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ST. PETERSBURG - They've launched a television advertising campaign, are mailing oversized postcards and tacking up fliers at grocery stores.
It's the final, frantic push by organizers of the Bay Village Center for Education Inc. - the long envisioned Pinellas County charter middle school - to try to meet a deadline for opening this school year.
Under its contract with the Pinellas County School Board, the new school must register 60 students by June 19. If that happens, the school could open on Aug. 5 with the rest of the county's public schools. Late last week, it was assured of 26, with an additional 13 in various stages of completing the enrollment process.
Marcia McGhee, chairwoman of the school's board of directors, and her colleagues are confident that they will be able to enroll as many as 100 sixth-graders in the inaugural class, she said.
"The people who have come to us have been so enthusiastic. They have asked great questions and listened to our spiel and gone away and said they're going to tell their friends about it," she said.
"We've had three parents who came and offered to volunteer. That kind of enthusiasm keeps us going," she added.
"We feel the closer it gets to school opening, there will still be time for people to register. There are parents who are still trying to figure out choice," said McGhee, referring to the new system being introduced this fall to encourage voluntary integration of area schools.
"Controlled choice," which will replace court-ordered busing for desegregation, is meant to give parents of all races a chance to select the schools their children attend.
Under its contract with the Pinellas school district, the nonprofit Bay Village Center for Education will have to adhere to the same court-ordered racial ratios as other public schools.
Registration for the school, which will be based at Maximo Presbyterian Church, 3200 58th Ave. S, has been taking place on Wednesday evenings, but with time running short, organizers hope to enroll students 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday, or any other time by appointment, McGhee said.
The school is promoting its small classes, traditional curriculum and, in a year when starting times for public schools have become particularly contentious, a starting time of 8 a.m. McGhee said parents who have inquired about Bay Village like the idea of a small school.
"They are really concerned about their 11- and 12-year-olds going into the large middle schools. They are looking for the small atmosphere," she said.
The school is attracting a diverse body of students, she added.
"They're coming from everywhere. So far, we are not finding that our kids are being pulled from any one school. That's what the (Pinellas School) board was concerned about," she said.
Several parents will send their children to the Pinellas Point neighborhood school from their homes in northern Pinellas County, she said.
McGhee said some homeschoolers are interested, too. "We have at least three that I can think of who have done homeschooling and are looking for a small campus atmosphere before their kids go into high school ... and will drive their kids to get it," she said.
Kathy Walker, student assignment director for Pinellas schools, says children who apply to Bay Village will not lose their place at their assigned schools if the charter school fails to open as planned.
"Those children are not in jeopardy," she said.
But, said Walker, students will have to make a choice at the beginning of the school year.
"Whatever path you choose, you forfeit the other seat," she said.
Bay Village's charter calls for an eventual enrollment of 300 children, far fewer than the 750 initially envisioned. During its first year, it will accept up to 100 sixth-grade students. It will add a grade and 100 students each year to grade 8.
The school's founders, among whom are former St. Petersburg City Council member Larry Williams and McGhee, who had a career as a social worker in suburban Chicago high schools, hope this will be the year that the school gets off the ground. The board is being expanded and plans are being made to hire a principal by the end of June, Mrs. McGhee said.
If it opens, the school will become one of five charter schools in Pinellas County. Although they are operated by private groups, charter schools receive public money and are considered public schools.
- For information about the Bay Village Center for Education Inc., call (727) 864-2272.