schoolsearch: Different programs are heart of choice

Different programs are heart of choice

[Times photo: Michael Rondou]
One of the attractors at John Hopkins Center for the Arts and Communication Studies is a dance focus. In this class, taught by Mervet Elnabarawi, students learn the Vaganova Method. At front is eighth-grader Alexandra Crabb.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 15, 2002

From magnets and fundamentals to vocational classes and themed attractors, the school system offers an array of programs.

In Pinellas County, the choices are many for parents considering public education for their children.

There are the basics, of course, elementary, middle and high schools and programs designed for the gifted, special education students and others in danger of dropping out.

On a broader spectrum, Pinellas County public schools also offer vocational programs for high school students and popular, structured magnet and fundamental programs for elementary and middle school students. Magnet programs, including the highly regarded International Baccalaureate program, are available at the high school level as well.

Major changes are coming in the fall of 2003 that will give parents a greater say in where their children go to school. Neighborhood and satellite zoning, instituted as part of court-ordered desegregation, will end. The new controlled choice program, which hopes to encourage diversity without forced busing, will take its place.

Under controlled choice, the school district will be divided into attendance areas. There will be four for elementary school, three for middle school and one for high school. Students will be able to apply to a school of their choice in their attendance area, but court-imposed racial ratios will remain until 2007.

In this new, freer market, schools are attempting to woo students with themed programs or attractors such as marine sciences and health, wellness and environmental studies. Students must apply for the schools of their choice between Monday and Dec. 13.

They will be notified whether their selection has been granted or if they've been assigned to a second or even third choice, in January. Selections will be made by computer and will be based on several conditions, including residence, school capacity and court-ordered racial percentages.

The new attendance zones will not apply to career academies, magnet and fundamental schools, which, with one exception, will continue to be open to students countywide.

Magnet schools offer intensive study in specialized curriculums. The district has four magnet schools at the elementary level. In St. Petersburg, they are the Center for Advancement of the Sciences and Technology at Bay Point Elementary; the Center for Communication and Mass Media at Melrose Elementary; and the Center for the Arts and International Studies at Perkins Elementary. Ridgecrest Elementary in Largo is home to the Center for Gifted Studies.

The county has two magnet middle schools, the Center for Advancement of the Sciences and Technology at Bay Point Middle School and the Center for the Arts and Communication Studies at John Hopkins Middle School. Both are in St. Petersburg.

There are many more high school magnet programs. They are as follows: the Center for Advanced Technologies at Lakewood High School; the International Baccalaureate program at Palm Harbor University High School and St. Petersburg High School; the Pinellas County Center for the Arts and the Business, Economic and Technology Academy at Gibbs High School; the Early Graduation Option at Osceola High School; the Center for Wellness and Medical Professions at Boca Ciega High School and Palm Harbor University High School; the Criminal Justice Academy at Pinellas Park High School; and the 21st Century Learning Center and Teaching Arts Academy at Largo High School.

Fundamental schools also are popular with parents, who like their back-to-basics approach. Fundamental schools emphasize student responsibility, daily homework, discipline and a dress code. Parental involvement is mandatory, and children can lose their spot in the program if parents fail to attend meetings and monthly parent-teacher conferences. Children also can lose their spot if they violate the program's rules.

The district's fundamental elementary schools are Bay Vista Fundamental, Lakeview Fundamental and Pasadena Fundamental in St. Petersburg, Curtis Fundamental in Clearwater, and Tarpon Springs Fundamental in Tarpon Springs.

The county's two fundamental middle schools are Southside Fundamental in St. Petersburg and Coachman Fundamental in Clearwater. Next fall, the Thurgood Marshall Middle School, which will offer a fundamental-style program, will open in St. Petersburg. Unlike Southside and Coachman, it will not accept students from throughout the county. Applicants will be limited to those who live in Area A, the attendance zone in which the school is located.

Magnet and fundamental programs at both the elementary and middle school level are open to students throughout the county no matter where they live. The exception, of course, will be the new Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School.

In these middle school programs, priority is given to students who have graduated from related elementary magnet and fundamental programs. Eligible students who have siblings in the sixth and seventh grade in magnet schools to which they are applying or are the children of full-time Pinellas School District staff at those schools, also are given priority.

Chances increase of getting into one of these programs if students apply to more than one school. Graduating middle school magnet students get no special consideration when they apply to high school magnet programs.

There will be good news for parents of fundamental schoolchildren next year. The school district will provide arterial transportation to any fundamental school student who lives more than 2 miles from their assigned fundamental school.

Because of the new controlled choice system, applications for both programs will be due earlier this year. The forms, available at several locations, including individual schools and the school district's Family Education and Information Centers, must be returned by Oct. 15. Applicants will learn whether they have been accepted, placed on a waiting list or rejected the week of Nov. 10. Students must accept their invitation or waiting list position by Nov. 20.

"It's a very quick turnaround this year. All of that information has to be converted into (controlled) choice, so they know what schools those people are coming out of," said Christine Lowry, supervisor of magnet and fundamental school programs.

Magnet and fundamental programs are popular, Ms. Lowry said.

"They are very unique in terms of the way the program is designed. For instance, in a magnet program, you will have a focus area like the arts or math and science and those things are not necessarily the focus of a regular elementary school," she said.

Parents like fundamental schools with their strict guidelines because they are predictable, she added.

Additionally, Ms. Lowry said, "What parents like about the fundamental schools is that they are small, and small schools are very popular."

Last year, there were 661 applications from black students for 272 spaces in elementary magnet and fundamental schools and 2,481 applications from nonblack students for 774 openings.

In the middle schools, there were 281 applications from black students for 195 openings and 1,526 applications from nonblack students for 882 openings, she said.

At the high school level, there were 445 applications from black students for 263 openings and 3,579 applications from nonblack students for 1,286 openings.

For both magnet and fundamental programs, students are allowed to apply to more than one school.