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DONNA WINCHESTEROpportunity motivated them to try schools south of Central. An enriching experience made them glad they did.
ST. PETERSBURG - Leslie Gunther's family had lived in south Pinellas for five generations before she got to know one of its oldest neighborhoods.
It wasn't until the Snell Isle resident decided to send her children to Perkins Elementary School on 18th Avenue S that she ventured into the part of town referred to - often in a derogatory way - as the "south side."
She did so with trepidation. She'd heard tales of litter-strewn streets, out-of-work men loitering on corners and drug deals going down in broad daylight.
Eleven years later, Gunther is glad she wasn't put off by the horror stories. Her sons, Elliot and Parker, went to Perkins through fifth grade, then transferred to John Hopkins Middle School, also south of Central Avenue. Parker is now a seventh-grader at Hopkins. Elliot attends St. Petersburg High.
Besides getting a good education, the boys were exposed to cultural experiences they may not have had if they had gone to schools north of Central, Gunther said in a phone interview Friday.
At the same time, she said, her world expanded. She met parents from different walks of life and found she had a talent for mentoring when she began working with a girl born and raised in Midtown.
Magnet and fundamental schools are designed to attract children into predominantly black, poorer neighborhoods to desegregate schools voluntarily. A side effect is to draw parents into neighborhoods they would otherwise seldom see. For the parents, it can be just as much an education as for their children. And not all of the people coming from elsewhere are white.
Experiences such as Gunther's are not unusual, said Pat Archibald, an assistant principal at Perkins, which is on 22nd Street S, known as the Deuces during the segregation era when the street was the heart of the black community.
Over the years, she has heard similar tales from parents, both black and white, who want their children to attend the popular performing arts magnet but who are wary of venturing into the neighborhood.
In hindsight, Archibald said, they are nearly always glad they took the chance.
"They come back and say things like, "It has been such a wonderful experience. I am so grateful for the world it opened up to me,' " she said.
The same scenario has played out for almost 20 years at another school in the neighborhood. Ever since Lakeview Elementary School at 2229 25th St. S became Lakeview Fundamental in 1985, it has been deluged with applications from black and white parents countywide who want their children to attend the school that enforces strict discipline and requires parental involvement.
And with the opening last August of two new elementary schools south of Central, even more parents are venturing to the predominantly black area between Central and 22nd avenues S.
After attending a discovery night at James B. Sanderlin Elementary School last summer, Linda Worley knew the school at 2350 22nd Ave. S would be a perfect fit for her 5-year-old daughter, Grace. She and her husband, who are white, were not familiar with the area when they decided the school's Primary Years International Baccalaureate Program would be worth the drive from their home near Kenneth City.
A few of Worley's friends thought she was making a mistake.
"People were saying, "It's the south side. You don't want to go down there. It's not safe,' " she said. "But when I toured the school, I went around and toured the neighborhood. I thought, "This is a nice neighborhood.' "
Another white parent, Michelle Bianco, had a similar reaction when she toured the other new elementary school, Douglas L. Jamerson Jr. at 1200 37th St. S. Despite warnings from well-meaning friends who tried to dissuade her, Bianco took her three children out of Sexton Elementary, less than 3 miles from her home in northeast St. Petersburg, and sent them to Jamerson.
Bianco is pleased with the school's math and engineering focus as well as with its racial and economic diversity.
"The neighborhood is not going to make or break my kids," she said. "I have to look beyond that."
Like Gunther, the mom who took a chance on Perkins Elementary more than a decade ago, Ann White grew up in St. Petersburg but never spent much time in the heart of Midtown. The 1983 Lakewood High graduate, who is black, used 22nd Street S as a thoroughfare to other parts of the city.
She said she faced the same tough decision as any parent when it was time to choose a school for her two children.
"African-American parents have the same concerns as white parents about sending their children to neighborhoods they're not familiar with," she said. "For the most part, it's facing the unknown."
Now, with two children at Jamerson, she has learned to appreciate the rich diversity of the neighborhood, a diversity she says she missed in her youth.
"I fought to get my kids into that school," she said. "My children are being exposed to every type of background. They will be able to function in any type of environment."