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Thanks to local employers, small schools for affiliated children present an alternative to traditional public schools.
By DONNA WINCHESTER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 15, 2002
The district has four "partnership" schools that are run with the help of area employers.
Bay Park, 721 Sixth Ave. S in St. Petersburg, is a partnership with Bayfront Medical Center. Enrollment is open to kindergarteners through third-graders who are children of hospital employees or of physicians certified to practice at the hospital. The district provides the teachers and curriculum, and the hospital supplies the space. The school is a satellite of Campbell Park Elementary.
Children of Morton Plant-Mease Hospital employees can attend South Ward Elementary, 610 S Fort Harrison Ave. in Clearwater. The hospital provides in-kind services to the school in exchange for the education of about 80 students.
Children of Pinellas County government employees can attend North Ward Elementary, 900 N Fort Harrison Ave. in Clearwater. Between 50 and 80 students attend in exchange for in-kind services to the school.
The Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation sponsors the Modesta Robbins Chi Chi Rodriguez School, a dropout prevention program for fourth- and fifth-graders at 3030 McMullen-Booth Road N in Clearwater. About 20 students are admitted yearly at each grade level. Teachers are affiliated with Curlew Creek Elementary. Students can apply to the 2003-04 program through their present school's guidance office.
Hours, curriculum and teacher-pupil ratio at partnership schools are the same as at regular schools. Parents are responsible for their children's transportation. Contact the office of partnership schools, child care programs and home education at 588-6209 for more information.