schoolsearch: This year, you must choose

This year, you must choose

By Times staff writer
© St. Petersburg Times

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published September 15, 2002

Welcome to School Search.

For the seventh year, we are devoting an entire issue to the important task of picking the right school for your child.

This year, more than ever, keep one verb in mind: choose.

If you don't choose a school, it will be done for you. And that is a big change.

Seldom have the stakes been higher. The Pinellas school system has undergone a revolution called "controlled choice." It means that parents have many more choices, but it also means that they have to do something -- even if they want their children to stay right where they are.

To help you sort things out, we list schools, we explain the different offerings and programs at each level from kindergarten through senior high school, we print test scores -- and grades -- for each of the schools, we talk to folks who have been through all of this and can now offer advice, and we suggest some strategies to pick what is best for you.

In the end, though, the choice is yours.

One piece of advice: Go see for yourself. No amount of reading will make up for what you can learn by actually visiting a school. Trust your instincts.

Assume nothing, even about the basics. Don't assume there is recess -- public schools have organized physical education, but not recess. Don't assume that lunch is at noon. Some eat as early as 10:15 a.m. Don't assume schools wait until sunrise to start class. Public high schools begin at 7:20 a.m.

Don't hesitate to raise basic questions. Right now is the time to do so.

Ask around. Ask friends, relatives, neighbors and co-workers about schools.

The more you know, the better your chances of making a good choice.

Start right away. If you have a child in public school, you have probably received a letter called a Declaration of Intent from the school district. Your answer to that letter is due Oct. 1. Applications for choice schools become available Monday. Deadlines for magnet and fundamental programs are only a month away -- Oct. 15. And the deadline for applying to a choice school is Dec. 13. After that, the district will put your child where space is available. (Don't know what a choice school or a magnet or a fundamental school is? Don't worry. School Search tells you.)

We have tried to organize the material logically by assembling a step-by-step guide for gathering information about each kind of school.

We hope the information helps makes sense of it all. But don't delay. Deadlines loom. Happy searching!