Here's our situation, I'd love any advice since I always feel like you guys see things more clearly from the outside sometimes!
We have 3 kids, DD is in public school K, DS1 and DS2 are both in full-time daycare, DS1 just turned 4 so has one more full year before starting K in 2020. DS2 is 10 months, so has MANY more years until K :-). We've been at our current center since DD was 18 months old, its sort of been a rollercoaster. There are some GREAT teachers, but there are also quite a few mediocre and downright not great ones that you can tell just don't want to work with kids, this is just a job. Specifically from infants until preschool / age 3ish the turnover for teachers in those classrooms is really high, so there are no guarantees on who my youngest will have for the next few years. There is one teacher specifically I've dislike so much I've asked that he never be placed with her.
I've been looking for a spot for DS2 somewhere else, since DS1 only has 1 more year until K, and I know for sure who his teacher is at his current center, I'm okay with keeping him there for 1 more year. But for DS2, spots are hard to find anywhere else, so I feel like I should just get him out when I can so that he can be in a new place from now until he starts K many years from now. I've found a really great school that would have a spot for him starting in the Fall -- the teachers are all grown adults who have been working in this specific preschool for 10-20 years, and who LOVE working with the kids. It's much smaller than our current place (50 kids vs 100), and it works out to be about the same amount of money.
The only issues are: the spot isn't open until the Fall, so we are still stuck at our current place for a while. DH doesn't think we need to leave until things go south again at our current place (even though I've told him whenever that has happened in the past we can never find a spot when we want it somewhere else). And its a Jewish preschool, and we are Catholic, which he thinks is weird. Only one teacher is actually Jewish, and very few of the kids are Jewish, so its not like our kid would be the odd duck out, and I actually like that he'd be learning about more than just our faith. Another con is we would have 3 different drop offs and pick ups for the next year, until my older 2 are in the same school. The deposit is $200 and its not refundable if we change our minds, and I would need to decide LIKE TODAY since they have literally one spot left for the youngest class my son would be in.
What would you do?