schoolsearch: Preferences add further intricacies to application

Preferences add further intricacies to application

Five preferences established by the School Board weigh heavily in the decisions on who goes where in 2003-04.

By KELLY RYAN GILMER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 15, 2002

Not all choice applications are created equal.

The School Board decided that certain applications should carry more weight than others. So they created a list of five "preferences" that are used when more students apply to a school than there are seats available.

The only preference that is guaranteed is the first, "grandfathering." If seats are available after the district places all of the students who are eligible for grandfathering, the other preferences will be applied. If grandfathering fills a school, none of the remaining preferences will be used.

For example, imagine a middle school that gets 600 applications for 500 sixth-grade seats. If 400 of the applicants have grandfathering, those seats would be filled and preferences would be applied to fill the remaining 100 seats. But if 500 of the applicants have grandfathering, that grade level would be full and no other applications would be accepted.

Here is a brief explanation of each preference and how it works:

1. Grandfathering: This is a fancy name for the right to continue to the highest grade at the school you're attending. If you are going to a school in your attendance area and your family moves within that attendance area, you can still continue at that school through the highest grade level.

"Extended grandfathering" is related, but slightly different.

It is a privilege available to students who were enrolled in the Pinellas County School District as of June 6, 2001. Students who are eligible can attend the elementary, middle and high schools they were zoned to attend before choice, but only under certain conditions.

The student must continue to live at the same address where he lived on June 6, 2001. And the student must be attending and continue to attend his zoned school, a magnet or fundamental program, a school on a professional courtesy special attendance permit or a special program that is not offered at his zoned school.

Any student who withdraws from the district or leaves a program midway -- such as leaving an elementary magnet in third grade -- loses extended grandfathering.

2. Family: This preference allows students who live in the same household to attend school together. During the computer selection process, family members' applications will be linked so they can be placed in the same school. It is possible that some family members would not be granted this privilege if there are not enough seats in a school.

3. Proximity: This sets aside seats in schools that have room to students who live nearby. In every school, 35 percent of available seats (after grandfathering and family preferences have been applied) will go to students who claim this preference. Students may claim this preference only for a first-choice school.

Every student requesting a proximity preference will be assigned a computer-generated number that describes the distance between his home address and the school. Proximity spaces will be assigned beginning with the student who lives closest.

4. Professional courtesy: Full-time school district employees can request that their children attend the same school where they are assigned.

5. Diversity: Every school in the county has a diversity goal, based on the racial makeup of the attendance area. This preference can be used to help a school meet its goal. For instance, if a school's African-American population is 5 percent but its goal is 10 percent, that school could give admission priority to an African-American student who chooses it.