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Reapply at your own risk

 
Published Sept. 14, 2003|Updated Sept. 1, 2005

The school system calls it "choice." But for some students, a more fitting name would be "chance."

Students who hold seats in Pinellas public schools and are not moving up to a new level next year can apply to enter a new "choice school." But they take a risk.

To gamble for a seat they want, they give up a sure thing in the seat they have.

Last spring, in the first computer lottery for choice, almost one in four students did not get their first choice. One in 10 got none of their top three choices. One in 14 _ or almost 1,300 students _ got none of their five choices.

Students who apply for another choice school also forfeit the privilege known as "extended grandfathering," which allows students to maintain the elementary-to-high school academic track they were on under the old zoned system, before choice came along.

Choice schools are open to students who live in that school's attendance area, and enrollment will be determined by the results of a computer lottery held early next year. They are different from countywide schools, commonly known as magnets, fundamentals and career academies, which draw from throughout Pinellas and have a separate application procedure.

There is no penalty for applying to countywide schools for next year.

The new system discourages movement among choice schools for students who aren't naturally progressing into kindergarten, middle school or high school. For students in these entry-level grades, choice offers a wider range of options because they are between schools, or just starting. There is no existing seat to protect.

The only loss would be for the incoming sixth- or ninth-grade student who has extended grandfathering into a middle or high school. If they elect to apply for another choice school instead, they give up that extended grandfathering seat.

Some parents have questioned these rules, saying they expected a system named "choice" to allow more chances to explore options.

The district's answer: Allowing students to keep their existing seats while also applying for choice school seats would give them control of two seats going into the choice computer lottery _ the seat they have and the seat they seek. It also would leave the district with no way to tell how many choice seats are open when the computer lottery begins.

Cheryl Underwood reacts in July as school district officials explain the options available to Gulfport Elementary students now that the school failed to meet standards established in the federal No Child Left Behind Act two years in a row. Underwood said she planned to keep her son enrolled in kindergarten at Gulfport as planned.