schoolsearch: MEGSSS students to get more choice

MEGSSS students to get more choice

Parents of students in the gifted math program will be able to choose a school for their child.

By DONNA WINCHESTER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 15, 2002

Parents of students in gifted programs can relax, school officials say. Very little will change when controlled choice begins next year. But there are things parents with children in certain programs need to be aware of.

Under the current system, most elementary schools and all middle schools offer gifted classes. Elementary students who qualify but who attend schools where classes are not offered are bused one day a week to a school that has a program or to one of the district's gifted centers.

So far, so good. Services will continue at the schools and centers that provide them now. Children will be bused to a school in their attendance area with gifted services if the school they attend doesn't provide them.

The changes involve children in the Mathematics Education for Gifted Secondary School Students, or MEGSSS program. Rather than testing every gifted fifth-grader who wants to be in the program next year, the gifted office has asked teachers to forward the names of students with high scores on the reading and math portions of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Those students should receive letters in the next few weeks telling them they automatically qualify. Some have already been received.

Instead of being assigned to a school that offers the MEGSSS program next year, parents will be able to choose one. Those who live in attendance area A can choose either Bay Point or Meadowlawn Middle. Those in attendance area B can choose Seminole or Pinellas Park Middle. Those in attendance area C can choose Carwise, Kennedy, Safety Harbor or Tarpon Springs middle schools.

But they must indicate their choice on a letter of intent form, which will come with their invitation letter. That means that parents who want their children in the MEGSSS program will effectively fill out two declarations of intent: one for their child's attendance area school, which they will return to the choice office, and one for the school where their child will attend MEGSSS, which they will return to the gifted office.

No changes are anticipated for private school students who attend gifted programs. As long as seats are available, they will continue to attend classes one day a week at the schools they currently attend. The district is discussing provisions for private school students who will be new to the gifted program and expects to have the information distributed to Family Education and Information Centers soon.

For information on gifted services, call the gifted office between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at 588-6037.