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Schools

Choice program changing

With schools becoming more segregated every year, Hillsborough school officials take a different tack.

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published October 30, 2005

TAMPA - When Hillsborough school officials approved a voluntary school choice program two years ago, their goal was to maintain the racial diversity generated by 30 years of court-ordered busing.

It hasn't worked.

Given the option of keeping their children closer to home, parents have favored their neighborhood schools in overwhelming numbers. The choice program has drawn just 3 percent of Hillsborough's student population despite the millions of dollars spent on it.

The result: Schools are becoming more segregated every year.

In the last year before school choice, 53 schools had fewer than 30 percent white students. Now the number is 77. Fourteen of those schools are more than 60 percent Hispanic, up from 10 during busing. Nineteen are more than 60 percent African-American, up from 13.

With the new choice enrollment period about to begin, the School Board has decided to change its rules in an effort to increase participation. Thousands of additional families will be eligible to apply when the enrollment period begins Tuesday because the plan is now open to all grades except 12th.

In past years, only students entering kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades could sign up for choice. That prevented students from using the program to enter a school that was overcrowded one year but had available seats the next.

An incoming freshman, for example, could not have used choice to enroll in Bloomingdale High School this year because it was full. And under the old rules, that student could not have applied to enter Bloomingdale next year even if it had open seats. Now that student can get in.

But while school officials want to halt, or at least slow, the resegregation that is occurring, School Board member Carolyn Bricklemyer says their tools are limited now that busing for integration is forbidden.

"The one thing we can do at this point is just encourage participation" in choice and magnet schools, another program designed to promote diversity, she said. This year, 14,114 students are attending magnet schools.

School crowding only complicates matters. Fewer campuses are available each year to families seeking reassignment through choice. Seventy-eight schools will be closed to choice next fall because of expected crowding, up from 63 this year.

Hillsborough officials say they have no idea how many students will apply for reassignment.

"It's all a family choice," said Pansy Houghton, the choice technology supervisor. "If our families are happy where they are, then I'm happy."

School Board members seem to accept that parents are most satisfied in their neighborhoods, especially for elementary schools, where student segregation is most pronounced. They are not inclined to push for radical solutions.

"I embrace diversity, and I want diversity to occur in our county," board member Susan Valdes said. "We just have to be able to find a way to include all populations in the mix while respecting parents' choices."

It should not surprise anyone, then, that:

Alexander Elementary School in Town 'N Country has 621 Hispanic students, 14 black students and 79 white students; 84 percent of the students came from within the school's attendance zone.

Potter Elementary in east Tampa has 31 Hispanic students, 678 black students and eight white students; 78 percent of their students came from within the attendance zone.

Bevis Elementary in Lithia has 61 Hispanic students, 42 black students and 707 white students; 80 percent come from within the attendance zone.

This is happening in a district where the student population is 44 percent white, 22 percent black and 26 percent Hispanic.

Kathleen de la Pena McCook, a University of South Florida professor, quit the district's choice advisory committee in frustration because she believed little is being done to reverse resegregation. She said efforts to steer the committee toward action were met with resistance.

Others, including Tony Morejon, the county's Hispanic affairs liaison, says groups always will self-segregate. The most important thing, he and others argue, is ensuring that everyone gets the same quality education with the same set of resources.

School officials insist that always will be the case. But they also want to provide options that attract parents to different schools, which should help diversify the student body. They offer several tips to parents who want to participate in choice:

Apply any time between Nov. 1 and Jan. 23, and don't rush. The choice assignments are not made until after the deadline, and they are done by computer lottery, not first-come, first-served.

Do not throw out the choice guidebook that comes in the mail. The mailing label includes your child's user name and personal identification number for applying online.

Make sure the home address you put on the application matches exactly the address the school district has on file for your child. One small error, such as putting road instead of avenue, can lead to computer problems that result in your application not getting processed.

Do not leave your application at a school. There is a chance it will get lost. Applications can be made online, sent in the mail to the choice department, completed over the telephone, or done in person at a choice center or the school district headquarters downtown.

Most important, parents should not feel lost in the system, choice communications specialist Geraldine Nelson said.

"If they feel they need assistance, there is someone out there to help," Nelson said. She said the staff tries to return all calls within 24 hours if no one answers immediately.

Jeffrey S. Solochek can be reached at 813 269-5304 or solochek@sptimes.com

Parents of children in kindergarten through 11th grade can send their children to a school other than the one they are assigned to as long as the school has available space. Magnet schools require separate application. Transportation is available to some, but not all, of the choices. The application period is Nov. 1 through Jan. 23.

Here are the open schools, by region. All others are capped or magnet programs:

REGION 1: Anderson, Ballast Point, Chiaramonte, Dickenson, Grady, Just, Lanier, Roosevelt, Tinker, Washington, West Shore and West Tampa elementary schools; Coleman, Madison, Rampello Partnership K-8, and Roland Park Alliance middle schools; Jefferson and Robinson high schools.

REGION 2: Alexander, Lowry, Morgan Woods, Schwarzkopf, Town 'n Country and Woodbridge elementary schools; Martinez, Pierce, Walker and Webb middle schools; Leto High School.

REGION 3: Clark, Claywell, Essrig, Heritage, Hunter's Green, Maniscalco, Tampa Palms and Turner elementary schools; Benito, Buchanan, Hill and Van Buren middle schools; Freedom High School.

REGION 4: Broward, Carrollwood, Cleveland Academy, Edison, Graham, Lake Magdalene, Mendenhall, Oak Grove, Seminole and Sulphur Springs Academy elementary schools; Adams and Memorial middle schools; no high schools.

REGION 5: Alafia, Apollo Beach, Bing, Collins, Corr, Frost, Gibsonton, Ippolito, Kingswood, Palm River, Riverview, Sessums and Wimauma elementary schools; Giunta, Rodgers and Shields middle schools; Bloomingdale and East Bay high schools.

REGION 6: Bryan, Burney, Dover, FishHawk Creek, Lithia Springs, Pinecrest, Robinson, Valrico, Walden Lake and Wilson elementary schools; Marshall and Turkey Creek middle schools; Newsome High School.

REGION 7: Colson, Foster Academy, Kenly, Limona, Lopez, Mango, McDonald, Robles Academy, Schmidt, Seffner and Thonotosassa elementary schools; Burnett, Greco, Mann and McLane middle schools; King High School.

For more information:

Call the school choice call center, 813-272-4692.

Visit one of three parent resource centers: Kimbell Full Service Center, 2100 E 26th Ave., Tampa, (813) 233-3542; Pierce Middle School, 5511 N Hesperides Ave., Tampa, (813) 356-1715; or Area 6 district office, 703 N Thomas St., Plant City, (813) 707-7389.

[Last modified October 30, 2005, 01:12:10]