Pondering Kindergarten

Ok, I don't usually post philosophical rambling on here. So for those of you who are in it strictly for the cute kid pictures..you may want to just skip this one.
Alex is going to kindergarten next year. That's not what I'm pondering.
We have open enrollment within our school district here in Traverse City and also Michigan has school of choice, we have two charter schools and a hand full of private and parochial schools here too. So choice is great but can be a little overwhelming.
Some choices are easy - we can't afford private school (and don't think they are automatically better anyway) and we have no interest in sending our children to parochial school.
Others are hard.
We fell in love with one of the charter schools. I know Alex would thrive there. It's not too far from our house. Alex has friends that will be going there and I have friends whose kids go there. They have multi-age classrooms and a lot of outdoor learning. But charter schools fill their enrollment with a lottery system. And the statistics are against us this year. Not that many openings (siblings of current students get priority and there are a lot this year) and lots of applications. The lottery is in two weeks and then there will be a waiting list for any spots that open up due to cancellations/moving, etc.
So I started looking at backup plans and went to the parents meeting for our local district elementary. I'm so glad I went because we had visited the preschool there and had come away with a pretty dismal impression.
I really love the kindergarten teacher though. I know Alex would do well with her personality and I liked the way she answered a lot of the questions.
There were some basic school district type things though that left my head whirling a bit. The school district curriculum for kindergarten is set for all day everyday even though only half of the schools in the district are all day everyday. Our school is not. It's two full days and one half day. But the teacher is still obligated to follow the curriculum. Teach the same amount of information in half the time. To 5 year olds. And they pride themselves on being focused on the "basics" of reading, writing and math. So what gets cut for the half time kids.....art, music and PE. Even though those things are proven to boost learning in the areas of the "basics".
The district was also trying to give parents the impression that their children could not start school unless they were completely vaccinated. Which in the state of MI is not true. Parents have the right to sign a waiver.

Other than that, I felt good about the school and won't be quite as crushed if the charter school doesn't work out. But we are still keeping our fingers crossed.