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Old 07-09-2010, 10:11 AM
 
Location: Tampa, FL
109 posts, read 278,410 times
Reputation: 77

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So we're moving to St. Pete August 1, yesterday my husband (who is in St. Pete) found us a town home to rent, we were approved.

During our home search every time we saw a potential property that looked good to us we'd go to the Pinellas County school locator site, enter in the address and it would give me the neighborhood zoned school. Then I'd research that school by going to the school website, greatschools.com and schooldigger.com. If the school looked acceptable I'd have my husband call the property and check it out. So when we came across this town home I did the same thing and was fine with the neighborhood school.

Well WHY the H*** did a completely different and UNACCEPTABLE school pop up when I went to ACTUALLY register him! The school they gave him is not the zoned school based on their own website and map!!!!

Also I was told that kids that are new to the district are always assigned to the zoned school!!! I was trying to go into this positively, knowing that there are bad schools out there but doing my research to find a home in a decent area BUT what is it worth if they just assign him anywhere???

This school is completely unacceptable to me! I don't know what I'm gonna do! Well I will start by calling them on Monday!

Anyone have this happen to them? Any advice?
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Old 07-09-2010, 10:16 AM
 
817 posts, read 2,240,546 times
Reputation: 1005
Sorry for your experience. Pinellas seems to assign kids to schools in weird ways...one of the reasons my wife and I don't look to live there as long as we have kids...
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Old 07-09-2010, 01:25 PM
 
27,206 posts, read 46,526,550 times
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You can ask for school choice but you won't hear back until school is starting if they are accepted since the closing dat for school choice has past.

Due to the many foreclosures many school zonings have changed and some school have less students than expected which can help you to change schools.

We have applied twice in the past and both times we were granted with the schools of our choice. Also it might help to speak with the principal from the school of your choice and see if the principal can help out. That is how we had success in the past.
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Old 07-09-2010, 07:25 PM
 
Location: Saint Petersburg, FL
1,881 posts, read 3,589,729 times
Reputation: 16546
I have not had any luck with school of choice. In fact, I'm pretty certain no one actually checked to see if there was any room. Two of my kids are at a school I do not want them in.

As far as being placed in your zoned school, if that school is full, they will put you in another one.

I can tell you you will not get anywhere with the administration. I'm not sure what the solution is. I gave up. It's like hitting my head against a brick wall.

Bentlebee, did you have success talking to the principals this past year? I'm wondering if I could give that a shot again. I asked principals last year, but they both told me everything was different now and they had no say anymore.
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Old 07-09-2010, 07:49 PM
 
Location: Tampa, FL
109 posts, read 278,410 times
Reputation: 77
So as a parent how do you wrap your brain around having your child at a school you don't like??!! I know this may sound.....awful for lack of better word, but I don't want my son around a bunch of behavior problem kids! NOT that my son is an angel, he is not but I worry that bad behavior breeds bad behavior! Of corse I'm worried about academics but I feel more confident that I can enrich and supplement his education at home. If he has to spend 6-8 hours around bad ghetto kids I don't know what I'll do!!!
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Old 07-09-2010, 08:59 PM
 
Location: Saint Petersburg, FL
1,881 posts, read 3,589,729 times
Reputation: 16546
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moni74 View Post
So as a parent how do you wrap your brain around having your child at a school you don't like??!! I know this may sound.....awful for lack of better word, but I don't want my son around a bunch of behavior problem kids! NOT that my son is an angel, he is not but I worry that bad behavior breeds bad behavior! Of corse I'm worried about academics but I feel more confident that I can enrich and supplement his education at home. If he has to spend 6-8 hours around bad ghetto kids I don't know what I'll do!!!

There are some schools that I absolutely would not allow my children to go to. Fortunately, they have not been placed in those schools (the one two of them are in just does poorly academically for the most part). If they had been and no one would help me find a new school, I would pull them out and homeschool. I really would. For a while it looked like my oldest might have been placed in a middle school with terrible behavior problems. She was terrified and I told her not to worry because I would keep her home before I let her go there. I meant it.

Last edited by Maggi07; 07-09-2010 at 09:12 PM..
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Old 07-09-2010, 10:00 PM
 
817 posts, read 2,240,546 times
Reputation: 1005
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moni74 View Post
So as a parent how do you wrap your brain around having your child at a school you don't like??!! I know this may sound.....awful for lack of better word, but I don't want my son around a bunch of behavior problem kids! NOT that my son is an angel, he is not but I worry that bad behavior breeds bad behavior! Of corse I'm worried about academics but I feel more confident that I can enrich and supplement his education at home. If he has to spend 6-8 hours around bad ghetto kids I don't know what I'll do!!!
You can move to another county and find a school there you like. Hillsborough, Pasco, and Manatee all assign students to schools in a sane fashion. I have no idea why Pinellas does what it does, or even how they do it...like I said, it's one reason why I wouldn't move there, even though I'd love to be closer to the beach.
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Old 07-10-2010, 12:04 AM
 
Location: Tampa, FL
109 posts, read 278,410 times
Reputation: 77
Any one heard of Seventy Fourth Street Elementry? I think it's in zip code 33709. This is where they placed my son instead of the zoned school, which was supposed to be Westgate Elementary. The stats on 74th St Elementary look awful! And since my husband is there right now I had him drive by it and he said it's in the hood and looks terrible!

Yeah I told my husband that if they will not change his school then he can stay home and home school! Since we are moving to St. Pete cause of a job that I got. I really don't know what to do, this is the worst case sererio for our family. We were excited to make this move,try something new but this is a huge sacrifice that if I'd known would end up this way I probably wouldn't have taken the job!
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Old 07-10-2010, 05:54 AM
 
792 posts, read 2,281,352 times
Reputation: 822
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moni74 View Post
Any one heard of Seventy Fourth Street Elementry? I think it's in zip code 33709. This is where they placed my son instead of the zoned school, which was supposed to be Westgate Elementary. The stats on 74th St Elementary look awful! And since my husband is there right now I had him drive by it and he said it's in the hood and looks terrible!

Yeah I told my husband that if they will not change his school then he can stay home and home school! Since we are moving to St. Pete cause of a job that I got. I really don't know what to do, this is the worst case sererio for our family. We were excited to make this move,try something new but this is a huge sacrifice that if I'd known would end up this way I probably wouldn't have taken the job!

LOL

You haven't even gotten here and your already saying it's a "worst case scenario". RELAXXXXXXXX...........take a deep breath........it's going to be alright.

As I already tried to answer this question in your other post about 74th st. elementary, I'll say it again.

It's a fine public school. I've heard good things about it when I talked to others who lived here. The area is fine, and i'm not sure how current the Pinellas school statistics are when it comes to kids attending the schools.

They just did away the school choice program not long ago and I seriously doubt they've got all the info updated on their website.

You see, in the school choice program, they used to actually bus kids from the hood, to the better schools and that's probably why the stats for that school looked so bad. They don't do that anymore. Now everyone goes to the school in their own neighborhood, which is a MUCH better system.

I actually had to put my kid in private school for a year, because they were going to put him in a school on the southside(hood). It took me a year to get him into one closer to our home. Thankfully, the school choice program is dead and gone. Everybody goes to school in the neighborhood they live in nowadays.
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Old 07-10-2010, 07:53 AM
 
Location: Saint Petersburg, FL
1,881 posts, read 3,589,729 times
Reputation: 16546
If it makes you feel better, I have not heard anything bad about that particular school. I think that's a decent neighborhood.... off the top of my head. I don't know all the St. Pete neighborhoods yet-- we're about 25 minutes north.

You'll be here in August, so that gives you enough time to go scout it out in person. The teachers should start back in mid August, so you could go talk to them too. You might feel better about it then. If not, I have a friend who does homeschool evaluations.
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