The board overrode a district ruling that students applying to the new school would lose their magnet seats.
By THOMAS C. TOBIN
Published February 25, 2004
LARGO - Students in Pinellas County's magnet high school programs will be able to apply for a new charter high school without losing their magnet seats, a School Board majority decided Tuesday.
The board's informal vote overrides a decision by district administrators, who had ruled that magnet students who simply applied to the new school sponsored by St. Petersburg College automatically would lose their coveted magnet seats at the end of the year.
The administrators said they had based their decision on a School Board policy approved in 2001.
A board majority interpreted the policy differently. They said the policy's intent was that magnet students would not lose their seats until they accept seats in the charter school.
The distinction is important because the charter school has about 180 applicants for 150 spots, and the seats will be filled through a lottery. Thirty-eight applicants are magnet students. The deadline for applications is March 1.
Under the interpretation advanced by administrators, applicants from magnet programs would have no guarantee of getting into the charter school while also losing their existing magnet seats. For next school year, they would have been forced to apply for seats wherever the district had room.
The new school, called St. Petersburg Collegiate High School, will allow students to earn a standard diploma and a two-year associate's degree in the time it would take to graduate from high school. Because it's a public school, the degree would be gained at no charge to the student.
The board's decision applies only to this year's applicants at the charter school. The board plans to review its policies for magnet and fundamental schools across the district.
Board members Mary Brown and Lee Benjamin spoke against the board's action, as did superintendent Howard Hinesley and School Board attorney John Bowen.
