Earlier this month, an Atlanta woman with three school-age children looked for a new home in East Lake and Palm Harbor, then decided to shop in Hillsborough County.
Her problem, according to Largo-based real estate agent Lloyd James Brown: the Pinellas school choice plan.
"We tell (clients) the situation here currently is somewhat chaotic," said Brown, who has learned to tread lightly on the subject of choice, especially with out-of-towners.
Later, he confessed to more frustration: "When people talk to me and start asking me about schools, I almost don't know what to say."
The seismic shift in the way Pinellas assigns children to schools is rippling through the local home sales industry in ways large and small.
Some, like Brown, say the plan is scaring away buyers unwilling to gamble on the choice plan's "lottery" process for placing kids in schools.
Others say choice is discouraging families from selling their homes. If they sell, they could lose the "extended grandfathering" privilege that lets them keep their kids on track to attend the same schools as under the pre-choice system.
In interviews with real estate professionals, all agreed on a universal truth: Choice has dramatically altered the conversation between agent and buyer. Where once a detailed discussion about schools was central to the home-buying transaction, today the topic is shunned.
The choice plan's provisions are so complicated that agents fear lawsuits from buyers if they explain it incorrectly. They said they now steer clients to the school district for even the smallest questions about schools.
Some are requiring buyers to sign disclaimers saying they were fully informed about the choice process.
"It is too complex to be completely clear about," said Sue Flaig, a veteran agent with Coldwell Banker in Clearwater.
Bucking the odds
It's important to note what school choice isn't doing: Economic development leaders say it isn't hurting their efforts to attract companies here. And agents say it has not significantly slowed a strong market driven by low interest rates, a small inventory of homes and the knowledge that real estate may now be a better investment than stocks.
But when agents send clients to the school district for information about choice, some return wanting more information. "We can't give it," Flaig said. "It's too big a liability."
District officials say they would rather explain choice than have the agents do it.
"We really don't want any misrepresentations," said Andrea Zahn, the choice communications director who has met with local agents numerous times.
The biggest issue for buyers is the choice lottery - a foreign concept for people accustomed to a guarantee that the public school near their home will make room for their child.
In promoting the plan, Pinellas officials note that 87 percent of the 18,954 students who participated in the choice lottery got their first or second choice. But the odds sound less enticing when expressed in other ways.
Almost one in four students did not get their first choice.
One in 10 got none of their top three choices.
One in 14 - or almost 1,300 students - got none of their five choices, a fact that astounds Brown.
"That's crazy. I don't understand how that happens," said Brown, the Largo real estate agent. "There's no guarantee for anybody moving in here."
The uncertainty buyers feel is frustrating, said Beverly Jackson-Garnett, a relocation specialist for Smith & Associates in St. Petersburg. "How do we sell that to our clients?"
Said Flaig: "It is a discouraging factor for parents." And in a world where parents are more savvy than ever about schools, she said, that can tilt a wavering buyer toward a neighboring county.
Gale Silbermann, a Clearwater attorney who works on residential real estate transactions, has personal experience with choice, having battled the district for weeks over the placement of her son, Jacob, in kindergarten.
Silbermann got her fifth choice, South Ward Elementary in Clearwater, which is 10 miles from her Safety Harbor home.
"How is this a benefit that you're in a crapshoot?" Silbermann asked. "I can't imagine that anybody from out of town would move to Pinellas County if they wanted to go to public school."
Dave Edwards, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker in Palm Harbor, said he polled 20 to 30 agents in his office about choice. "It affected everybody," he said.
He recalled two instances in which buyers were torn between Pinellas and Pasco counties and chose Pasco because of choice. But like other agents, he said it has not cut into overall sales.
Most buyers new to choice recover "once they understand what it's all about," said Alan N. Riley, a Seminole agent and chairman-elect of the Pinellas Realtor Organization.
"Sunshine and beaches tend to cover a lot of problems," he said.
House arrest
More difficult to decipher is the impact from the estimated 40,000 students who retain the "extended grandfathering" option. Because of the strong incentive it offers to avoid the choice lottery by not moving, thousands of Pinellas families are theoretically tethered to their homes until their kids enter high school.
Some agents refer to it as choice's "house arrest" provision.
Like many areas, Pinellas has relatively few homes on the market these days. Choice could be one reason, said Lucile Casey, a Clearwater real estate agent and former School Board member.
The shortage is a mixed blessing. Prices are higher and homes sell faster. But "we're all going crazy trying to find buyers places to buy," Casey said.
Zahn, the district official, downplays the "house arrest" factor, noting the rate of students moving into, out of and within the district remains at about 30 percent.
"Things happen that cause people to move," Zahn said. "I don't see that changing."
As for the lottery, Zahn said she advises parents buying homes to think more broadly than one neighborhood school. She tells them to study the attendance boundaries that divide the county. She tells parents of young children to think ahead and consider the boundaries for middle schools, which are different than the elementary lines.
Despite its drawbacks, some agents said choice can be sold to home buyers as a plan that provides flexibility. A family, for example, can move within an attendance area without changing schools. It also can help students discover unheralded programs, such as the music conservatory program at Tarpon High School.
"There are positives to the program," said Edwards, the agent with Coldwell Banker.
Jim Smith, the Pinellas property appraiser, said the impact of choice on real estate is difficult to measure. Even if you pinpointed a drop in values somewhere, "how would you pick (choice) as the reason?"
A better read on choice's impact might take two or three cycles, said Russ Sloan, president and chief executive of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce.
"I don't want people to be needlessly concerned going into this," he said. "The majority of people are going to get their first choice, and I do think that competition (among schools) will ultimately improve."
In other big districts without choice, he argued, "kids are trapped into mediocrity."
Yet some in Pinellas feel trapped by choice.
One of them is Rachael Albritton, who moved to St. Petersburg in February to live with her parents while her husband serves in Iraq with the U.S. Army. Because she arrived after the choice deadline, her third-grade daughter was placed in a different school for next year. She faces a long bus ride from the Tyrone area to Maximo Elementary.
Albritton is not buying a home, but her fate illustrates the predicament of many new arrivals and how they might react. Rather than deal with choice, she is leaving soon for Oklahoma, near her husband's Army base.
"I don't think I need to fight for my child to go to a school that is close by," she said. "I would just rather go back to a place where she can go to a school with kids that live by her."
- Times staff writer Matthew Waite contributed to this story.
New to the area?
Families who move to Pinellas County this summer and want to enroll children in a public school must go through the following steps:
- Visit one of the two family education centers listed below and bring: a certified copy of your child's birth certificate or other proof of birth; proof of residency; the child's Social Security number; and a recent report card for children entering first through 12th grades.
- The staff at the education center will assign your child to a school where seats are available in your attendance area.
- Go to your child's assigned school to complete the registration process and bring: a Florida Certificate of Immunization; a physical examination form signed by a licensed examiner within the last year; and a recent report card. Registration for elementary schools opens July 14. Contact middle and high schools individually for their registration dates.
- The two family education centers are at 1101 Marshall St. in Clearwater, 727-298-2858; and 3420 Eighth Ave. S in St. Petersburg, 727-552-1595.
- NOTE: Any time a family with children in public schools moves within Pinellas County, it is a good idea to report the change to one of the education centers. Officials need the information for several reasons, including to plan bus routes.
