Tampabay: Some parents keep mum on school choice

LARGO -- In May, the Pinellas County School District sent out 106,036 surveys asking parents what school they would choose for their children. Three weeks later, researchers sent postcards to 77,000 parents who didn't respond.

Two more times, the district pleaded with parents to respond to the survey, which the School Board needs to make some crucial decisions about the choice plan that begins in 2003.

On Tuesday, School Board members found out that despite the effort they are still a long way from knowing just how choice will work, what kind of transportation service will be needed and just how much the whole thing will cost.

Of the 51,880 who filled out surveys, only 8,500 said they would take advantage of the new choice option and select a school in their area rather than sending their children to their currently zoned school, a countywide magnet or fundamental school or a school on a special attendance permit.

Countywide, only 45 percent of parents of high school students responded. In the northernmost part of the county, 63 percent of elementary school families responded. In Pinellas' southernmost tip, only 48 percent of elementary school families responded -- and that was only after a fourth mailing and phone calls targeting families in that community.

In less than two years, the school district will end its practice of assigning students to schools based primarily on their home address. Instead, the county will be divided into attendance areas, students will apply to attend their top few choices in their area and a computer will process the selections.

But families have an out. All students who were enrolled in Pinellas schools on the last day of school in 2000-2001 and don't move to a new house will be able to skip choice and continue attending their zoned elementary, middle and high schools.

Board members expected most families to take advantage of that privilege known as "extended grandfathering," so the fact that only 8,500 chose choice on the survey was not a shock.

Given that number, School Board member Linda Lerner suggested that the district might be overreacting by planning to spend millions on new buses, new bus drivers and new bus compounds.

Superintendent Howard Hinesley said it is way too early to say what the survey data mean and whether it's good news for the cost of choice.

For instance, Hinesley said, researchers have not studied whether the choices parents made adhere to race ratios still required in district schools through 2007. If too few white students choose schools in predominantly African-American neighborhoods south of Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, the district will have to assign and bus a lot of students there.

School Board member Nancy Bostock was quick to point out that far more parents might choose different schools once they get comfortable with the new system. She also reminded her colleagues that on the survey, schools used a lot of jargon to describe the special programs they offer.

Those descriptions might have turned off parents who were willing to consider something other than a zoned school. Once schools get used to trying to sell themselves, Bostock predicted, more parents will explore their options.

"Early in choice, people opt to stay where they are," Hinesley said. "When they get comfortable with it, they tend to expand their choices."

What gave board member Carol Cook pause was the more than 50,000 who did not return surveys.

Steve Iachini, the head of the district's research department, is assuming those families want to stay in their currently zoned school. For Cook, that's a big assumption to make and confirms officials' worries that when choice starts, many students won't participate and will end up being assigned to a school.

"We still have half of our school system that is not responding at this point," Cook said. "We have to look at how we get to them."

Iachini said he is confident that the survey will produce information the School Board can use to set priorities and estimate costs. While Cook was alarmed that half the district's families did not send back their surveys, Iachini said the response rate was far better than any survey the district has done before.

He is still analyzing what factors made parents select particular schools and what kinds of programs interest families. He still does not know how many of the 8,500 will get their first or second choices.

He expects to have a complete report done by the end of this month.

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