school concerns

I finally called the elementary school today to find out how to register Joshua for kindergarten. I was extremely disturbed to find out that even though several of our neighbor kids to the east go to Marshall Street School, we are officially one house too far east to qualify for enrollment there. I asked why our neighbors attended there and was told they must have been granted an exception. Evidently the superintendent has been good about granting exceptions in the past, but now there is a new superintendent and no one knows how he'll handle it. Many of you know that we moved into a pretty rough area, but we believed that we were blessed to have our kids in the best elementary school in the district where they would be challenged and able to catch up educationally. On top of that, it's walking distance from our house and on Peter's route to the office. The school they're supposed to go to is a pain to get to in morning traffic (we're not sure if they bus or not) and isn't very good at all. We're both very concerned about this turn of events and will be writing to the superintendent right away to request an exception. It's a tough position to be in. On one hand, we're committed to being a part of this community and making its problems our problems. On the other hand, we want to give our kids the best education possible, knowing that they're already at a disadvantage. We'd appreciate your prayers about the situation and will update you when we know more.