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The choice application deadline is getting down to the wire, with only nine days remaining. Choice communications director Andrea Zahn calls this "nail biting time."
Zahn is urging parents who need student ID numbers so they can make countywide applications or choice attendance area applications via the automated phone lines to register their children as soon as possible so they will get the number.
"There is a little bit of a delay in getting student numbers activated," she said. "To be secure in the fact that the number will be activated in plenty of time to use the phone system, parents should not wait until the last week to register."
On a similar topic, parents who have applied to countywide magnet programs that require documentation before a student can be admitted - the International Baccalaureate programs at St. Petersburg High and Palm Harbor University High are examples - must submit the paperwork to the schools before closing time on Nov. 2.
* * *There still appears to be some confusion regarding who should fill out a choice application and who should fill out a family preference application for a choice attendance area school. The forms are printed on opposite sides of each other in the district's Choice Information Guide, and some parents are filling out both front and back.
You should fill out a family preference application if:
-- You already have a child in school and want to make sure another family member gets a seat at the same school;
-- You have two or more children who are new to the district who want to attend the same school;
Everyone else should fill out the choice application.
* * *Last week, we explained that the choice application summary is a confirmation of choices made, not a notification of choices received. This week, we need to add that the only families who will receive a choice application summary are those who applied on paper. Families who apply via the automated phone system should listen to the choices the system repeats to them when they place their call, say choice officials. Those who apply via the Internet should print their application and keep it for their records.
* * *Reader question of the week: I understand that if I want my daughter to attend Bay Point Elementary School next year, I can apply using a magnet application and an attendance area application. Is that correct?
Answer from the choice office: A percentage of the seats at Bay Point Elementary, like those at Melrose and Perkins elementaries and Bay Point and John Hopkins middle schools, are filled from magnet applications. Anyone in the county can apply to those schools by calling the automated phone line for countywide applications. Families who live in Attendance Area A can also submit an attendance area application for those schools. But be careful. While you risk nothing by using the automated phone line to apply for a countywide seat at one of these schools, using a choice application to apply for a choice attendance area seat is a signal to the district that you want to give up the seat your child currently holds. The only instance in which this would not be the case would be incoming kindergarteners, who don't risk losing a seat because they haven't yet been assigned a seat.
* * *As traffic increases at the two Family Education and Information Centers, registering and choosing schools at the district's satellite centers may seem even more appealing. Parents can still visit these locations between 4 and 8 p.m. Wednesday and Oct. 27: Eisenhower Elementary, 2800 Drew St., Clearwater; Walsingham Elementary, 9099 Walsingham Road, Largo; and Bay Point Elementary, 5800 22nd St. S, St. Petersburg.
They can visit these locations between 4 and 8 p.m. on Tuesday: Palm Harbor Elementary, 415 15th St.; High Point Elementary, 6033 150th Ave. N, Clearwater; and Blanton Elementary, 6400 54th Ave. N, St. Petersburg.
- 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.