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First-time kindergarten parents have it the worst. The school system is alien to them, and on top of that, they no longer are told, "You live here, so you go to this elementary school." Instead, they now have to choose from a list of more than 20.
To start, I determined that I lived in Attendance Area A and looked at what was available.
In addition, I applied to all six magnet and fundamental schools in south Pinellas, knowing they all were generally good, and decided to wait until the results came back to worry about them. If a Discovery Night fell at a convenient time, I went, but I didn't break my neck to do it. I figured it might be frustrating to have my heart set on a school and wind up No. 254 on the waiting list.
The hardest part was picking an area school for school choice. We did an extensive spreadsheet using the database on the state's Web site to compare them, at least on paper.
We got the information at the Department of Education Web site, http://fldoe.org/ On the left-hand column, under Resources, click on "For Students and Parents" and you can find school grades and a database called the "School Indicators Report" that lets you compare such things as the percentage of teachers with advanced degrees, the incidence of crime, the percentage of gifted students, the number of suspensions and a host of other variables.
Then I started touring schools, and not necessarily just those near my home. I was intrigued by the Montessori program at Gulfport Elementary and Sanderlin's Primary Years IB program, and later put Gulfport on my list of five.
But we were pleasantly surprised to discover we had a really good school down the street: Northwest Elementary. It is one of those little neighborhood schools with an active PTA and school leadership that knows how to get grant money for special programs and an A on the FCAT.
Then I got my magnet/fundamental report back. We got in at the Melrose communications magnet but had ridiculously high waiting list numbers at Perkins, Lakeview and Pasadena. But we had No. 24 on the waiting list at Bay Vista Fundamental and No. 28 at Bay Point science magnet, which we were told were pretty good.
So we checked out those three schools, and finally decided Bay Vista was the best fit for us.
But the problem was that to stay on the waiting list for Bay Vista, we had to tell Melrose we were turning down our invitation.
That was very hard to do because I really liked that school. And if it were my only choice, I would have had no problem going there.
In turning Melrose down, I worried that I could be throwing away our best deal. Instead, I hoped that we would get into Northwest while holding out for our waiting list at Bay Vista. Two leaps of faith in one move. Ugh!
The gamble worked. We got into Northwest, and my son's name was moving up the list at Bay Vista.
A lot of people wouldn't want to move their kindergartener after school had started. We solved that by telling our son that he was such a terrific kid that two schools wanted him and we might get a call soon from Bay Vista saying would he please, please come. I'm sure it would have worked, but luckily a week before school started, we got the call.
It was a lot of work up front, but now my son is in what I consider one of the top five schools in the city, public or private. His little brother will get in, and they will feed into one of the best middle schools in the county, Southside Fundamental.
With about six months of work, research and worry, we are set for the next nine years with no tuition to scrape together.