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So, we gave up on St. Pete (I'm sorry, we just don't like that place )and started looking at some houses in Riverside Heights Tampa and actually found a couple that we liked. We drove around there during the day and during the night ... all's good. A little weird because Florida is just new and different to us but it's a close drive for me to work and the crime stats also show it to be pretty clean.
So, we get back to the hotel, start doing some research on schools (our son is 14 months old) and find that we're assigned to possibly one of the worst elementary schools in Tampa (Grahm), meanwhile we have a closer school that while not being great, is at least not just flat out awful.
Can someone please explain what this School Choice system is? How do magnet and charter schools work into this? ... hell how do magnet and charter schools work period?
I'm up hyperventilating right now because I thought we had an good house (at a very good price) and now I'm really freaking out about this school thing.
Do we have any options? If we stick with this house are we stuck with that hellhole of a school?
I would suggest that you go to the district's Web site and look at the section on school choice.
I can say that the program has never been popular, and is only in place to address the court ordered desegregation issue. It is under utilized, to the point of almost being laughable, however, as long as it is in place the district is off the hook with the Feds over desegregation.
The idea behind choice is to allow students in lower socio-economic areas to "choose" schools in higher socio-economic areas to attend, should they "choose" to. There is no requirement or obligation for them to do so, which is one of the reasons the program is rarely used. When the forced busing was phased out a few years ago, the majority of students stayed at their neighborhood schools rather than be bused to a suburban school. Who wouldn't want to stay close to home?
Magnet schools do a similar thing, only in reverse. They have a particular subject area that they address, such as the arts, science or international baccalaureate (IB). You have to apply to attend a magnet school, it's not as simple as just signing up. Nearly all magnet schools are in economically depressed areas, the idea being that by drawing students from the suburbs into these areas also addresses the desegration issues.
Again, this is not working as intended - magnet attendance is down, and they are finding it harder and harder to attract suburban students. Not to mention that the magnet program is Federally funded, and renewed on an annual basis. That means it could go away with little or no warning, should funds dry up.
One of the reasons is transportation. My son was at a school that became a magnet school. We lived probably 10 miles away. He would have had to get on a bus at 6:05 AM to be at school by 8:00 AM. School was out around 3:00 PM, and he would not arrive home until after 5:00 PM. This is due to the transportation arrangements for magnet schools. Students are bused from their home to a "staging area" where they board another bus to their school. This takes on average about 2 hours each way.
A lot of parents car pool when possible to avoid the busing issue.
Charter schools are schools that are run by an entity other than the school district, and have received a "charter" to operate from the District and state. Their are numerous charters around, but be careful - I just had some friends take positions at some, and I was not aware that they are not represented by the teacher's union, nor do some of them even get health benefits, because they are not offered by the school. Yikes!
Rather than panic over where your child will go to school, go visit the school and meet the principal - they are on site right now. Discuss your concerns with them. It has been my experience that despite being tough schools, many of these have very dedicated and professional staff who care deepply about their students and work hard to make them successful.
I have done work at Graham, Edison, Cleveland, some of the "worst" schools in the county, but I have always been impressed with the faculty and staff at these sites.
Thanks for your reply, I regret my characterizations. It was late at night... :\
Quote:
Originally Posted by MortonR
The idea behind choice is to allow students in lower socio-economic areas to "choose" schools in higher socio-economic areas to attend, should they "choose" to. There is no requirement or obligation for them to do so, which is one of the reasons the program is rarely used. When the forced busing was phased out a few years ago, the majority of students stayed at their neighborhood schools rather than be bused to a suburban school. Who wouldn't want to stay close to home?
When you say no obligation, you mean for parents to choose, not for the school to accept your child? So the reason it's failing is because of the initiative not being taken? It's not the initiative part that scares me, it's the "yeah you have a choice but not really because everything is full" that worries me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MortonR
Magnet schools do a similar thing, only in reverse. They have a particular subject area that they address, such as the arts, science or international baccalaureate (IB). You have to apply to attend a magnet school, it's not as simple as just signing up. Nearly all magnet schools are in economically depressed areas, the idea being that by drawing students from the suburbs into these areas also addresses the desegration issues.
Again, this is not working as intended - magnet attendance is down, and they are finding it harder and harder to attract suburban students. Not to mention that the magnet program is Federally funded, and renewed on an annual basis. That means it could go away with little or no warning, should funds dry up.
I read some about this, I almost found it encouraging because I thought at least spots might be easier to come by
Quote:
Originally Posted by MortonR
I have done work at Graham, Edison, Cleveland, some of the "worst" schools in the county, but I have always been impressed with the faculty and staff at these sites.
RM
Again, sorry about the language, I don't think I really understood the full magnitude being a parent until last night. Thanks for your help ... very very much.
I will definitely be going to both schools and speaking with them extensively. I really hate the burbs, I like a diverse community, I love being close to work ... I just don't want to compromise my son's happiness. Absolutely sucks making these decisions, one voice is saying "fight the good fight", the other is saying "run to the hills!".
Thanks for your reply, I regret my characterizations. It was late at night... :\
When you say no obligation, you mean for parents to choose, not for the school to accept your child? So the reason it's failing is because of the initiative not being taken? It's not the initiative part that scares me, it's the "yeah you have a choice but not really because everything is full" that worries me.
You, as a resident of a given "zone", have a list of schools you can choose to have your child attend. The only way they can be refused is if the school is over capacity, which would take them off the list of choices anyway. In some cases you might be responsible for transportation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vilehelm
I read some about this, I almost found it encouraging because I thought at least spots might be easier to come by
Again, sorry about the language, I don't think I really understood the full magnitude being a parent until last night. Thanks for your help ... very very much.
I will definitely be going to both schools and speaking with them extensively. I really hate the burbs, I like a diverse community, I love being close to work ... I just don't want to compromise my son's happiness. Absolutely sucks making these decisions, one voice is saying "fight the good fight", the other is saying "run to the hills!".
Thanks again.
I highly encourage you to go to www.sdhc.k12.fl.us and check out the "School Choice" section. It goes into great detail of how the program works and also lists maps and schools you would be eligible for.
As for the schools in your area, again, don't let the state grade color your opinion. The grades can be quite misleading, and in many cases, don't show the tremendous amount of resources that many of these struggling schools receive. I work at a Title 1 school and our grade dropped this year. Why? Because we had a huge turnover of students in grades 4 and 5. Since these are grade levels that are heavily tested and carry a large part of the weight of the school grade, our scores dropped due to a good part of this enrollment not being present the whole year for instruction. That doesn't mean we don't have good teachers or staff - the circumstances dictated what happened.
Again, go and meet your principal! Call and set up an appointment, and ask to see the school at their convenience. Will they be biased? Sure. But they will also answer your questions and give you the information you need to make an informed decision about where you want your child to attend. Be honest about your concerns and you'll get straight answers.
Thanks for the reply. I still haven't found the maps on that site but I did find the lists. Ever school in region 4 was crossed out, I'm not really sure what that implies but rest assured we'll be talking to the principals and figuring it all out.
On a side note I was really freaked out to see a magnet program for web design. As an interactive creative type I hope that means lots of cheap interactive talent out there in Tampa. Internships anyone?
Thanks for your reply, I regret my characterizations. It was late at night... :\
When you say no obligation, you mean for parents to choose, not for the school to accept your child? So the reason it's failing is because of the initiative not being taken? It's not the initiative part that scares me, it's the "yeah you have a choice but not really because everything is full" that worries me.
I read some about this, I almost found it encouraging because I thought at least spots might be easier to come by
Again, sorry about the language, I don't think I really understood the full magnitude being a parent until last night. Thanks for your help ... very very much.
I will definitely be going to both schools and speaking with them extensively. I really hate the burbs, I like a diverse community, I love being close to work ... I just don't want to compromise my son's happiness. Absolutely sucks making these decisions, one voice is saying "fight the good fight", the other is saying "run to the hills!".
Thanks again.
Choice is a joke. You are correct, the good schools are "full". Opt for magnet. A good elementary magnet is actually Dunbar Elementary. They have a very progressive curriculum and style (my step daughter attended there).
I have a son who graduated from Middleton Magnet (he also attended Blake Performing Arts). My daughter is also attending a Magnet school (she is in middle school). I like our elementary school so my youngest are fine there.
I did check on our region (#4) and every single school in the region was crossed out ... so I guess the "bad" schools are full too!
I do like the look of magnet schools if for nothing else than I went to a Catholic school when I was a kid and had to wear a uniform and I feel he should suffer as well. :P
Did you find that you had a lot of difficulty getting your child into the school that you requested? I think it was a slightly dated article but I saw a stat that there were 11,000 applicants for 3,000 spots.
We're always willing to home school if we get desperate but that's a couple years off. I'm pretty impressed with what I see about home schooling networks online.
sorry but the crime stats here are HORRIBLY skewed. Murder and rape are at an all-time high. Crimes against the elderly and children are rampant. If you are depending on the Tampa Police Dept webstats please keep in mind that they are being investigated by the Florida Dept of Law Enforcement for fudging the stats and not reporting/recording crime in a valid fashion.
Also, there is not a branch of the govt that has not or are not currently being investigated for corruption.
I would never EVER move here if I still had a choice as you do.
I'm very sorry to sound negative. I come here to talk of other places but found this post about Tampa and I"m going to give honest input. Maybe you have a good job lined up and it won't hit you as hard but homelessness in Tampa has risen TWENTY SIX percent in four years under this mayor.
And, they do NOT care. They plant another palm tree. And, if you notice, they're not very good botanists.
Sorry.
Good luck to you, anyway. If you still have a choice, DO move on.
St Pete (parts of it) is actually better than tampa. Their corruption is more discreet and there are places that offer peace of mind. But the traffic and congestion and air is so bad .... that by comparison tampa seems better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vilehelm
So, we gave up on St. Pete (I'm sorry, we just don't like that place )and started looking at some houses in Riverside Heights Tampa and actually found a couple that we liked. We drove around there during the day and during the night ... all's good. A little weird because Florida is just new and different to us but it's a close drive for me to work and the crime stats also show it to be pretty clean.
So, we get back to the hotel, start doing some research on schools (our son is 14 months old) and find that we're assigned to possibly one of the worst elementary schools in Tampa (Grahm), meanwhile we have a closer school that while not being great, is at least not just flat out awful.
Can someone please explain what this School Choice system is? How do magnet and charter schools work into this? ... hell how do magnet and charter schools work period?
I'm up hyperventilating right now because I thought we had an good house (at a very good price) and now I'm really freaking out about this school thing.
Do we have any options? If we stick with this house are we stuck with that hellhole of a school?
I do actually have a very good job in Tampa, it's a situation where I could stay in Atlanta and be down in Tampa every week or live in Tampa and travel up to Atlanta maybe once a month.
Atlanta's crime stats are even more daunting than Tampa's. Like Tampa it is highly isolated to certain areas (SWATS - South West Atlanta). We live in East Atlanta which is in the midst of a sudden crime wave. I'm not being laze faire but I do understand living in a city. I think we've managed to find a good spot where there will be very little walk through crime opportunity.
...And we have two big dogs that will rip someone's face off , we just need to be aware when not at home.
Choose your magnet school carefully. Some are actually "split" schools, like Middleton and Blake, where there is a "school within a school." That is, there is a "regular" school and magnet school on the same campus. I don't know about Middleton, despite just having done some work there, but I do know that at Blake there is a lot of tension between the "haves" (magnet) and "have-nots" (regular high school.)
Since magnet programs are federally funded, there are a lot of dollars being tossed their way. As a result, magnets typically have a higher percentage of computers, technology, supplies and resources. Think about how that plays when you're in the same building with a group of students who don't have access to the same things you do. Not pleasant.
I believe this is only an issue in secondary, not elementary, so it might not be a problem for you for some time. If memory serves me correctly elementary magnets are 100% magnet schools. if you're concerned about this, drop me a PM and I'll check it out with some magnet folks I work with.
RM
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)and started looking at some houses in Riverside Heights Tampa and actually found a couple that we liked. We drove around there during the day and during the night ... all's good. A little weird because Florida is just new and different to us but it's a close drive for me to work and the crime stats also show it to be pretty clean.
well you will not like this
, we just need to be aware when not at home.
