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Choice works for many

Of the 2,042 Hillsborough applicants this year, 94 percent gained entry to the school they selected.

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published March 3, 2006

TAMPA - Lisa Thompson couldn't be happier.

She wanted to send her daughter, Alicia, to Apollo Beach Elementary for kindergarten instead of Gibsonton Elementary, her neighborhood school. When her son, now a senior at Robinson High, attended Gibsonton, Thompson didn't get great vibes.

"I think Apollo Beach is better than Gibsonton," said Thompson, who lives in Riverview. "I wanted her to go to a better school. I tried, and I'm glad I got it."

She is among 94 percent of the 2,042 applicants to the district's school choice program who got their first choice in results being released this week. The program, which began in 2004, was designed to promote racial diversity after the end of court-ordered busing.

Parents are receiving notification this week as to whether they won seats in schools they wanted through the county's multimillion-dollar school choice initiative. They have until March 17 to accept or decline, or risk losing the slot.

The district will call everyone who does not respond before tossing out their application, though, to make sure the offer didn't simply get lost in the mail, choice supervisor Pansy Houghton said.

"We won't make an assumption that it's no," Houghton said.

The district also is alerting families whether their children may enroll in their chosen magnet schools. Nearly 3,300 elementary and middle school students were accepted. The high school numbers were not available Monday.

Those families who did not get their choice, or did not apply, still have options to select schools other than their neighborhood school or in their choice region.

The next phase, known as "open choice," runs through June 30, and the spring kindergarten registration season continues until April 14. Open choice allows students to attend any school with open seats, but the school system does not provide transportation.

Students may receive special assignment into schools without any open seats, but only with valid hardships including medical needs. Each case is considered independently.

"It will be a little bit stricter this year," Houghton said.

School Board members frequently have expressed some dissatisfaction with the organization of school choice programs, which segregate several options into discrete units without any seeming sense.

The board has scaled back the school choice program, eliminating dozens of attractor programs that failed to lure students. It no longer limits students to applying for choice in only kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades. Still, the numbers remain low. In its first year, school choice drew about 6,000 students. Since then, the number has hovered around 2,000 - that's less than 1 percent of the district enrollment.

School Board vice chairman Jack Lamb was not surprised.

"Many parents, you could offer all types of choices, and they're going to choose what is most convenient," Lamb said.

The board has reorganized its choice program and plans to streamline the options, Lamb said. An effort to redraw school boundaries throughout the county, proposed for the next 18 months, should also make it easier for families to pick the school they really want to attend, he added.

"Presently, we have very little choice for some parents," Lamb noted. "It's one thing to say you have choice, and then there's no capacity in the schools they might select."

This year, the most popular schools for choice were Walker Middle School, Tampa Palms Elementary School and Newsome High School. Newsome had been closed to choice the past two years because of crowding.

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

[Last modified March 6, 2006, 18:00:05]