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Leaving choice for another day
By KELLY RYAN GILMER, Times Staff Writer Ethel Swain doesn't have time for school choice. In these sweaty days of summer, she rises early to ready kids for day camp. She carts them to camp and other activities. Then she has to run around to pick them up. In between it all, the St. Petersburg resident has doctor's appointments. Soon, she'll try to learn more about school choice, the most dramatic change in Pinellas County schools in 30 years. But probably not before school starts. "I'll just wait," said Swain, whose granddaughter has expressed interest in attending Lakewood or Boca Ciega high schools. "I still have enough time to get information." Blame packed schedules, vacation, confusion or a far-off application deadline -- but many parents aren't yet paying attention to the choice plan. Consider the foot traffic in two Family Education and Information Centers designed to help parents wade through choice's complex details. The centers opened July 1. In their first three weeks of operation, only 239 families signed the visitor logs. School officials say they aren't worried. "It's the nature of some of the human race, when they have a window of time to do something, to wait until the end of that time to do it," said Jim Madden, an administrator in charge of the choice plan. Choice begins in 2003-04, but parents will make their choices this fall. The application period opens Sept. 16 and closes Dec. 13. Choice marketing coordinator Andrea Zahn said the district is trying to reach parents outside the family centers. District officials are visiting health care fairs, community festivals and youth athletic league signup nights. Zahn is meeting with parents from private schools. She is sending letters to every licensed preschool and day care in the county, targeting incoming kindergarteners. Soon, Zahn will ask neighborhood and religious leaders for their help. Zahn hopes parents will grow more engaged once school begins Aug. 7. She added that the district told families to sit tight until a mass mailing next month. That's why Largo parent Nanette Argus hasn't done anything yet. She's waiting for the declaration of intent form, which parents can use to indicate whether they want to keep their children in their current schools. The declaration will be mailed around Aug. 26. It will be due Oct. 1. "I know when I get it, it'll be a priority," Argus said, studying a wall of backpacks at Target. Kathy Britts' 10-year-old son Jake will be entering middle school when choice begins, but she hasn't thought much about it. Why? She'd be happy with any of the nearby middle schools, including Largo and Seminole. She wondered: Why spend lots of time researching when all of the options are good? At lunchtime Thursday, Barbara Eggert was more concerned about finding a good deal on crayons than on school choice. Because the family hasn't moved, the girls are eligible for a privilege called "extended grandfathering." That means they will be able to continue on a path of zoned schools -- from Bauder Elementary to Seminole Middle to Seminole High. "They're pretty well set," said Eggert, standing in a Target aisle gripping a school supply list. "I don't intend to (research) because they are automatically grandfathered in. But I would be nervous if they weren't." In a two-hour span one recent morning, only two people visited St. Petersburg's family center. Seventeen others walked through the front door, made a sharp left and approached a counter to pay a city utility bill. Annita Williams, who has three elementary school-age children, was one of them. For now, choice seems too far away to think about. "It's not really something that keeps me up at night," Williams said. Williams said she might like her kids to attend nearby Fairmount Park rather than faraway Gulf Beaches but has not researched how to do that. "It's really still confusing," she said. "I don't know how in the world we're supposed to do this." About the same time, Heather Stevens walked in with three children in tow. As the kids put together puzzles and pretended to cook on a wooden stove in a play area, Stevens gathered brochures for five Seminole elementary schools. Her son, Kyle, starts kindergarten in fall 2003. She moved to Florida two years ago and doesn't know much about the schools. She visited the family center the day after hearing about it on the television news. "I'm just very nervous about this," Stevens said. "It's a very big decision." Tracey Herman is nervous, too -- but not just for her own son, Sam. Herman, who lives in St. Petersburg, is a full-time mom. She has plenty of time for choice, yet she finds it overwhelming. Her only son starts kindergarten in 2003, so she thought she should get a head start making a choice. She has visited the family center, searched on the Internet and driven past several schools she's considering. She can't do much more until school starts, because that's when tours will be offered. She has just one pressing question: How is the district going to make sure all parents, whether now or later, find time to make an informed choice? "I'm afraid," she said, "that this choice program is going to leave someone behind."
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