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Searching for the right school in Pinellas can be a massive research project. School Search offers help.
By KELLY RYAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 29, 2000
Parents, get your pencils ready. This is a test.
How do you know whether a school is a good match for your child?
Does it matter that your neighborhood school earned a C in the state's accountability system? Does the school have to be close to home? Does your kid flourish in a strict program that emphasizes the three R's? Or is your child the next Picasso or Hemingway who needs time in school for creative expression?
In Pinellas County, there are dozens of options for students of all ages. Navigating those choices can be overwhelming -- and School Search aims to help.
In this guide, you'll find stories of parents like you who have toiled to find the right school for their kids. You'll learn about special programs offered at all levels, deadlines for applying to certain schools and how special attendance permits work.
But to make a good decision, you and your child will have to pound the pavement. Both of you should visit a school and meet the principal. Ask lots of questions, even if they seem silly. Visit all the places where your child will spend time, including the cafeteria, library, computer labs, gymnasium and athletic fields or playgrounds.
Above all, trust your instincts. No one knows your child better than you. If the school feels comfortable and inviting, it's probably a good match.
Your school search must start with the biggest, most general question: Public or private?
A portion of a resident's property taxes goes to the school district. This year, the tax rate is $8.433 for each $1,000 of taxable property value.
If you want to send your child to private school, you'll have to pay property taxes, plus tuition. (No one in Pinellas qualifies for state-funded private school vouchers because no school has been graded a failure two years in a row.)
Private school tuition can be hefty: At Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, for example, tuition is $5,700 for kindergarteners, according to the academy's Web site. It's higher for all other ages.
Admiral Farragut has a naval focus, and other private schools also offer themed programs. Many are religious and are affiliated with churches or other places of worship. Some aim to prepare students for college; some try to help struggling students, such as Academy Prep in St. Petersburg.
Private schools have their own application processes and deadlines. If you opt for public schools, applications for magnet and fundamental programs are available now and due Dec. 1. Letters are mailed to applicants Feb. 1 to let them know whether they have been accepted, denied or placed on a waiting list.
There is no deadline if you want to enroll your children in the public schools they are zoned to attend.
Public schools offer numerous choices. Nearly 110,000 Pinellas students are enrolled in these. The state's controversial school grading system is one way to measure a school -- but Pinellas' superintendent and School Board members agree that it is often not the most accurate way. The grade is based primarily the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT.
The test, which has reading, writing and math portions, measures a student's achievement the day of the test, but does not measure progress during the school year. For that reason, district leaders urge parents to look more deeply at a school's teaching methods, such as studying access to special reading programs or after-school tutoring.
Most students attend their "zoned" school, which is the school they are assigned to attend because of their home address. For information about your school zone, call the pupil assignment office at 588-6210. Every two years, the district selects a new batch of white elementary students to bus into mostly black neighborhoods south of Central Avenue in St. Petersburg. A federal court order requires this rotation; at the same time, thousands of black students are bused from their neighborhoods miles north into white neighborhoods.
Next fall, another two-year rotation cycle will begin. It will be the last because the school district has settled the 1964 lawsuit that led to court-ordered busing. The School Board has not decided which group of white students will be bused in the 2001-2003 rotation; the decision will be made in the spring. (See related story.)
Many zoned schools have traditional offerings, including a mixture of core academic courses, plus art, music and other electives. But some have sought-after specialty programs.
Gulfport, Maximo and Frontier elementaries offer 210-day school years, rather than the traditional 180 days. Nine elementary schools have mandatory uniforms, and 11 have voluntary uniforms.
This year, several high schools opened specialty programs for their zoned students. Tarpon Springs High School has a music and leadership conservatory, and Dunedin and Osceola high schools are offering "traditional" programs that emphasize discipline and parental involvement.
What if you live outside Dunedin High's zone, but that's the school you want your children to attend? You can apply for a special attendance permit. More often than not, SAPs, as they are called, are approved. In 1999-2000, 9,548 applied for permits, and 7,312 were approved.
SAPs are not approved, however, if a student's transfer would lead to overcrowding or upset a school's racial balance.
If you still have not found what you're looking for, the list of choices is far from over.
There's an array of magnet and fundamental school programs, which draw students from all over the county. Keep your fingers crossed if these programs are your goal. Every year, many more students apply than can attend these schools.
For instance, 9,858 students applied to magnet and fundamental schools for the 2000-2001 school year. Only 2,867 were accepted. The students who get in are selected through a lottery. High school magnets and career academies require students to meet special criteria, either academic or artistic.
Magnet schools, created to attract white students to predominantly black neighborhoods, offer programs for students with special interests. There are elementary, middle and high school magnets. The district provides transportation. Fundamental schools, also open to students all over the county, stress discipline, parental involvement, homework and student responsibility. The district has fundamental elementary and middle schools. Parents are responsible for transportation.
Bay Point Elementary's magnet program offers a science and technology focus; Perkins Elementary focuses on the arts; Melrose focuses on communication and mass media; and Ridgecrest has a program for gifted students. Bay Point, Perkins and Melrose are in St. Petersburg; Ridgecrest is in Largo.
At the middle school level, Bay Point carries on where the elementary left off with a science and technology program. John Hopkins Middle School has an arts and communications studies program. Both are in St. Petersburg.
High school magnet programs are highly competitive, too. For example, students can study art, music and dance at Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High in St. Petersburg. Intense International Baccalaureate programs are offered at St. Petersburg High and Palm Harbor University High.
Career academies are also offered for students who have their futures mapped out. The graphic arts academy is housed at St. Petersburg's Dixie Hollins High School, for example.
For information on other magnets and career academies, contact the magnet office at 588-6432.
There are five fundamental elementary schools: Bay Vista in St. Petersburg, Curtis in Clearwater, Lakeview in St. Petersburg, Pasadena in St. Petersburg and Tarpon Springs. There are two fundamental middle schools: Coachman in Clearwater and Southside in St. Petersburg.
The options don't end there.
Pinellas has three charter schools: Academie Da Vinci in Dunedin, Athenian Academy in Dunedin and Whole Child at UPARC in Clearwater.
Charter schools are operated by private groups but accept public money so are considered public schools. Charter schools, which have more freedom to innovate than regular public schools, must get School Board approval to open.
Bay Village Center for Education, a traditional middle school in St. Petersburg, is awaiting final approval from the School Board. If approval is granted in November, Bay Village would open next autumn.
Five other groups have applied to open charter schools next fall. The applications are for a middle school in Oldsmar with a fine arts theme, a dropout prevention program for fourth- and fifth-graders in St. Petersburg, a school for "emotionally mature" students from fourth to eighth grade, two 600-pupil elementary schools, and two high schools for at-risk students.
The School Board is expected to begin voting on those proposals before the end of the year.