School Choice (Orlando, Naples, Gateway: how much, home, neighborhoods)

[hiknapster]

There's been a lot of questions on here regarding School Choice.

I know that some of you have recently enrolled your kids in it, in the middle of the school year. How did that go? Did you get your choice?

Yes, I am looking for Rainbow Girl's opinion but I am also looking for anyone else's. We've had a lot of recent questions about it, but not answers from people with recent experience.

Thanks!

[Rainbow girl]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

There's been a lot of questions on here regarding School Choice.

I know that some of you have recently enrolled your kids in it, in the middle of the school year. How did that go? Did you get your choice?

Yes, I am looking for Rainbow Girl's opinion but I am also looking for anyone else's. We've had a lot of recent questions about it, but not answers from people with recent experience.

Thanks!

There's not much of a choice! They give you a list of schools and you rank them in order of 1-17 of which ones you would want your kids to go and then they put it in a machine and it tells you which one you get. I got third choice and it's an okay school but they were enrolled over 3 weeks ago and they still do not have bus transportation. I finally got enough of a run around from the transportation people and the office staff at the school that I went to the principal and they supposedly will start picking them up on the 17th. The kicker is they get picked up at 6:28 in the am and school does not start till 8:00 and they get out at 2:00 and will not get home until 3:30. I work 12 hour shifts at a hospital so I have not been able to take them to school so for the last 3 weeks they have been to school for 2 days. Also they say in April I can try to get my first and second choice picks but they may end up losing the spot they have now and be even further down the list. I think it's a really weird way of doing things. They go to school 7 miles away and there are schools only a couple miles away. Go figure.

[pool_ready]

So how does school choice work? Does it mean that if you live next door to a school that you aren't necessarily going to get into that school? I thought that it just meant that if you didn't like your school zone, then you could choose another school.

I have been looking at neighborhoods, but if it doesn't guarantee a certain school zone, then what's the point???

Please someone explain this better to me.

[TANaples]

Insider's information. School District Staff have FIRST preference for school choice.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by TANaples

Insider's information. School District Staff have FIRST preference for school choice.

Actually, the lady at the superintendent's office told me that, without me even asking. She made it quite clear that my daughter was not going to get into the performing arts school. She said that staff and siblings have first choice. This was kindergarten and I was one of the first in line. So all of kindergarten was staff and siblings, according to her. Hmmm....

Anyway, thanks for answering, rainbow girl. I know that the school population has changed and someone had once speculated that it was easier to get in. But "pool ready" was wondering about the middle of the school year and I knew you had just been through it.

I hope that you can get your first choice in April.

Yes, pool ready, School Choice means it is the school department's choice, not yours. It really ticked me off. It wasn't that she couldn't get into that school. They have a performing arts school here, in Knoxville, that she could just go to, but we chose not to. So that wasn't the point. It's just that I think the system is ridiculous. You pay taxes so they can tell you where your children will go. I don't think so. And I felt that it was also who you knew.

Like pool ready asked, "What's the point?"

Actually, the whole thing came about due to desegregation. They were court-ordered. The mandate ran out in 2002 or 2003. The school system stuck with it, anyway.

[pool_ready]

woah! That is really stupid. How much money does the district waste on gas money for the buses?
Thank you for explaining that to me. We were considering a home in Gateway. I was excited because the elementary and middle school are so close by. But according to what you are telling me, my kids would not go to those schools??? That is crazy.

Is this all over Florida, or just Lee County? What about Collier? I, too, am wondering how they handle move-ins during mid-year.

thanks for the info.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by pool_ready

woah! That is really stupid. How much money does the district waste on gas money for the buses?
Thank you for explaining that to me. We were considering a home in Gateway. I was excited because the elementary and middle school are so close by. But according to what you are telling me, my kids would not go to those schools??? That is crazy.

Is this all over Florida, or just Lee County? What about Collier? I, too, am wondering how they handle move-ins during mid-year.

thanks for the info.

I don't think it is in Collier. And I used to live in Orlando, and although I didn't have kids with me then, I don't think they had it either. It was Lee County's response to a desegregation lawsuit.

They could have Gateway schools, or they could not. It's a chance that you take.

And yes, I think it costs an additional $218 per student, per year.

They recently did a survey and the results declared that the majority of parents were happy with School Choice, so they will continue with it. I find it hard to believe, but what do I know.

All I do know is when our daughter started kindergarten, we moved to Tennessee after five weeks of dealing with it. I had lived in Florida for 10 years, and my husband for 25. That's how much the Lee County school system impressed us.

[Rainbow girl]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

I don't think it is in Collier. And I used to live in Orlando, and although I didn't have kids with me then, I don't think they had it either. It was Lee County's response to a desegregation lawsuit.

They could have Gateway schools, or they could not. It's a chance that you take.

And yes, I think it costs an additional $218 per student, per year.

They recently did a survey and the results declared that the majority of parents were happy with School Choice, so they will continue with it. I find it hard to believe, but what do I know.

All I do know is when our daughter started kindergarten, we moved to Tennessee after five weeks of dealing with it. I had lived in Florida for 10 years, and my husband for 25. That's how much the Lee County school system impressed us.

Just because you live close to a school does not mean your kids will go there. As I said before my first two picks were closer to our home and also already has a bus going there and my kids did not get picked for those so we have been waiting almost 4 weeks for bus transportation to another school because that's what the computer chose. If I didn't really love Florida I would probably go back home till my kids are out of school.

[Donna-501]

It is usually only a problem if you move after school started. My kids have been in the school system for 13 years and we have always got our choice because we do the paper work on the first round. As far as school choice I do think it is stupid because we have about 12 teens on my street and they picked four different schools and buses are suppose to be supplied.

Seems they let many bus drivers go because for high school the bus stops are few and far between. My kids are suppose to get the 6:10 bus to get to school at 7:10 and the bus stop is 1 1/2 miles away when it was 1/4 mile for the last 7 or 8 years.

[BakinMama]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

There's been a lot of questions on here regarding School Choice.

I know that some of you have recently enrolled your kids in it, in the middle of the school year. How did that go? Did you get your choice?

Yes, I am looking for Rainbow Girl's opinion but I am also looking for anyone else's. We've had a lot of recent questions about it, but not answers from people with recent experience.

Thanks!

I don't know too much about the system here - I do know that I will be camping out come December to get my daughter into the VPK program I want her in at a charter school (which means she gets preference for the next year and then her sister and any future siblings will also have preference).

Anyways - I grew up on the east coast of Florida where you went to the school you were zoned for. We lived in a really good neighborhood, yet I was zoned into a terrible school in the ghetto. The staff sucked, the school was old, the students scared the crap out of me... it was not at all what I was looking for. The only way you could go to another school was if you choose a magnet or needed an IB program. The only magnets I was interested in were already at my school and I only needed AP classes, so I was stuck. Personally, I would rather have school choice and be able to have some control over where my children go to school.