Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
MELANIE AVEStudents have until Jan. 9 to return the forms listing their top choices. So far, schools have heard back from only 1 percent of those eligible.
TAMPA - The first week of Hillsborough County's school choice application period ended Friday, but only a few of the 50,000 applications that were mailed have been returned.
School officials said they received about 300 this week, bringing the total turned in to about 600, or 1 percent of those eligible.
One possible holdup could be mail delivery. Many parents have yet to receive applications through the mail.
"That's out of our hands," said Beleria Floyd, the district's choice supervisor, who still has not received hers. "That's the post office."
The applications, which are included in green, 11-page booklets, began going out this week through bulk mail, considered a lesser priority by the U.S. Postal Service than first-class mail.
Workers at the district's seven Parent Resource Centers said they have been receiving more phone calls and visitors since the application period began Saturday, but it's far from a stampede.
Terrie Dodson, choice specialist at the parent center at Pierce Middle School, said she has seen between five and 10 visitors a day.
"It's a pretty steady flow of parents," she said. "They're very knowledgeable."
"It's picking up," said Ella Rood, a data processor at the parent center at Robles Elementary School.
Although most students don't have to choose schools, thousands are eligible.
The controlled choice plan, an alternative to assigning children to neighborhood schools, eventually will end three decades of busing for desegregation. It begins in the 2004-05 school year, but families must make their choices in the next two months if they want to participate.
The 50,000 eligible students have until Jan. 9 to return choice applications ranking their top three schools within seven geographic regions.
Students are not guaranteed their first choices. They will be assigned by a computerized lottery based on where they live and the space available in their chosen schools.
Those who can participate in choice's first year include students entering kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades assigned to neighborhood schools and who live in so-called "regions," and students of all grades who live in "zones," typically urban areas in which many children are bused for desegregation.
Most students can stay at their current schools without filling out applications. Those who must indicate whether they are staying or going elsewhere are the students who are bused for desegregation. If they don't, school officials will choose schools for them.
In addition to choice applications, bused students and students on special assignment are receiving "intent to return" forms.
The forms must be returned by Dec. 12 if parents want their children "grandfathered" into their existing schools. Otherwise, they forfeit their spots.
For more information, call the district's choice information line at 272-4692 or visit www.sdhc.k12.fl.us
- Melanie Ave can be reached at melanie@sptimes.com or 226-3400.