School District Lines

My heart is breaking.

I have spent all morning fighting (ok, just talking until I'm blue in the face) with my daughters' schools.

Apparently, for the past five years, we have been attending the "wrong" schools. No one ever told us. No one ever stopped us when we registered - so with one daughter having a year to go in high school and the other about to start high school - they expect us to move our daughters to the new school next fall.

The deadline to apply for a lottery to attend a different school was in December. (They can't understand that we didn't apply because no one ever told us that we weren't attending the right schools to start with. Apparently the boundaries changed several years ago but no one told us!) Oh, we live on a corner. If I cross the street to the west, she'd be ok. If I cross the street north, she'd be ok. My corner (and my house only) is the only one affected on this block. Next to me is a church, so obviously, they don't have children. I am the only house on the block that it affects.

We have lived in the same house for 15 years. The girls have gone from kindergarten through now to school with their friends. If I move her now - I might as well move her to a new town!

Oh - and in order to get to the school across town, we have to walk/drive past the school in question. (.4 mile from our home. The other school is further.)

I am so frustrated and my younger daughter is devastated.

She called me from school - totally freaked out. Last week we signed her up for high school. She's been accepted into their marching band (few Freshman are) and into the advanced band and into their Wind Ensemble band. (top of the line band- by audition/permission only - they meet at 7 a.m. daily)

My middle daughter is the No. 1 student at the school - will they make me pull her out too? If they do - she'll be devastated.

I keep telling myself that things will work out -- but I didn't feel positive after leaving the district office. We missed the lottery system for attending and they said chances of getting in are slim to none.

I may have no choice but to move. If I have to move in order to have my daughter's life be uninterrupted - so be it. I'd hate to. We've lived in the same home for so long. But what other choice would I really have?