Schoolsearch2000: She's sold on magnets, as a mom and a teacher

She's sold on magnets, as a mom and a teacher

By KIBRET MARKOS

ST. PETERSBURG -- Last year, the school district zoned 5-year-old Cleveland Williams Jr. to Fairmount Park Elementary School. But his parents had other ideas.

"We wanted to send him to a magnet," said his mother, Lynette Robinson. "I didn't want him to attend just a regular school."

Her reason for choosing a magnet was simple: Magnets offer more programs. "I don't think regular schools are inadequate, but education in magnets is definitely better."

Her search for a magnet school was just as simple. Robinson has been teaching at Melrose Elementary for nine years, and she did not rush to other options when her son was ready for school.

Melrose Elementary is a magnet for technology, foreign language and literary arts. Her son was admitted on the first application.

Although Robinson teaches in fourth and fifth grades at the school, she said that her son was not automatically admitted and that she had to apply like everybody else.

Class size in the lower grades at Melrose Elementary is 18 to 20, which is slightly lower than the class size in fourth or fifth grade, Robinson said.

"It's easier to get your child in elementary school when you are applying for the lower grades." She said she might not have been as fortunate if she were applying for the higher grades where the classes have fewer openings.

After attending kindergarten at Melrose Elementary, Cleveland's reading level is excellent, Robinson said. Seeing her first-grade son read straight for an hour every day and work on computers, she is glad that she sent her son to a magnet school.

"The kids take Spanish and computer lessons. They learn a lot of culture and history. The kindergarten team here is excellent."

The school search for Robinson's 5-year-old daughter, Ashley, was equally brief. Ashley now goes to kindergarten at Melrose.

Sending her children to the school where she teaches, Robinson has no worries about transportation. "I just bring the kids with me."

Because Robinson works in the evenings on a second job, it is Cleveland Williams Sr. who helps the children with homework. "And they give them a lot of that. These magnet programs are quite intensive," Robinson said.

If Robinson were not lucky with her first application, she said she would have tried again and again. "I was all set on a magnet school."