schoolsearch: Middle schools tout themes to attract students

Middle schools tout themes to attract students

From atmosphere to after-school activities, schools are promoting their features and trying to stand out from the rest.

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

Beginning next school year, Pinellas County middle school students will have a greater say in the school they attend.

Attendance areas, each containing many schools, are designed for the new system of controlled choice. They will replace current neighborhood zones.

For middle school students, there will be three attendance areas, and students will be able to apply to schools within their area. To attract students, schools are offering themed programs.

Riviera Middle School, for instance, is touting its "advanced academic classes at all levels and an acclaimed band program." The school also is promoting its "nurturing family atmosphere that emphasizes safe learning" and after-school activities. In addition, Riviera has a business partnership with Catalina Marketing that supports its technology program.

Azalea Middle School plans to integrate themes of health, wellness and environmental studies into its curriculum. The program will allow students to follow a three-year plan that will expand to let them explore careers in health and wellness services and global environmental issues.

Students must apply for the schools they want between Monday and Dec. 13. They will know whether their choices have been granted in January. Applications are made by computer, based on such criteria as residence, school capacity and court-ordered racial percentages.

Students in public middle schools also can choose to attend magnet or fundamental schools. These programs, with one exception, are open to students countywide. Those applications must be in by Oct. 15.

Magnet programs offer intensive study in specialized fields. There are two magnet middle schools in Pinellas County: 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 also are two countywide fundamental middle schools: Southside Fundamental Middle School in St. Petersburg and Coachman Fundamental Middle School in Clearwater. Thurgood Marshall Middle School in St. Petersburg, which will open in the fall of 2003, will offer a fundamental-style curriculum. 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.

Fundamental schools emphasize student responsibility, homework, discipline and a strict dress code. Parental involvement is a must, and children can lose their places in the program if either they or their parents fail to comply with the program's guidelines.

Admission to magnet and fundamental programs depends on achievement test scores and grade point averages, 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 and fundamental schools or are the children of full-time Pinellas School District staff members at the same school also are given priority for admission.

Parents can increase the chances of their child getting into one of these programs by applying to more than one school. Graduating middle school magnet students do not receive special consideration for high school magnet programs.

Last year, there were 281 applications from black students for 195 openings and 1,526 applications from nonblack students for 882 openings in the county's middle schools, said Christine Lowry, the supervisor of magnet and fundamental school programs. (Students are allowed to apply to more than one school.)

There also are special programs for gifted students. Beginning in the sixth grade, mathematically gifted students are eligible for the Mathematics Education for Gifted Secondary School Students program, while the Integrated Mathematics and Science with Technology program is offered in most schools to gifted seventh- and eighth-grade students. Students must meet qualifications to be accepted into the programs.

There are no charter schools for middle school students. What was to be the district's first charter middle school, the Bay Village Center for Education Inc., did not open this year as planned. The school did not find a suitable location in time to recruit students. School organizers have said they wanted to offer an alternative to large middle schools.

Public middle schools also offer specialized programs such as honors classes in math or foreign languages as well as a variety of after-school activities. The district also has programs for at-risk students. Lealman Intermediate in St. Petersburg and Clearwater Intermediate serve fifth- through eighth-graders who need intense academic help to reach their grade level.

Public middle schools generally run from sixth through eighth grades.

* * *

-- Times staff writer Donna Winchester contributed to this report.