands… and I can already tell that he is great from the little experience I have had with him. He has been at the school for a long time, so I am hoping he does not retire before we get to him! **Noting also for other readers..current options k teacher was new the year after my daughters k year so I don’t have experience with her. I have heard she was an amazing from other options parents. She was a neighborhood k teacher for one year, and I know some parents in her neighborhood classroom had kids that were not up to speed on reading and frustrated. But I think this was more pandemic related and not due to the teacher at all. Also I think that this could possibly just be due to the dynamics between parent/teacher with a naturally academically strong child vs a child that is struggling a bit. Then the first grade teacher is amazing… she engages and challenges the kids. They have a lot of homework and projects. She send daily blog posts to parents. The volume of homework was doable for one year, and they kids came so far with their writing.. it will pay off big time long term. They wrote a 100 page book, an autobiography, and also had a weekly packet. She is possibly the best teacher we will ever have! She has been at the school ~ 35 years and it shows. The 2nd grade teacher is newish, but gives minimal homework (I hear spelling tests, and math) **
Overall my experience at Bell has been very positive. I loved the principal, but unfortunately after 16 years she won’t be back at Bell next year. There are some big shoes to fill, so I am crossing my fingers for what is coming next. It’s going to be an interesting summer following the principal selection process. Options parents at Bell tend to be very happy and the parent community is very strong. The prior principal at Bell did truly make it feel like one school. I feel like the neighborhood families are hit or miss with their satisfaction at Bell. I think there are high expectations from the parents when you send your kid to a school that looks like Bell on paper. The options kids have a tendency to preform very high academically naturally, so I think that we are very privileged to not have gripes about academics. But individually the neighborhood families all seem lovely and welcoming to options families.But the options classrooms are also not immune to behavior issues in the classroom and it’s really just a luck of the draw with social dynamics. How severe issues are handled is dictated by CPS policy. So it’s not just all admin that controls the satisfaction in that arena. My neighborhood school (tier 4) has a great reputation but not as academically strong on paper as Bell. I am not convinced that the neighborhood program at Bell is stronger then my neighborhood school even though it looks better on paper. The school fills in a lot of $$ needs by fundraising.
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If you got the spot at Bell, I hope you took it! My daughter went from Decatur Classical to Bell in 5th grade. Best decision we ever made. Bell has so much more to offer than most CPS Selective Enrollment schools. The fundraising is phenomenal and fills the gaps the CPS budget doesn’t, so the extracurriculars (athletics, arts, academics, social growth opportunities) are the best I have ever seen anywhere! For a truly advanced and well-rounded education, there is no better school than Bell! My only wish os that every child at every school had the same opportunities!
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