TAMPA - Today marks the official, and historic, beginning of the controlled choice application period for Hillsborough County public school students.
The choice plan, an alternative to assigning children to neighborhood schools, will eventually end three decades of busing for desegregation. It begins next fall, in the 2004-2005 school year, but families must make their choices in the next two months if they want to participate.
Its main purpose? To keep schools racially diverse without busing.
"This is indeed an important date because it signifies the opportunity for parents to choose where their son or daughter will go to school," said superintendent Earl Lennard. "It puts choice into the hands of the community."
Despite the historic significance of the choice application period, it's starting with more of a fizzle than a bang. Parents can do little until they have applications in hand.
That won't be for a few days.
Applications and 11-page booklets will be mailed next week to the 50,000 students eligible to participate in the choice plan's inaugural year, about one-third of the county's 180,000 enrollment.
Though most students don't have to choose, thousands are eligible.
Most students can stay at their current schools without filling out an application. The only ones who must indicate whether they are staying or going elsewhere are the 14,000 who are bused for desegregation. If they don't, school officials will pick one for them.
The goal is for black children to pick schools in white neighborhoods and white children to attend schools in black neighborhoods because of special course offerings such as magnet programs.
The plan pairs seven regions, which are large, mostly suburban and rural areas, with corresponding zones - urban areas from which minority children have been bused in the past.
The plan offers school choice to students of neighborhood schools in zones if they are entering kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades.
And it lets students of all grades choose if they live in urban "zones" and attend neighborhood schools or live in satellite areas and have been bused for desegregation.
Eligible students have until Jan. 9 to return choice applications ranking their top three schools within their geographic region.
Students are not guaranteed their first choice, but will be assigned by a computerized lottery based on where they live and space available in their chosen schools.
Race will not be a consideration, but preference will be given to students who live in regions who apply to zone schools and zone students who apply to region schools.
Special courses, such as technology and the arts, will also be offered to entice enrollment at some schools through programs called "attractors."
Bus transportation will be provided to at least three schools in each region.
The reason the assignment of students to schools is changing and busing is ending is because a federal appeals court in 2001 declared Hillsborough free of segregation. In preparation, the School Board one year earlier approved its choice plan.
The board's only black member, Doris Ross Reddick, voted against the plan, saying its expectations are unrealistic.
Hillsborough is joining a growing number of school districts across the country, including Pinellas, which are adopting voluntary measures like choice plans to achieve school desegregation.
The choice plan is the largest alteration in the way children are assigned to schools in Hillsborough since busing began in 1971.
Despite the choice plan's sweeping nature, interest in it has been less than overwhelming.
At seven school showcases held around the county last month, only 1,375 families attended, less than 3 percent of those eligible. There have also been few visitors to the seven Parent Resource Centers.
"I can't say it's very, very busy," said Stacy Borders, who staffs the Region 7 center at Robles Elementary. "It comes and it goes. I'd say it's mediocre."
Beleria Floyd, Hillsborough's choice supervisor, said she thinks interest will increase with the beginning of the application period, but she's unsure of how many people will decide to switch schools.
"A lot of people are electing to stay where they are," she said.
One of those may be Vicky Kidd, whose son Michael Howard is in second grade at Robles Elementary. She's leaning toward keeping him at the school even though she still would like more information about choice.
"I know about it, I've seen it on the news," she said. "I still want to know, how does this affect me?"
One of the biggest hurdles the school district faces is getting the word out to families of children who are bused for desegregation, the very children who must choose a school or be assigned one. Workers went door-to-door this summer to survey the parents but faced difficulty in finding many. They will start knocking on doors again in December.
Ads will start running in the coming weeks in newspapers and on radio and television stations - many of them geared toward minority parents.
"If parents read local newspapers and watch local stations, they're going to see references to choice," said Donnie Evans, Hillsborough's chief academic officer who is overseeing the implementation of choice.
Workers at the resource centers said they've seen a steady number of visitors and callers, even if the numbers are small.
The most popular question? If I'm happy with my school, do I have to choose?
The answer is no for most students. But the bused students and the 17,000 students on special assignment will be asked to take home a separate "intent to return" form next week, which could be confused with the choice applications.
On the forms, they are asked whether their child will return to his school next year. The forms must be returned by Dec. 12 if parents want their children "grandfathered" into their existing schools. Otherwise, they forfeit their spots.
Some parents already have decided to get a jump on the process. About 300 applications have been turned in early.
One of those belongs to Angelette Harvey, a North Tampa saleswoman who is happy to see busing end for many black children like her 4-year-old grandson, Michael Reed. She hopes to get him in Witter or Shaw elementary schools when he begins kindergarten in August.
"I think it's good for parents to have that choice," she said. "I definitely don't want my grandbaby going to a school far out."
Despite criticism from some parents that there's no room in the schools they want, some appreciate the attempt at offering choices.
Lisa Panteliodis already has picked three high schools for her Webb Middle School son, Alex, who is entering ninth grade and is assigned to Leto. She ranked their choices: Alonso, Sickles and Leto. They were sold on Alonso's sign language classes since two family members are deaf and even more sold on the choice plan, even though they know their chance of getting into Alonso may be small.
"I think choice is great," she said. "You're not just limited to one high school. It's not like when I was growing up and they said this is it, this is what you have to do."
