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Schools

The races mix by choice at 2 of 3 newer schools

Based on applications, Jamerson and Marshall satisfy race ratios. Sanderlin does not. This hints at what's to come.

By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published January 23, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - If children could attend any school they want without regard to race, two of the newest public schools would be desegregated - by choice, not court order.

The third, however, would have three black students for every nonblack student, based on applicants for next year's kindergarten class.

Built south of Central Avenue in predominantly African-American neighborhoods, Douglas L. Jamerson Jr. Elementary, James B. Sanderlin Elementary and Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School opened in August 2003.

Along with the rest of Pinellas schools, they recently participated in the third round of "controlled choice," the district's relatively new method of matching students to schools.

Parents made their school choices between Sept. 1 and Nov. 1 for the 2005-06 school year. Last weekend, the district ran the computer program that determined the fate of children who applied primarily for kindergarten and sixth and ninth grade seats. Parents should receive a letter with their children's assignments by Feb. 1.

The new schools, now in their second year, hint at the future of school choice.

For decades, courts ordered Pinellas schools to be desegregated by tightly controlling busing. Jamerson, Sanderlin and Marshall were built as part of the deal to end that system.

The district had two goals in building the schools: It wanted to allow more black students to go to school close to home, and to attract enough white students to keep the schools desegregated by choice rather than court order.

Neither goal was met at the new schools at the outset. All three attracted nearly four times more black than nonblack students in the first year. To meet a court-ordered cap on black student enrollment, the district had to assign hundreds of white students who did not choose the schools and turn away scores of black students who did.

This year's applications point to a different trend, at least at Jamerson and Marshall. The schools attracted enough nonblack students to keep the district from having to import them from elsewhere, which means all of the black students who made the schools their first choice will get a seat.

At Jamerson, principal Robert Poth expects to find seats for all black and nonblack kindergarteners who made the school their first choice. About half of the children who made Jamerson their second choice will also get a seat.

That's a much better scenario than last year, when the school did not attract enough nonblack students to satisfy the ratio. The district had to manually assign nonblack children who did not choose the school in order to make it possible for more black students to attend. Poth attributes the school's success this year primarily to word of mouth among parents.

"Our best marketing tool is the parents who were here last year," he said. "I hear a lot of, "My neighbor goes there,' or "Three members of my church go there.' It seems parents are the biggest promoters of the school."

Poth also credits the school's "attractor," which is a math and engineering focus. Parents who visit the school can clearly understand what it has to offer and can see that the students are engaged, he said.

He thinks the strong attractor helps to counteract the greatest impediment to keeping nonblack parents from choosing Jamerson and other schools south of Central Avenue: distance.

"That was one thing we worried about," he said. "I think parents are more willing than we thought at first to leave their neighborhoods to find a school where their children can flourish."

Like Poth, Joan Minnis, principal at Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School, thinks word of mouth is the biggest reason a more diverse population was attracted to her school.

In the first application period, 71 percent of the school's sixth-grade applicants were black. Many had to be turned away to balance the ratio. This year, Marshall attracted enough nonblack students to lower the ratio of black students to 39 percent, well within the 42 percent cap.

Still, Minnis contends that numbers don't always tell the whole story about south Pinellas schools, especially at the elementary level, where so many are clustered.

"There is a lot of competition just within this corridor alone," she said. "All the schools have nice attractors. If you were a parent, it would be like throwing the chips up in the air and letting them fall, because they are all good choices."

That could explain why Sanderlin is not following the trend emerging at the other two schools. A number of more established schools, including magnets and fundamentals, are within 2 miles of its doors.

What is difficult to explain is why the school attracted fewer nonblack families in this application cycle than it did last year - and in fact fewer students all around. The number of incoming black kindergarteners who made Sanderlin their first choice dropped from 38 last year to 14. Overall, the number of kindergarteners who made the school their first choice fell from 76 to 57.

Principal Denise Miller attributes the decline to the fact that her discovery night, an event that showcases the school, was canceled because it fell on a hurricane day.

"We don't have enough history for people to be talking about our school," she said. "The discovery night is when parents really shop."

She suspects another factor could be the complexity of her attractor: a Primary Years International Baccalaureate program, which encourages children to ask questions and think globally.

"The attractor is more difficult to envision," she said. "It's not like Campbell Park's. People go into that school and know right away it has a marine science program."

She expects the numbers will improve next year, in part due to an infusion of federal funds the school, and Jamerson and Lakewood Elementary, will receive to turn them into "attendance area magnet schools."

"We know there are things we have to do, but that's what the grant is for," she said. "It's to provide the resources and the personnel to help us get done what's hard if you're trying to do it all by yourself."

Schools in southern St. Petersburg like Sanderlin that are struggling to voluntarily attract nonblack students have one more application cycle before the court-ordered racial ratios are lifted.

After 2007, the district will no longer manually assign children to balance black and nonblack populations. Unless something changes, there is a good chance many schools will become segregated.

The district will ultimately have to look at those schools and make some adjustments, said Cathy Walker, director for student assignment.

"What we need to do is stick to our objectives and ask, "What do we have to have in place in order to have diversity throughout Pinellas County schools?' " she said.

[Last modified January 23, 2005, 00:14:21]