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Lines, limited options

With school about to start, Pinellas parents just now making decisions face a daunting process.

After spending several hours Thursday signing up his daughter for kindergarten, Troy Lewis spotted a friend in the crowd at the St. Petersburg Family Education and Information Center.

"How you doing?" Lewis called to Lelanda Williams, who had just strolled in. Happily, she was next in line to speak to a school district official.

"This is the just the first step," Lewis said. "Then you take a number and wait for two hours."

Williams decided to leave and come back in the morning.

As the debut of Pinellas County's new school choice system nears, nearly 1,000 people headed Thursday to one of the district's two Family Education and Information Centers. Their goal: to sort out where their child should go on Tuesday, the first day of school.

For many, the visit was a dreadful marathon that could not be avoided.

It was virtually impossible to get through on the telephone. And most unfinished business must be handled at the two information centers.

At the St. Petersburg Center, the air conditioner struggled to keep a lunchtime crowd of 50 cool. It was hard for newcomers to know where to start, and no way of telling when you might be finished.

"You know what it reminds me of - that voting fiasco where everybody made fun of Florida," said Louise Garcia, who recently moved to St. Petersburg from Wisconsin. She spent nearly three hours at the center Thursday, but left reasonably satisfied.

School officials viewed the crowds as a sign that the first day of school may not be as chaotic as feared since many of the problems are being taken care of now. Others saw the scene as a harbinger of things to come.

Either way, parents were told to bring everything they need to the centers - including a healthy dose of patience.

"I don't know why you can't go to the school near where you live," said Gerald Randall, who recently moved to Pinellas. He spent nearly four hours at the center Thursday signing up his son for high school.

The choice system was created as the school district's transition out of a three-decades old system of busing for desegregation. For four years the district will offer parents a choice of schools, while still adhering to racial caps at south county schools.

Those caps mean many families won't get the schools they chose.

School officials say most Pinellas parents are in good shape. They know which school their child will attend next week. They know when the school bus will show up. They have class schedules.

That has been one of the recurring incongruities of the new system - most families are largely unaffected. For them, school will start without a hitch. But for thousands of others, the new system is a bureaucratic nightmare keeping their child from the school they want. And at this late date, the selection of available schools is very limited.

The crowds showed up early at the St. Petersburg center. At least 40 people were waiting outside the doors when it opened at 8 a.m.

Several parents had young children with them. The kids sat along the curb or chased lizards through the bushes while they waited.

Some people recognized parents they had seen there on previous visits. They compared notes about how many times they've been to the center and how many hours they've spent trying to get their children's assignments processed.

Some had to make repeat trips.

Shawna Lambert went to the center early Wednesday afternoon, thinking it wouldn't take more than an hour to register her son for kindergarten. She started to worry when a center volunteer said she would have to wait outside because there were more people in the building than fire regulations allowed.

"I had no idea it was going to be this packed," she said when she returned Thursday morning.

But some parents said their visit to the center was surprisingly smooth.

"It took me less than 10 minutes," said Lacheriyon Wilson of St. Petersburg, who signed up her three children. She brought what she needed and showed up in midafternoon when the lines were not quite so long.

Around noon, the center was packed. At the doorway into the waiting room, Lisa O'Connell turned to Gerald Randall and asked, "Do you know what number they're on?"

"Fifty-two, I believe," Randall replied.

"Fifty-two? Oh my God,' said Sarah Shields, standing nearby. Shields looked down at the slip of paper with her number: 68.

- Staff writer Lorri Helfand contributed to this report.