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Despite the distraction of Hurricane Ivan this past week, families continued to plot their children's educational course for the 2005-06 school year.
Student assignment director Kathy Walker reports that more than 1,000 parents have registered their children at one of the district's Family Education and Information Centers since the application period opened Sept. 1. Most of them have completed applications for choice attendance area schools. About 1,000 calls have been completed for countywide magnet, fundamental or career academy programs, and about 50 parents came out for the first in a series of community information meetings last week.
Choice communications director Andrea Zahn said that some of the most frequently asked questions have easy answers. For example, parents do not have to apply for a school each year. Once a child is assigned to a school, he can remain at the school through the highest grade unless he leaves the school before completing the highest grade.
Also, children can apply only to schools in the attendance area in which they live. There are four such areas for elementary schools, three for middle schools, and one - the entire county - for high schools. Attendance area maps are included in the district's choice information guide, online at www.pinellaschoice.org or in the Times' School Search 2005, online at www.sptimes.com/schoolsearch
One frequently asked question regards family preference, and it's a little more difficult to answer.
First of all, the term "family preference" applies to children living at the same address who attend choice attendance area schools. Even if they are not blood relatives, they get priority over other applicants when applying, although there's no guarantee.
When an older sibling is already attending a choice attendance area school and the younger sibling wants to attend that school, he should complete a family preference application rather than a regular choice application. The family preference application will tie the two children together.
The definition of family is more narrow for magnet, fundamental and career academy programs. To be classified as siblings, children must share a parent or legal guardian or be stepchildren living in the same home.
The sibling priority is applied differently depending on the situation. For example, if an older child already is in the school and will be there the following year, a young sibling who applies will almost certainly get in. But if two siblings are applying at the same time and only one gets in, the other sibling is placed on the sibling waiting list.
Here's something else to keep in mind: If an older sibling is in a countywide program - say the medical magnet at Boca Ciega High - and the younger sibling wants to apply for a choice attendance area seat at Boca Ciega, family preference does not apply. In this case, the younger sibling would use a regular choice application, not a family preference application.
* * *According to the district's choice information guide, a student currently enrolled in a countywide magnet, fundamental or career academy program who applies for a choice attendance area school automatically loses his seat in the countywide program. But what happens if a child in a magnet program uses the automated phone system to apply for a fundamental school? That question was asked recently by a parent with a child in an elementary magnet school.
Here's the answer: Elementary and middle school students currently enrolled in one countywide program can apply to another countywide program without risking anything. The existing countywide seat would be forfeited only when the student accepts an invitation to another countywide seat.
(Here's a caveat: Children cannot hold a seat in one countywide program and be on a waiting list for another. And here's something else to keep in mind: Students in high school magnet programs or career academies who apply to a different magnet or career academy will lose their seat in their current school at the end of the school year, whether they get a seat in the other program or not.)
Why do students in countywide programs forfeit their seats by applying to attendance area schools while students in attendance area schools get to hang on to their seats when they apply to countywide programs?
Let's look at the case of the student in a countywide program first. Suppose she attends Pasadena Fundamental School in St. Petersburg and wants to apply to Northwest Elementary. Without the rule that requires her to forfeit her seat at Pasadena Fundamental, the district would have to put a hold on that seat while she applies to Northwest. She would, in essence, go into the choice lottery with dibs on two seats, which would prevent the district from getting an accurate count of available choice seats.
On the other hand, if an elementary or middle school student in a choice attendance area school such as Northwest applies to a countywide program such as Pasadena Fundamental, he would have to accept the countywide seat, if one were offered, before the choice computer lottery. Once he accepts the countywide seat, his choice attendance application would be canceled, thus eliminating the possibility of him holding two seats when the choice lottery occurs.
* * *One more community information meeting is scheduled from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Monday at John Hopkins Middle School, 701 16th St. S in St. Petersburg. Choice officials will be on hand to answer questions and assist with the application process.
- Send questions about choice to Donna Winchester, and please indicate whether your name can be used in the column. E-mail winchester@sptimes.com Write to St. Petersburg Times newsroom, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL, 33731. Or fax 727 893-8675.