school shopping

Things have been going well for Calvin at school. He had a super smooth transition from Houston back to his school in San Diego. Cook Education Center is set up to help kids with severe behavior problems. Since Calvin doesn't exhibit severe behavior problems at school, another school program would probably be a better fit for him. I had been thinking that I wanted him to change schools within a year or two of getting home, and once he got home from Houston, his teachers noted right away that he is ready for a new program.  So, now I'm school shopping. These are the schools I'm looking at:

Wiston
Newbridge
Excelsier
Sierra

Winston - Del Mar - Amzing school location 1 block from the beach.  15 elementary school kids (4-6), 30 middle school (7-8 grade) and 50 high school kids.
The high school is diploma bound and all high school classes are accredited/count towards college.  It is nearly streamlined curriculum for high school.   They do not give "D" grades. Any class failed doesn't count and must be re-done. If you pass your classes you are considered moving forward.
The kids have math, english, history and science in the morning. In the afternoon is tutorial, a free period for doing homework, with help and with other kids around. They also have electives which you sign up for, art, music, PE, electronics, etc.  There also have an activity program which runs a couple days a week like cooking, dance, video games, photography, board games, painting, robotics.

For homework the kids have math and english homework M,W,F and T/Th the kids have history and science. With a tutorial class at school it is possible to get homework done at school, which would be really good for Calvin.

About 1/2 the kids in the school have ADHD. Another big chunk have high functioning Autism, a few have other things such as tramatic brain injury. Calvin looks like he'd fit in there.

My main concern with Winston is high school. It sounds like academically, it is pretty main stream in high school. It is hard to say at this point, how well Calvin will do academically once he gets into a school that focuses on that. If he could be caught up and in good habits he may be able to do high school but otherwise it might be too hard for him academically.

Winston school is a college preparatory program for bright, creative students in grades  4-12 who have struggled to meet their potential. The school offers and extensive arts cirriculum providing classic training and a creative outlet, as well as opportunitites to build character and self-confidence. 

eye update

For the past several years Calvin's glasses have only had correction in one eye. His "bad eye" has a major astigmatism and a large correction as well. However, the other lens was plano, with no correction. For a while Calvin was wearing a contact in one eye and didn't need one in the other eye. Earlier this year Calvin started complaining that his good eye wasn't seeing as well. So we took him in and sure enough he needed a new prescription with correction in both eyes. Another 6 months passed and he started complaining again that his glasses weren't doing the trick.

I was actually really worried that something had happened with his vision, or brain to cause him to loose vision so fast so I was relieved to find out that it's just normal changing (for someone with bad eyes) and that he'll probably keep losing vision until he is fully grown. Sad that he's been dealt this minor problem. He's had a heap of minor problems that add up to major problems.

Now that Calvin can't see as well he always faithfully wears his glasses unless they are lost or broken.  Since we have returned home we have dropped a pair of glasses out of the car and then they got run over a bus, Meyer chewed up a pair, Calvin broke a pair on the bus (on accident). Any others?? Can't remember. Calvin's glasses are covered under a protection plan so when they break it costs less than $30 to get a new pair BUT it does take two weeks and that is sad because then he goes two weeks without being able to see much at all. For example, he can't see the TV from the couch, or any road signs from the car.