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THOMAS C. TOBINFrom computerized school designation to family preference rules, picking a school can be a daunting assignment.
A child's educational path in Pinellas public schools is partly left to chance and partly up to circumstance.
The district's computerized selection process for "choice attendance area schools" randomly assigns every student a number. The number determines which students at each school are at the front of the line for seats. But first the computer considers several "preferences" that give certain students an advantage.
Some call this process the "choice lottery" or the "computer match."
It takes place in mid January at district headquarters in Largo. Based on past experience, Pinellas students have almost an 80 percent chance of getting their first choice school and a near-90 percent chance of getting one of their first two choices.
An unlucky 10 percent won't get any of their first three choices. Most in that group will have gotten none of their five choices.
For these students, the options are to sweat it out on a waiting list for weeks or months, pick a less desired school or raid the savings and go to private school.
Here are some of the preferences that play such a large role in the selection process:
GRANDFATHERING: This is the right given students to continue through the highest grade at the school they are in. It allows them to stay in the school even after they move, provided the new address is in the same attendance area. Those who use this preference do not take part in the random computer selection.
EXTENDED GRANDFATHERING: This is a privilege available only to students who were attending Pinellas public schools on or before June 6, 2001, and who have not moved. It gives them the ability to bypass the choice system by reserving their seats at their old zoned schools. Thus it preserves the academic track they were entitled to pursue into middle and high school had the choice plan not come along, but under these conditions:
To maintain eligibility for extended grandfathering, students must not have moved since June 6, 2001. They also must be attending and continue to attend their zoned school, a magnet or fundamental program, a school on a professional courtesy special attendance permit or a special program that is not offered at the student's zoned school. Any student who withdraws from the district or leaves a program midway loses extended grandfathering.
Students who don't have extended grandfathering or don't want to use it must apply for a school when entering their next level. This year, the district expects applications from thousands of fifth- and eighth-graders who won't qualify for extended grandfathering when they enter middle and high school in 2005-06.
Those who use the extended grandfathering preference do not take part in the random computer selection.
FAMILY: This preference is designed to get students who live in the same household into the same school. The choice system's new "Family Preference Application" allows parents to link the applications of children in the same family. The computer attempts to place them in the same school, provided there is room.
PROXIMITY: This sets aside seats for students who live near their first-choice school, provided there is room. After all the students with grandfathering privileges and family preferences are placed into a school, 35 percent of the available seats will go to students who claim the proximity preference. The computer will give each of those students a computer-generated number that describes the distance from their home address to their first-choice school. Priority will be given to those who live closest.
DIVERSITY: Every Pinellas school has a diversity goal. One of those goals is that no school's enrollment may be more than 42 percent black. Schools also must have a minimum number of black students based on the racial makeup of their attendance areas.
The diversity preference can be used to help a school meet its goal, for example giving admission priority to black students at a school that is heavily white. It also would give priority to white students at a school that is close to exceeding the 42 percent cap for black students.