School issues

It's been a long time. A lot of stressful stuff has been going on, namely huge school issues with T.

She was at a boarding school this year which is located 20 minutes from where we live. I was very happy with the place and the staff. She really blossomed there socially but academically she had a hard time. My daughter is very good with her hands, not so much with the books. At the start of the year, they gave her lessons twice a week with their remedial teacher but at some point she decided not to attend the lessons b/c she didn't like the teacher! I told her I didn't agree with that decision but as I wasn't "onsite", I could not top of her and insist she go and even if I had insisted she go, forcing her would have accomplished nothing if she was already feeling "anti".

So at the end of May, in the last PTA meeting, her teacher told us that they'd accepted her for next year but in the same breath said the staff felt she would do "better" academically in another framework. But we left the meeting with the understanding that the issue was closed and, "OK. She's staying. Whew!"

Then 2 weeks after that, I got a call from the school's social worker with recommendations for 2 other boarding schools for me to look into. I had heard of them both. One I am not interested in, the other I was willing to check into more. I spoke to the school and scheduled a day for T to come take the entrance exam. I took the day off work and we got in the car to drive to Bnei Brak where this school is located and ........the car wouldn't start. We were forced to implement Plan B and get there by public transportation which took us AN HOUR AND A HALF! When T saw how long it took us she just about had a stroke. To make a long story short, she was accepted to this school but is not willing to consider it because it's so much farther from home.

In addition, we went last Thursday to look at the local WIZO (vocational) school which offers some vocational training in some subjects that would suit her very much but the down side is that it is not a religious school which makes me very nervous. Again, to make a long story short, T took the test there and we found out yesterday that she was accepted there as well. As unhappy as I am that the place is not religious, I do want her to be in a place where she will have the best chance at succeeding so maybe I just have to hope that the religious education she's had up until now will see her through the next 3 years.

So what are my choices? Push the issue and demand that the school she was in this year keep her for next year JUST because it's a religious school and then just stand by and very likely watch her fail and be depressed/discouraged/frustrated? Or move her to WIZO where she very well may do better academically but it's not religious (with everything that that implies)?

At this point, I am leaning strongly towards moving her to WIZO. I do not at all like how her school this year handled the whole thing - telling us she could stay and then changing the story 2 weeks later. When my daughter was finally feeling like she was worth something, that she'd gotten accepted for next year on her own merits, then they come and talk to me about other schools?? IMO, they've set her self-confidence back to ZERO and I do NOT appreciate that. And let's not talk about them dropping this bomb on me TWO WEEKS before school lets out! If they'd told me earlier, I would have had more time to research the options and the whole thing would have been less pressured.

My biggest problem at this moment is my ex b/c in my agreement with him it says that I have to keep her in religious schools until she's 18. T is going to talk to him today and tell him she was accepted at WIZO and see what kind of a reaction she gets. I'm expecting him to cause problems over it though.