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Editor's NoteHere's a study guide for your school searchBy JIM VERHULST © St. Petersburg Times, published October 29, 2000 Welcome to School Search, a report designed to help you choose the right school.
In the end, though, the choice is yours alone. One piece of advice: Go see for yourself. No amount of reading will make up for what you can learn by actually visiting a school. Trust your instincts. Assume nothing, even about the basics. Don't assume there is recess -- public schools have organized physical education, but not recess. Don't assume that lunch is at noon. Some eat as early as 10:15 a.m. Don't assume schools wait until sunrise to start class. Public high schools begin at 7:20 a.m. Don't hesitate to raise basic questions. Right now is the time to do so. Ask around. Ask friends, relatives, neighbors and co-workers about schools. The public school system is changing, and your role will become even more important in choosing a school. (Court-ordered busing for desegregation continues for a few more years, but the busing rotations change in the fall one last time. And in the fall of 2003, a whole new system of "controlled choice" will begin.) The more you know, the better your chances of making a good choice. Start right away. Deadlines for magnet and fundamental programs are only a month away -- Dec. 1 for most of them (Don't know what such schools are? Don't worry. School Search tells you.) We have tried to organize the material logically by assembling a step-by-step guide for gathering information about each kind of school. We hope the information helps makes sense of it all. But don't delay. Deadlines loom. Happy searching!
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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School Search |
To help you sort things out, we list all schools in Pinellas, we explain the different offerings and programs at each level from kindergarten through senior high school, we print test scores -- and grades -- for each of the schools, and we talk to folks who have been through all of this and can now offer advice, and we suggest some strategies to pick what is best for you.
