schoolsearch: Magnet schools offer specialized education

Magnet schools offer specialized education

The trick is getting in. Magnet programs are open to students throughout the county, regardless of where they live.

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

Magnet schools offer a curriculum of intensive study. Unlike most elementary and middle school students, who will be restricted to one of the new attendance areas, magnet students will be able to attend any magnet program in the county.

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

As at the elementary level, magnet programs in middle schools offer intensive study in specialized fields. The county has only two magnet middle schools. They are Bay Point (the Center for Advancement of the Sciences and Technology) and John Hopkins (the Center for the Arts and Communication Studies). Both are in St. Petersburg.

Magnet programs at both the elementary and middle school level are open to students throughout the county, regardless of where they live. Similar to other levels, elementary school students must fill out an application for the program. They must be recommended for the Ridgecrest gifted program. Eligibility for middle school programs depends on achievement test scores and grade point averages in elementary school, with preference 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 or are the children of full-time Pinellas school district staff at the schools to which they have applied also are given priority. Parents may increase the chances of their child getting into one of these programs by applying to more than one school. Graduating middle school magnet students receive no special consideration when applying for enrollment in a high school magnet.

High school magnet programs 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.

Applications for both programs will be due earlier than usual this year. The forms, available at a variety of 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 or placed on a waiting list the week of Nov. 10. Students must accept their invitation or waiting list position by Nov. 20, said Christine Lowry, supervisor of magnet and fundamental school programs.

Ms. Lowry said last year there were 661 black applicants for 272 spaces in elementary magnet and fundamental schools and 2,481 non-black applicants for 774 openings.

For middle school magnet and fundamental programs, there were 281 black applicants for 195 openings and 1,526 non-black applicants for 882 openings.

At the high school level, there were 445 black applicants for 263 openings and 3,579 non-black applicants for 1,286 openings.

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