Tampabay: Parents commit to school picks

[Times photo: Cherie Diez]
Kathy Walker of Pinellas schools stands to help two families with choice paperwork Monday in St. Petersburg. Seated at left are Colleen Skladanowski and son, Thomas, 4. Seated at right is Whitney Porter. Her husband, Joseph, stands with their son Tyson, 2.

By KELLY RYAN GILMER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 17, 2002

View related 10 News video
56k | High-Speed

Michael Black's wife was eager to take care of their daughter's school choice application. She wanted him to arrive at a district office to fill out paperwork at 7:30 a.m. Monday -- 30 minutes before it opened.

Instead, he arrived at St. Petersburg's Family Education and Information Center just after 8 a.m. He bent over the application, studying every word before he filled in boxes. He picked Bauder Elementary School as the first choice for his daughter Rebeccah, who will enter kindergarten next fall.

"It's a little overwhelming," Black said. "I just want to make sure I don't make a mistake. My wife will kill me."

Black was one of several hundred parents to descend on the Pinellas school district's two family centers on Monday, the official beginning of the school choice application process. The process ends Dec. 13, when all paperwork is due. (Except for magnet and fundamental school applications, which are due Oct. 15.)

District administrators answered questions and helped parents fill out choice applications. They also took constructive criticism and tried to calm parents angry about the new system, which replaces neighborhood zoning. In addition to the six full-time workers at each center, eight temporary employees helped answer phones and greet parents.

School officials were pleased that so many parents, especially those new to the district, wanted to get their applications done on the first day. They were impressed that despite widespread confusion about choice, dozens of parents were prepared with birth certificates, old report cards and proof of address.

"The first guy who came in this morning said it was relatively painless," said Susan Avery, the supervisor of Clearwater's family center. "Yeah!"

After applications were finished, parents were asked to fill out a survey about how well the family centers worked. As a reward, each parent received a coupon for a free Chick-fil-A sandwich.

But it wasn't just free chicken that made parents happy. For the most part, they said, the district provided the information they needed and the applications were simple to fill out.

The ones who seemed most comfortable with choice and who took glitches in stride were families with incoming kindergarteners, who didn't know the old system of neighborhood zoning.

Which schools were they picking? Most wanted schools close to home. Some had visited schools, but others were relying on reputation and recommendations from friends.

"It seems easy," said Heather Canny, picking out a St. Petersburg elementary school for her 4-year-old son. "At least so far."

There were difficult moments and questions that stumped.

Helga Hoppes was angry that her daughter, who attends private school, has no guarantee to attend St. Petersburg High School. Jennifer Molaskey was frustrated that she couldn't get a straight answer about her son's chance of getting into Bay Point Elementary School in St. Petersburg from a waiting list.

"They referred me to the magnet office, and the magnet office referred me here," said Molaskey, who waited 30 minutes to meet with a family center employee. "Now you understand why I've washed my hands of the public school system."

Sally Kastes pointed out that the application did not clearly explain the "family preference," which allows students who live in the same house to attend school together. She wanted to take advantage of it for her twin daughters who are entering high school, but was initially (incorrectly) told she could not.

"If I'm struggling with it, I'm thinking that somebody else must be," she said.

Judy Mattis never got a declaration of intent for her son Scott because the family recently moved. So Mattis visited a family center to watch an employee enter her choices into the district's student information system.

She wanted to be sure she could secure her son's spot at Seminole High School, where he attends now.

"If you don't turn in that letter of intent, you could fall through the cracks," Mattis said. "And I didn't want to."