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Schools

Choose school, hope for best

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published February 12, 2007

LAND O'LAKES - When Land O'Lakes High School sophomore leaders polled their classmates, they discovered that, without fail, everyone wanted to pick their school next year - Land O'Lakes or Sunlake - regardless of where they live.

"We would like an option to go where we would like to go," Weston MacRae, representing the group, told the School Board the other day.

The response from superintendent Heather Fiorentino: Tell everyone to fill out a school choice form by the March 1 deadline.

When Ivy Lake Estates parents complained about the district's plan to reassign their neighborhood to Charles Rushe Middle School, the answer was the same. School choice. For Meadow Pointe parents upset about being rezoned into Double Branch Elementary School?

"We will try to accommodate with school choice," board chairwoman Marge Whaley said.

Since the 1970s, Pasco County schools have offered families some flexibility in what schools their children may attend. If there's room at a school other than the one you're assigned to, and you can get your child to the school or at least to a bus stop for that school, you generally can choose.

About 6,000 children, or close to 10 percent of all Pasco students, take advantage of the program each year.

As schools have grown more crowded, though, the options aren't as plentiful. Once a school reaches 105 percent of its capacity - that's about half of them today - the administration can freeze open choice enrollment.

By the time schools become chronically crowded - say, 150 percent of capacity or higher, with no relief in sight - you need a really good, substantiated hardship story to nab a seat. (Hardship in Pasco is similar to the Supreme Court's view on obscenity: There's no clear definition, but officials say they know it when they see it.)

That's why spots at Ridgewood High and Wesley Chapel Elementary are so hard to come by.

All told, the district denied 544 choice applications for this school year because of crowding, said Patti Miller, the district specialist who oversees the program. Yet even for those students, the district created a lottery-based waiting list, just in case spaces opened during the year.

The district might be growing, Miller said, but it wants to keep the personal touch so that no one feels that school officials haven't listened to and considered each individual application.

Some requests just are not considered.

"Being unhappy with a school is not a hardship," Miller said.

Neither is the desire to keep playing on the same sports team. That's a common concern being raised around Land O'Lakes High these days, as some coaches and students want to keep their teams intact.

"We would be in trouble with the (Florida High School Athletic Association) if we approved school choice based on athletics," Miller explained. "The only exception was when Wiregrass High School did not have varsity football. Because they did not have a team, we did consider choice for one or two students."

If your assigned school has the programs you seek, and there's no space in the one you want to choose, your chances go down. That's why many parents at a recent planning meeting for Sunlake High had pointed questions about course offerings, particularly in languages.

Land O'Lakes High offers German and American Sign Language, and they wanted to know if Sunlake would, too. Students must complete two years of the same language to graduate. Those taking sign language will have their class at Sunlake, those in German most likely won't.

The recommendation from assistant superintendent Jim Davis? School choice.

All that being said, you still might see some students squeeze through the process even where you think they shouldn't. Here's how.

They could be teachers' children. The United School Employees of Pasco has a memorandum of understanding with the School Board that teachers can enroll their children in the school where they work or in that school's feeder pattern, so they can be close during the day.

They could be assigned to a special program not offered at their home school. Only two elementary schools in central-east Pasco offer gifted education, for instance, so students who qualify for gifted but live in other attendance zones would get to go there. One of those is heavily crowded Wesley Chapel Elementary.

They could be on a hardship waiver.

Once students win a school choice assignment, they don't have to reapply annually unless the school's boundary changes. In that instance, everyone who wants to attend the school with the new attendance zone must submit a new application and hope for the best.

It's not always easy to get what you want, School Board chairman Whaley acknowledges. But the school district tries to give as many families as possible what they need.

Jeffrey S. Solochek can be reached at solochek@sptimes.com (813) 909-4614 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505 ext. 4614. Check out our education blog, The Gradebook, at blogs.tampabay.com/schools.

Fast Facts:

To apply

Applications for Pasco County School Choice-Open Enrollment 2007-08 are due no later than March 1. You can submit your request online at studentservices.pasco.k12.fl.us or you can get a paper application form at local schools and the school district main office in Land O'Lakes. For additional information, call the Student Services Department at (727) 774-2686, (813) 794-2686 or (352) 524-2686.

[Last modified February 12, 2007, 08:47:03]