Thanks...

We appreciate your thoughts and prayers for us regarding the school lottery for Levi.

Unfortunately we didn't get a placement in either the District 3 lottery, or at the Manhattan School for Children lottery.

Here's a sign of the recession, public schools have now become very popular again all over the city. True, it's not all financial. There has been a huge baby boom in Manhattan, and the first wave of that boom are all coming into kindergarten at once. And I would also say that the public schools in NYC on the whole have gotten better thanks to Mayoral control.

But money does play a huge role in what's going on right now. People who before might have been fine with paying $25,000 for kindergarten now all of a sudden think public school doesn't look so bad. A lot of other people agree.

Two years ago there were 450 lottery spots available for kindergartners in District 3 and not every spot was taken. This year there were 251 spots available for 525 applicants. Levi was the 225th name drawn and all five of our school choices were full by then.

The second lottery was specifically for the Manhattan School for Children. They had 37 spots available for 357 applicants.

Again thanks for your thoughts a prayers. We are trying not to get discouraged and we still have a few options left. Right now it's mainly just a waiting game.