schoolsearch: Elementary parents get more to choose from

Elementary parents get more to choose from

[Times photo: James Borchuck]
Carlos DeHaro, 8, left, and his brother Brian, 11, assemble a biology mannequin while helping fifth-grade teacher Earl Manheimer set up his Campbell Park Elementary School classroom.

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

Because parents are often loath to put their young children on a bus, schools hope to lure them with focused programs.

Under controlled choice, which goes into effect in the fall of 2003, Pinellas County parents will have a greater say in where their children attend school. This should bring some relief to parents of elementary school students, who long have complained about their young children's long bus rides under the current system.

Controlled choice will replace neighborhood zoning, which was put into place three decades ago as part of the court-ordered desegregation of Pinellas County schools. Starting next August, instead of being told where to go to school, parents will have a greater say in which elementary schools their children attend. There are four elementary school attendance areas.

Parents must submit applications for the school of their choice between Monday and Dec. 13. Notification of whether they have gotten the school of their choice will be made in January. Selections will be made by computer, based on several criteria, including residence, school capacity and court-ordered racial percentages. (There is a different process -- with an Oct. 15 application deadline -- for magnet and fundamental schools.)

District officials are aware that under this more open system, less popular schools, particularly those in predominantly African-American areas, could be at some disadvantage. The district has built several new schools in these neighborhoods and encouraged schools throughout the county to develop themed programs or "attractors" to sell themselves under the new controlled choice system.

In St. Petersburg, for example, Campbell Park Elementary School is promoting its Marine Sciences Center. Lakewood Elementary School, also in St. Petersburg, is touting its Center of Wellness and Environmental Studies.

Magnet and fundamental schools already offer special programs. These schools will continue to accept students from across the county, regardless of attendance zone. Magnet schools -- three are in St. Petersburg and one is in Largo -- offer intensive study in specialized curriculum.

[Times photo: Michael Rondou]
The main attractor for the Melrose Center for Communications and Mass Media, an elementary magnet program in St. Petersburg, is the journalism class taught by Cynda Mort, right. Here, Mort has second-grader Darion Thompson “fishing for words.”

Fundamental schools emphasize student responsibility, parental involvement, daily homework, strict discipline and a dress code. Parents must attend monthly parent-teacher conferences or risk having their children thrown out of the program. There are three fundamental elementary schools in St. Petersburg, one is in Clearwater and one is in Tarpon Springs.

The chances of going on to a middle magnet or middle fundamental school are enhanced if a child attends one of the programs at the elementary level.

For instance, students from Bay Point Elementary School, a magnet school for math, science, foreign language and technology, generally go on to Bay Point Middle School's Center for Advancement of the Sciences and Technology. Children from the Center for the Arts and International Studies at Perkins Elementary School go to John Hopkins Middle School's Center for the Arts and International Studies. Ridgecrest Elementary School's Center for Gifted Studies, the county's only full-time gifted program, is a feeder to magnet or MEGSSS (Mathematics Education for Gifted Secondary School Students) middle school programs. Bay Vista, Lakeview and Pasadena fundamentals are feeders for Southside Fundamental Middle School.

There also are other public school options for elementary-age children in Pinellas County. Among them are charter schools and programs for special-needs and at-risk children. Partnership schools, which form a relationship with area businesses and are usually on or near the business partner's site, also are available. These schools are usually limited to children of participating businesses.

The district also has schools that operate on an extended year calendar, such as Gulfport Elementary, which is also the only public school in the district that uses the Montessori teaching method.

Pinellas County currently has four charter schools, Academie Da Vinci, for first through fifth grade; Whole Child at the Upper Pinellas Association for Retarded Citizens, a prekindergarten program; Athenian Academy, for children from kindergarten through grade 3; and the newest, Love of Learning, for grades 4 through 6, which opened this year. Although they are operated by private groups, charter schools receive public money and are considered public schools.

Although all elementary schools serve special-needs students, there are several that concentrate solely on meeting the needs of children with physical, mental and learning disabilities. Hamilton Disston Exceptional Student Education Center in Gulfport, Richard L. Sanders Exceptional Student Education Center in Pinellas Park and Calvin Hunsinger Exceptional Student Education Center in Clearwater serve severely emotionally disturbed students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Nina Harris Exceptional Student Education Center in Pinellas Park and Paul B. Stephens Exceptional Student Education Center in Clearwater serve mentally handicapped or autistic students from prekindergarten to age 22.

Public elementary schools in Pinellas County are for children from kindergarten to fifth grade. Most private school programs run from kindergarten through eighth grade.