I love South Florida, so please don’t take this the wrong way, but it does seem we could do so much better when it comes to our children’s educations.

My children both attended, and my 5th grader still attends, Hollywood Hills Elementary, which was and is a great school.

In our wonderful neighborhood of Hollywood Hills, the big question for parents is what to do about middle school and high school. My daughter attended American Heritage, a wonderful, but very expensive private school for middle school and her freshman year of high school. This year my husband and I were determined to have both of our children getting a great education in the public school system due to (1.) the rising costs of private school and (2.) the inconvenience of having my daughter’s entire peer group living 30-45 minutes away, closer to American Heritage than to us.

I talked to friends that are teachers, politicians and parents and got a lot of good input from them all. Here is what we came up with which is working for the time being.

My daughter, performing in her high school's production of the musical, Tommy.

We moved our daughter to South Broward High School, which was culturally a shock, but educationally comparable. She registered for honors classes and dove right into the drama department, making tons of great friends who live locally, eliminating the necessity to constantly drive her out west to maintain her social life. She has signed up for Advanced Placement classes next year and is also eligible for dual enrollment (in college classes?), which was not an option at American Heritage.

Our son is currently in gifted and will go to Olsen Middle School in the fall where he will be in the gifted program. Had he not qualified for gifted I would have exercised my option under the School of Choice and transferred him to one of four schools that the county listed as an option since Olsen has a C rating.

I did not want to transfer him to another school because I would have faced the same situation that I had with my daughter: his peer group would have been way out west, making our weekends full of long car rides, and he would not have had friends in the area to play with.

Hollywood is a great city, which I love, and we have a new mayor and new commissioners. One of our commissioners, Heidi O’Sheehan, has children in the public school system and is very aware of the problem. I am hopeful since hearing Mayer Bober speak about the need for better schools in our city that something will happen soon, but until that time I think it is very important that parents know about options such as School of Choice, gifted programs, etc. so that our children, our future, get nothing less than what they absolutely deserve: the very best!

For more information on Hollywood area shools, visit www.browardschools.com. If you're moving to the area, be sure to visit my website www.homeinsouthflorida.com, and sign up to receive the latest real estate listings, tailored to your specifications. If you're looking for a larger home to accomodate your growing family and need to sell your current home, be sure to check out what your home's value is before putting it on the market!