Good evening. My name is Ellen Truscowski and I am the director of student assignment for Penllis County Schools. And thank you so much for giving us some time this afternoon or evening um to be able to go over one of our other school choice options. So, as a district of choice, we offer parents a
variety of different options. on what they might want to choose for the best choice for their child. And that starts with their zone schools. So, everyone would be assigned a zone school. We'll kind of go tonight. We'll go a little bit into how that works. You have choices like our magnet and fundamental
programs, which the application will end tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. We have early um education for VPK and PreK3. We've got educational alternatives. We've got nonzone choices which are kind of where our special assignment requests come in
as well as our special attendance permits. You can see we have services, we have centers, we have different um mod um different types of delivery service deliveries in our schools and then we also offer Penelis virtual. So there's a
wide variety of options to find what is the right fit for your child. So, I'm going to start with the first place because everyone is assigned a neighborhood school. So, if you were first coming in and you're registering, you would and you ask us to make a reservation, it is going to be for your
neighborhood school. So, the district is divided into different grids and those grids are used to create school zones. Every single address in the county is associated with a grid number which determines the school zone. Um, we do have on our website, we do have
something called a zone school locator, which if you go to www.pcsb.org backzone, it'll bring up to what you see in the lower left of this screen. All you need to do is enter your house number and street name and hit um search. And what
you see on the right is what will come up. It's going to give you your address. It'll give you what school is your zoned elementary, your zoned middle, and your zone high school. And new this year, we were able to build in or have built in um what application programs that you're
eligible for. So, some of our magnet and fundamental programs have application areas. To save you some time and trouble of figuring out what those are, if you were to click on that blue box, it would tell you what programs that you're allowed to apply for based on your address.
On that same page, which was once again www.pcsb.orgzone, you're also going to see that we have school zoning maps. So underneath the find your neighborhood school, which is what we just showed you, you'll see that we have school zoning maps. So what you see on the right is what that would look
like. You can zoom in, you can zoom out, and you're able to see what the zone school based on those addresses are. So, as you can see here, some of those schools are closer to areas than others. They're not always in the center for where the school is located. And that's
one of the reasons why some parents want to look at alternative schools. If there's a school that's closer, they may want to take the time and apply for a special assignment request, which would allow them to go to a school that is not their zoned. In some cases, it might be that someone works closer to a school
than where they live. So there's a wide variety of different reasons why you might want to look for a different choice. As far as our procedures and policy goes, we place all kindergarten, grade six, and grade nine are assigned to
their zone school. Other grade levels are assigned based on space available. So if we have students who are new to the district or students with an address change and at that time of the year if there is not room we might look for what school is closest and what school can we
help with transportation. Um and that's only if the school does not have space availability. I want to kind of go over a little bit of how you should approach it or my recommendations and tips and tricks on if you're looking for this school. How
do you go about choosing what school's best for you? And the first thing is start with what matters most. Every family is different. Every family has different priorities and different things that are more important to them than others. So really
start to think what is important to you and your family. Is it a magnet program? Is it a career academy? Maybe it's what enrichment opportunities that school offers. It might be the before and after care needs. Um or you might be looking for a school with SC strong involvement.
Um looking for academic rigor um or what has transportation available and convenience. So there's a lot of different reasons and a lot of different things of what is important to you and your family. So start to decide what is it that matters most for you and your
child. And that's going to help as you start to look for schools on our website. And when we get to that portion where I'll take you through a live test site or run on how to get to the special assignment request, um you can learn about our schools. So if you
go to www.pcsb.orgschools, it'll come up with a list. You'll see tabs at the top which will have elementary, our K8s, our middle, high, and other options available with that. If you click on any of the schools that are listed below, it'll take you to that
school website. So, you can start to learn about your zone school here, as well as what schools might be nearby or what schools might be near where you work. This would be the first step. And the website is going to have information about the staff, the hours, it'll have
information about their bell schedule, um if they have different programs or clubs, you should be able to find out more there. Our AAR department also has a great resources if you wanted to dig deeper and go a little bit more into learning
about the school. So if you were to go to pcsb.org back/acountability, you're going to see that there are school grade um tabs where you can look at the different grades and reports for each
school. There's graduation rate reports. there's links to um state accounts. So, this is where you can start to go and see a little bit more about how is that school performing academically or what is the graduation rate from that school. So, we do provide those resources on our
own website to start to get you a little bit more on learning more in depth on how is that school performing and to learn more. We're very proud that our district is an A district and we have about 89% of our schools A's and B's.
Um, and we don't have any schools lower than a C. So, we have a lot of great options um and schools available for for you and your family. The next thing I would recommend, visit your zone school. Every school will um
offer tours, so you can reach out and you can tour the school, you can meet the principal, um you get to experience the climate and culture firsthand if you go during the school day. Um, and you can see what amazing things are happening within our walls. I do want to make you aware if you are
an incoming kindergarten, we have coming up real soon between February 3rd and the 5th something called Ready Set Kindergarten. So, if you go to our website and you look up early education, you're going to see the list here that's going to tell you every single um
elementary school that has kindergarten program um and what night their ready set kindergarten date is and the starting time. And this is a great opportunity. Every single school will welcome you onto the campus. You get to meet all the kindergarten teachers. You
meet the principal. They'll do a little bit about the school. Some will do some interactive activities, but it's a great way to start to feel or get a feel for what they have to offer. Um, and for your child to start to see like is are they excited? Is this something we want
to offer? Is what matters most to you being offered at that school? I also want to talk a little bit about our career and technical education programs because just like the schools and just like our magnet and fundamental programs, we have a wide variety of
career and technical education electives at our middle schools and high schools as well as careermies. I do want to point out that not all careermies are magnet and fundamental programs. So, what that means is we have some specialized programs that we allow
for people to apply that are outside of that school zoned area. Um, and it might be for a specific program or it might be the fundamental program. And so, we try to offer that to be able to expose students. But not every career academy
is a magnet or fundamental. A lot of careermies are offered at the school for something for their zoned or traditional side of students. So we have some great programs like 3D or JOTC that are not magnet programs. So when you go to apply
for magnet or fundamental, you may not see that as one of your options because it's a career academy or program at the school, but designed more for the zone schools or what we're going to talk about tonight, which would be the special assignment request. And the CTE website has a lot of
different information. So, a lot of times people hear about the Academy of Engineering at East Lake High and not realizing that other schools or programs offer engineering programs. So, they've created a really great graphic that kind
of shows you what other schools have engineering programs. Um, and they do have some different keys and indicators. Some are different electives. Some are full-blown and some have been acknowledged by the Penelis Education Foundation asmies of
distinction. Um, and that would all be on their website. So, you could easily go to not just countryside for their I STEM program, but Oyola High School also offers different engineering, um, Lakewood, um, different schools like that. So
their resources on their website will help show you what other schools may have engineering or any of the other careermies. So an SAR or that special assignment request is one way to attend. So if that
a career academy is not one of the magnet or fundamental programs, you could still go and attend and be a part of it. you would just attend or apply for a special assignment request if you don't or you're not zoned for that school.
Um, and then explore other options. So, if you go to your zone school and you tour and you know what, there's just something that you like better at another school, that's okay. Finding the right fit for your family may look a little bit different and may look meany beyond your school zone. Um, and that's
where you can look for other options. Every school in our county will give tours. Every school in our county should o welcome you with open arms. So you can visit the school websites and learn more. You could visit the campuses when possible. And then you can kind of decide what is it or what choice do you
think that's going to be best for your school and we'll talk about different ways later and I'll walk you through how you can apply for it if it's not your zone school. So, special assignment requests are enrollment options that allow families to attend a nonzoned non-magnet school.
And so, that non-magnet or non-fundamental has a separate application. That application period or the initial one is going to end tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Um, but if there's the special assignment request, that is going to open on Monday. So, one thing
for people who have been in our district for a while may notice is that we're trying to do this whole process earlier in the school year to better serve our families. Um, to have an answer and you're not waiting longer into the school year. So, we're really hoping that by moving this up and moving
forward, you can get your answers sooner so you could better prepare and make plans. The special assignment allows you to apply for that nonzone. Um I do want to make sure that you're aware that bus transportation is not provided as part of this. So in special
assignment requests sometimes it's just a matter of another traditional program which is anywhere. Um all high schools have some similar offerings. Uh so there's not transportation. If you choose to apply for this and accept this choice offer um or option, you will be
responsible for providing your own transportation and getting your child to and from school safely and on time. We do have priorities. So, there are certain things that will give a heavier weight to that application or lottery.
The first one is active duty military transfers. So, if this is the first time your student is coming into our district due to a military transfer, there is a priority for that. Um, if you are currently in the military and your child has been in our school district for a
while, um, that transfer priority doesn't apply to you, but we do thank you for your service. Um, there's also a priority if you attended the school last year. So if you attended the school and you moved and you would like to continue your education there,
we do do provide a priority for that. We have an anchor sibling priority and that basically means that you will have a student already at the school who will be attending next year. We also and this is partly statemandated um provide priorities or pref
preferential treatment for students who have been legally relocated. So, either foster care or maybe there's a court order change in custody, uh, serious illness, and then we also have a full-time benefits eligible district
employee. So, how do we know? We keep talking about you can apply and if there's room. So, I'm going to briefly go over determining how we determine or how we look at how we um decide if a school has capacity. So, the first thing that we're looking at is how many students are
enrolled for next year. And then we look at the school's functional capacity, and I'll go a little bit into that because there's a lot of different factors that make up functional capacity. Part of it is how much space is in the building. Are there empty classrooms? Um what
types of programs are already there at that school? So, we look at a lot of different factors um before saying if there's open or available seats. Um, so functional capacity is basically the number of spaces available at a given school based on state and district
guidelines, um, staffing model, class size amendments, and other provisions listed in schoolboard policy. And we have that listed on our website. I'm not going to get into the fine nuances. As you can see, um, there are quite a few
different aspects that we review or look at as we're determining, are there seats available? We do have two designations when we're talking about capacity. One is if school's enrollment is over 95% of what
the functional capacity is, we designate that as overcrowded. Doesn't mean we're not going to take some in. it does mean that not as many are going to get in. So that might be like there's no room in the school even if we put a teacher there's no extra classrooms
um we just aren't able to accommodate any additional students at that school. The other one is if there's less than 50 or 95% of functional capacity we will designate that as having seats available at some grades. We post our functional capacity
and how many seats we have available by every school um every 12 weeks. So the last time it was posted was November 6th. We're due in um next week to post again. So next Thursday we will be posting the the most update capacity
report. Um and I'm basically want to go over a couple things that are important to know. a few things we learned with the DAP or the the Magnet Fundamental applications. And then once I go over some things to know, we're going to actually take you
to a test site so I can walk you through and you can see what you need to do to apply for it. Um, if you do not have a Focus parent portal account, you need to set one up. And it's very easy. I'm actually going to tonight role play or or take you
through as if I am a brand new and don't have an account. All you need is an email address and then you go to focus.pcsb.org. Um, we are excited that the new platform, it used to be on the student reservation system. We are no longer
using the student reservation system. It's actually in focus. And because of that, we're able to allow people to apply if they're not enrolled. So, you don't have to worry about enrolling um bringing in the registration. and you are going to be able to apply um even if
your child is not currently enrolled in a Presel County school. The other exciting thing and I am very excited about this next piece is the new programming is allowing both inount and out ofount requests to be submitted and
processed. So for those of you who are currently attending on a special attendance permit, that is where you might not live in Panales County. we had a separate paper form. You had to fill out the paper form and submit it. We would have to um have two different
weight lists. This is allowing everyone to go into the same system. So, we'll be able to more accurately give you weight list numbers, update, and get those offers out. And I did want to go over a couple of the frequent error messages so that if
you get this, you will know what to do. And I I do want to point out this message in particular out because we have some parents who will tell us that their child has never attended a Penllis County school and they don't know why when they go in to apply and they're
entering their information it comes out that there's a student already in the system. One of the reasons is if you are currently with the family empowerment scholarship about three or four years ago, the state gave us a list of names
and the an ID number and that's it for students that we were at that time told that we had to keep in our focus system. So we don't have the grade level, we don't have contact information, we don't have address, but we do have a record. So, if you are one of those students or
if you are coming back, so you're inactive, like maybe you were here, you moved out of county, um you're trying to apply again, if you go to directly to the application, you might get this error message that says you cannot access or access the application for the
next school year until next year's registration is validated. What that means is you need to do an inactive student reenrollment. And I do want to say it's you are not actually reenrolling your child.
We have um a placeholder school called the applicant school. But in those cases that I just like I just explained with the family empowerment scholarship, we may have your child's name and a state ID, but that's it. So, this
re-enrollment form is going to give us what is the address, what is the grade level. We need the grade level to know what grade you're applying for. So, it's going to give some basic information. There's also going to be a checkbox, and we'll show that to you as we go through
the the the live test site. That's going to say, do you only want to apply for magnet fundamental or an SAR? If you check that box, it's only going to put you in those two. So maybe you don't want to, you're in a private school and you really want a certain school and
you're going to apply, but you only want to apply for that. So there will be a way and that will abbreviate the application. And I'll, like I said, I'll walk you through that in a couple minutes. But if you get that error message that's at the top of the screen, you just have to look underneath the
student name. You would have to click form summary and then you would have to click the in the center where it says available forms inactive student for enrollment. Once you do all that, you'll be able to
apply. The other big thing that we found is if you go to apply but you haven't done your back to school forms. So when you first sign in, if you're seeing those nice green buttons that said not yet started for the 2025 beginning of
the school year form, it's not going to let you apply. So, you just need to complete those forms or if you did a paper version of that form, you just need to call the data manager at your child's school. Um, and then they can go ahead and activate it in the system so
those messages go away. But if you see those green buttons, you're going to have to apply and complete those before it would let you apply for a special assignment request. The other thing if you're current,
so if you're a current student, you need to have it linked. So on the left side, basically if you are linked, it means that you see their names. So when you sign in to your parent account and on the left you sign in and your children's
names come up on the left, that means you are linked. If you sign in and you have an empty box like on the right, you're not linked. So, at this point, I'm going to take us through
a test site so I can show you how it works. We're going to assume that I am a brand new parent and I do not have an account. If you do not have account or if you're trying to link an existing student, you
would look not up at the top, you'd look down for the green boxes. If you can't sign in and don't remember your password, you just have to hit the orange box with reset here. But for this second person, I don't have account set. So, I am going to go ahead and create a
focus account. When I create a focus account, it's going to come up. You're going to put You're going to put in an email address and then a password. Click I am not a robot and then submit.
Once you sign in, you would say whether you want to add a child who's already enrolled, you would like to apply for enrollment for a new child or that you're finished. You're going to click if it's new, you're going to click I would apply for enrollment for a new child. And this is
the same way that you would go in if you're trying to make a reservation for the next school year as well. So the initial steps are the same for whether you're trying to make just a reservation to the zone school or apply for um a school choice option. You're going to put in the student's
first name, the date of birth. And you're going to put new student reservation or registration. This is a test site, so it's running a little bit slower than it will in person.
Once you get here, wherever you see the red asterisk is what is a required field. So, you're going to put down the gender. You're going to also put down the county. And I do want to point this out because this is where our out of county residents are able to indicate
and apply. So if you are living in Pasco County, you're going to put Pasco County. Whatever county you live in, you're going to use this as a drop-own to select that county. I'm going to show for the sake of purposes the abbreviated version, which
means I'm just going to click the special assignment request application only. This is going to give a abbreviated version which is only going to give enough information to make that application. If I decided at a later time that I wanted to make a reservation for the zone school, I would just need
to contact student assignment. You're going to enter what school year you're applying for. Um, if we're talking about the special assignment application window that's opening next week, it is for the next school year. So, starting in August of 26. And you're
also going to put down what grade level you're applying for. Um, we're then ask questions on special education or exceptional student educational services. So, depending on your answer for these, you may get a
drop down um and follow-up questions. So, if you're saying that yes, your child does have an individual educational plan, they're just going to ask a couple questions. Um, and it is the same with the gifted question below.
And then they're going to ask for the language. You would click next page and then you would slowly type the address. If you did an out of county address and are trying to come, it is going to be 100 whatever your county
name is. So if you chose Pasco, it's going to be 100 Pasco Street and then you'll see what um a popup address will happen. The county is also going to be the city. The county is also going to have like an
automatic zip code of 9999. Don't worry, we know that that's not your real address. you would just enter in a mailing address. That would be your actual residence. But in order for an out of county application to come in, you're going to have to put it down as 100 and whatever county that you live
in. I'm just going to use the admin building. Um, and it should self-populate. But sometimes with a test, I'm just going to go ahead and fill it in for sake of time.
The uncheck box here is where you would add in your address if you are an out of county resident. So the address did populate. So the suggestion will come up. You can click it there.
It'll then ask about the contact. Your information will populate. Um you'll put your address in. You'll put a phone number in and then you can choose what contact type.
Save. If you wish to, and it's optional for this first part, you can always add someone on. You can add a second contact on. It is totally up to you. Um, if you don't fill in a mandatory field, you'll get the same message that I just
did. Um, and then it's going to click to sign. You'll just sign your name, sign the date, submit, and finish. You will get a confirmation email that then um lets you
know that you did um submit for enrollment. When this stops spinning, you're going to get an option that comes up that's going to ask you to go back to the port hole. When you go back to the portal, it's
then going to be this um take me to the focus portal. You can add as many students as you want there. I'm just going to not waste your time tonight and just you got the basic idea of how um we're going to take you to the
main portal and you can now see that student that you just added to apply for a special assignment request. You're just going to come down and you're going to see the 2627. And this is the step where if you got those error messages, those are going to
come up. However, I just filled out the form. So, my application should pop up. So, this will have the information I just entered. If it's incorrect, um you if you are a current student, you would just contact
your current school. If you are an active student or you um are new to the county, just reach out to the student assignment office and we'll be able to assist with getting that information. So, underneath that demographic information, you're going to see where
we have some of the priority requests. So, this is where if you are entering PCS or Penelis County Schools for the first time due to military transfer, you would put down yes. It gives you an option below, which we'll show you. um or you could just email your transfer
orders so that when we go through the review period, we can make sure that we verify that um military claim for you. It's going to ask if you're a full PCS employee. If you are, it's going to ask for your work email.
And then this is also where those state the um mandatory like is it foster care? Is it a legal reason why your child is being asked to move? It'll then ask you to choose the program.
So once you get there, you're just going to choose. So the address that I entered is zone for Mildred Helms, but maybe I work closer to um Brooker Creek. So I want to choose Brooker Creek to apply. I'm just going to put number one for the
school that I apply for. I do want to give one heads up. If you um are a current student or it's looking at next year's enrollment. So, if the school you're applying for is your zone school, you don't need to do a special
assignment request for your zone school, you may see one of those options are grayed out. It's because we already have you in the system attending that school next year. If you have a sibling, you would enter it here. And you're just entering the
sibling name, the date of birth. Um, if you know the student ID, you could put it and then you click save. Other than that, you can upload the documents here. So, and that's select. If you're doing it on your cell phone, you can use the
camera function. If you're doing on a laptop or computer, you can easily upload or drag one of the files that you already have on Then you're just going to hit submit. A popup will go and just reminding you that we will grant based on capacity and
then that you would also be providing your own transportation. You would hit okay and the application's complete. So getting there might be depending on if you're new um or need to do that first form. If you were a current student
and you were linked, all you have to do when you sign into your focus portal, you'll come here and you just have to click next to the name and then click the application. If you get an error message, you're just going to click the form summary.
So, that's basically how to apply. Um, I'm going to put up the student assignment contact information. So, if you have any questions or concerns, you'll know where to reach. And then in just a minute, I'm going to take some of the questions that are
coming in. So, one of the questions says, "Am I able to request a special assignment for a school closer to my job?" And the answer is yes. So um you just need to apply. You can put down
special assignment request or for up to one choice. So you can put select one school. Um when the results come out um you will be notified if you're given an offer or it'll give you a wait list number and you'll be able to make a decision at that time. Um the initial application because this is a new
platform this year. The initial acceptance period is going to kind of you're going to get to do it almost like the magnet fundamental where you go back in and check. After that initial period, it'll be my office will be reaching out and we'll be posting a a timeline and a
schedule. Um we're just trying to make it easier to know when offers will be coming out. So we'll be having posted on like on this week in this window when is when the next round is coming. And then we reach out. So we do an email to anyone getting an offer and then we
follow up with a phone call. So at any point after that initial acceptance period when we do rounds throughout the spring, we do the summer and then we open it up throughout the school year. So we're always looking at capacity and if we're able to make that happen, we
do. Um sorry to get to the questions. Um, if I completed a a magnet or fundamental application but also complete a special assignment request, will the special assignment request void
the DAP application or are they separate processes? So, they are very much separate processes. You can have an application in for both. What I do want to caution you is whatever comes in last and you accept last. So, you might get a
magnet or fundamental offer. Um, so let's say you applied for St. Pete High construction and you really just want to be at St. Pete High, so you also applied for a special assignment request. The DAP offer might come out. So you might
accept that construction seat, but then still be on um or wait to hear about the SAR. If you were then at a later date offered the SAR, if you accept that, that was the latest thing to happen. So that's going to be what sticks. So my
office is also very careful if we see that you did accept a magnet or fundamental seat, we will let you know when we reach out that if you accept the special assignment request, you're forfeiting that seat. And it could be the opposite. Maybe you get a special
assignment request first and then you're offered a seat at a magnet school. If you then accept the seat at the magnet school, you're forfeiting the SR. So, whatever is the last action taken is what will kind of override or supersede
um any previous. But we try to make that clearer when we're reaching out either by email or phone calls that if you do accept either the magnet or the s that would be forfeiting the other seat. Okay. So, if they've been Yes. So if
they are at a nonzone school, so let's say for there's a question in there about preK3 and VPK. So maybe you're attending preK3 and VPK at a non-zone school. You won't automatically roll up. If you are a current VPK student, your
next year registration will automatically go to your zone school. So, if you are, and I'm making this up, if you are attending Lake View Fundamentals VPK program, preK program, you don't necessarily roll up into their
fundamental program or if that was a zone school, you would go to your zone school. So, if you were at a current program, Perkins is another example, um other schools that have preK and they're not your zone school, you would have to
apply for a special assignment request. So there is a question if our address is out of county they are automatically weight listed. Not necessarily. Um what will happen is we look at the number of seats that are available and it all depends on how many people apply. So
let's say a school had 15 seats available and eight people apply and two of those are out of county. um because there's more seats than the number of people applied, we'd be able to grant all of those. Um if we only wait if we
have more applicants than the number of available seats and at that time um if more people apply, there is a lottery piece. So the lottery is run and it's a randomized function. Um but there are those weights. So if you remember when I
talked about priorities, there's like the military transfers. There are some weighted priorities. Um I do expect um with this new platform and now that we can have everybody in the same system, I do expect that we'll be able to have some out ofount offers going out in the
first round. So the 2627 is not going to be there. The application window opens at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, January 19th. So, if you go in right now, you're going to see a current year link. Um, we keep our open
enrollment options open all year. Um, but we'll do windows. So, while one's open, the other one's down. Just try to not confuse people so you're not applying for the wrong year. Um, we will totally have it open and available. You'll be able to see the 2627 link 9:00
a.m. on Monday and it'll run all the way through 5:00 p. p.m. on January 30th. So, that's another great question. Do incoming kindergartens have to wait till until summer? So, we have had multiple discussions over this over the year and
we're and no, we were going to be getting those responses out earlier. Um, typically kindergartens tend to be um a little bit slower to enroll and we don't want to we don't want to give too many seats away where there's not enough for the zone population. Um, but with some
of the logistics and looking at some of the historical data, um, we're pretty comfortable, um, that we should be able to get those out sooner this year. Um, we want to make sure that we're giving you plenty of time to make in informed decisions. Um, sorry, there's another question in
there about what time the application period opens. So, 9:00 a.m. this upcoming Monday, the application period will open. If I am Oh, that's a good question. If I am awarded an SR, could it be revoked if they need the seat for a zone student in
subsequent years? So, our policy is no. Our policy is if you weren't awarded a special assignment request, you will get to stay there until the highest grade level. Now I do caution because sometimes if there's a service delivery or there might be a change in what is
needed um that service code delivery may cause that we need to look at a different setting. Um but that's I think it's happened like one time in five years where we haven't been able to accommodate that. So you're there for the full year. Now, if you're
excessively tardy, if we're having major behavior issues, there may be some reasons where they look to put you back at the zone school, but if you are granted, you're there to the highest grade level. And so, this is going to be new to for our out ofount residents because they can now apply during the
system. Um, SAPS where was the special attendance permit used to be a paper form and you would apply if you were out of county. You're now going to be able to go in county. the SAP or if you are out of county, you will need to um apply
for the next grade level configuration. So, we just sent phone calls and emails out today for those families that are impacted. If you have reached fifth grade and you're out of county, you would need to reapply for a special assignment request now, not the special attendance permit
um for sixth grade and to continue. So, it's that highest grade level. If you're out of county, you would just need to apply for a new school for the next one. So, from elementary to middle and then from middle to high. Which program will help my kid get to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, or
Stanford? I will tell you, every single one of our high schools offers AP classes. Every one of our high schools also also offers opportunities for some dual enrollment and college credit classes. Um we've got very strong
programs. We just hit our highest uh graduation rate. So um there are ones that I will that families favor and sometimes I don't get why because I I've been on almost every school campus and there's great stuff going but sometimes
word of mouth gets out and and I don't see it. Um, I go on that campus and that's why I recommend if you can tour, go ask the school for a tour, see for yourself. Um, but we do have schools that are more popular than others. Um, but all of them I I feel offer some
pretty strong offerings and some pretty great options. So, the priorities mentioned are given the same weight. There's a question on if the priorities mentioned are given the same weight. So some due to like some intergovernmental um compacts and some state mandates, we
do have a weighted system. So the mil the coming into our district for the first time as a military family does have a heavier weight um than some of the others. We then have um the school that if you were previously attended,
you have ones with like the sibling and then the legal. So the legal conditions there's like those different ones foster care court order those all have the same weight they are weighted a little bit differently if I awarded an S could it be re Oh
sorry I answered that question already um when do we find out if we get the seat does incoming kindergarten have Okay so you will not need to wait till the summer um the actual deadline or or date for the acceptance period. We don't have posted right now. It's a new
platform. Um, as soon as we get the first rounds of the magnet and fundamental programs out with the lottery and see how that works, I'll be able to do. Um, my hope is by the end of February, we should be have the first round of SS out. So, just like magnet
fundamentals ending this Friday, we open up the SRS next Monday. I'm hoping that it's going to be that quick with the acceptance period. Magna fundamental acceptance period ends. Um SAR acceptance period starts the next
Monday. Um we are looking into if there's any way possible we can run the lottery during the magnet fundamental acceptance. We're just not going to know that until we get through the first deployment of the acceptance period. But our goal is you should have answers
either way um by the end of February. So, there's a question on for the S for the nonzone high school, do you have to apply every year? Um, my jer will be a junior in the fall. So, the answer is no. Once you get an offer, you are there to the highest grade level. So, if you
got in and got a special assignment request as a freshman, you get to stay to the senior year. Yes, it is a lot, which is one of the reasons there was a comment about it being a lot. It's one of the reasons we try to do the YouTube. We will post this
on our website. My office staff are also trained and versed on how to answer. So, if you have follow-up questions, um, if you want to know a little bit more on the intricacies or your question about like some of those options, I encourage you to reach out to student assignment.
You can email us at studentassignmentpsb.org. You can call us at 727-588-6210. Um, but we are here to help you. Um, we want to make sure that we're doing everything we can and we're supporting you as you make these important decisions. Um, for that,
so a great question just came in. Is the SAR lottery or first come first serve? So the initial application period which is what's going to open up on Monday that is a lottery. So during the initial application period it's a lottery it's
randomized. We will then have subsequent late application periods. So people who are moving in people who might change their mind want something different. We'll have late application periods offered and we'll have those posted um hopefully in the next week or two once
we see a little bit better timeline and how long it's going to take. Um, so the late application is where the timestamp comes into place. So the original lottery results will be there. If we have more people apply than their seats,
we have a late list is generated. And when you go in to accept, you'll see a tenative weight list number at that time. Um, and that's going to change as people accept or decline the offer. If you're applying in the late application period, that's when it timestamps it. And then if you apply and
there's a wait list of 26 when you apply you'll be 27. Someone comes in after you you'll be they'll be 28. So it's in that late application period same thing as the magnet and fundamental that you'll go um in timestamped order at the bottom
of any weight list initial lottery. Okay. So there's a question about um a late SAR being um granted. We just granted the around right before winter break so that they could start at the beginning of semester 2 and we've been calling offers um at the end of last
week and this week. So we look approximately every two weeks and if there's seats that are there we reach out. So if you haven't heard from us it's just because a seat hasn't become available yet. Um, so we're trying and we look at that um, every two to three
weeks we're getting a next round out. So if you haven't heard from us yet, um, you're on the wait list. Uh, and we as soon as a seat becomes available and we can accommodate it, we're emailing and phone calling with those offers. Um, just looking to see if there's any
questions I haven't addressed. That looks like from what I can see that looks like we've hit all the questions. Um, so we'll try to come up with this and do like a look at for the most frequently asked questions and get that out on our website just to be able to better assist you. There is um
pcsb.orgs. If you hit that, that'll give you some information. We'll have this video there. We're also going to post kind of like I walked you through it, but we'll have a PDF with step by step with the screenshots on it. And like I said, my
office is always available. U we are located at the administrative building. So 3014th Street North or Southwest in Largo. You're more than welcome to come in. Our our doors are open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Um we will help you.
We've got computers in our front lobby. We'll be happy to help you apply. um or just give us a call or email and we will be happy to address any of your questions or concerns. Um at this time, sorry,
can I do I can do a late SR for non-zone school and would have no. So that's a good question. Let me rephrase it. If you wanted to apply for late S now, so that would be for the current 2526 school year, you can. That current year
one's going to go down next week, for the next couple weeks, just because I don't want people getting confused. We're only going to have the next year application window open next week. You can apply for both. If you get an offer for the current year, you're obviously
not going to need the the next year one. we would go ahead and decline it at that time. Um, or if you don't get an offer this year, you'd have that application in. So, you would be on the wait list or get an offer for next year. So, you can definitely do both and it's not going to
impact either application. So, another good question just came in. Um, if we don't get the S in the initial lottery, do I need to apply or reapply each late application period? So that answer is no. We do dissolve the wait
list at the end of the school year. So the initial application that's happening now, if you didn't get an initial offer, you'll be on a wait list. That'll continue all the way up through like the end of April of the 26 27th school year. So there's no need to apply within each
window. There is a need to apply. If we get through the school year and you didn't get an offer, you can apply. And just like the question right before, like if I apply for a late now and a next year, will that impact either one? At least that way you you have your options open. So you can definitely
apply for both, but you do not need to reapply during the late application period because that'll actually take your higher number. It'll count it as a new application and you'll go to the bottom of the weight list. So, if you're on that weight list, don't reapply. Unless you contact us us and you find
out like you're 150 on a wait list and there's another school that has available seats, you could reapply to a different program. So, if you choose to try for a different school, you could reapply and change your mind with that option as well.
I think I've hit all the questions. If you didn't get your question answer or I missed it, just please reach out. Once again, it's student assignment pcsb.org is our email address. Our phone number is 727-588-6210. Um we're open um 8 a.m. to 4:30 Mondays
through Fridays. We will be posting some different parent assistant nights. So, we try to get to a school in South County, North County, and Midount just to be there in case people want some help applying or need questions answered. Um, but me and my staff are
more than happy to assist and help you find the school that's best for your family. Thank you so much for joining us tonight and I hope you have a great night.