PolkMoms.com

I don't want my son to attend the highschool we are zoned for. Does anyone know where I can start in regards to changing his school? He's going to have trouble if he ends up at the school he's zoned for and I'm trying to head this off. We moved here from Miami-Dade county and I don't know how things work here in Polk or if there's even a way to do this. He's in 8th grade right now.

Good luck with that. I have tried a couple different times to get an out of zone transfer for my child. I filled out the required paperwork & was denied. I called & spoke to someone at the school board & was told it couldn't and wasn't going to happen. I finally just went around the system & registered under my parent's address.

With me I really didn't have a problem with the school my child was zoned for. My concern was the school was 30 plus minutes from my work. Maybe it sounds silly, but that was just too far for me. Plus, they would going to my parent's after school, (the school is less than a block from their house) so to me, it just made sense to have my child there. Seconds from my parents & 5 minutes from my work.

Wow, see in Miami-Dade you could move your child's school based on where your work was located....

I hope I can find a way. I don't have any other releatives I can say we live with up here.

Have you thought of looking into magnet or charter schools? I am also in the same boat as you and refuse to let my kids go to the middle and high schools we are zoned for. I have them on the Mckeel waiting list and am getting on the Union acadamy waiting list as well. Look into charter schools, you'll be plesantly surprised.
PS - I'm also a Miami-Dade Transplant!

My daughter seems to have quite a few friends that do not live in our school district. I know that two of them asked the school board for permission and this was granted. One of the girls is in zoned for Mulberry and goes all the way to Lakeland High School.
Maybe if your start requesting permission now you will have an answer by the time your son is ready to start high school.

opting out of your zoned school for another is possible with the right paperwork and a good reason. If you don't feel right about saying why or where you are zoned, Private message me and I can give you more details on what you might be able to do.

I need to know where it is you might like your son to go? The magnet school, Summerlin Academy in Bartow, has had rave reviews.

My 12 and 13 year olds go to a magnet middle school, Union Academy. It is WONDERFUL! I love that school and feel so blessed that my boys are there.

Thanks everyone. It's my mission in life right now to figure this one out...
llymom3-> When I looked at the polk county website for my magnet school options only Summerlin came up... which looks awesome but I thought my son was going to have heart failure when I showed him the school on-line... He has no interest to be in a military type program..
I have heard that if a school in another district offers a program yours does not , you can go to that school...does anyone know if this is true?

quote:

Originally posted by Shawn Arnold:
opting out of your zoned school for another is possible with the right paperwork and a good reason. If you don't feel right about saying why or where you are zoned, Private message me and I can give you more details on what you might be able to do.

I need to know where it is you might like your son to go? The magnet school, Summerlin Academy in Bartow, has had rave reviews.

My 12 and 13 year olds go to a magnet middle school, Union Academy. It is WONDERFUL! I love that school and feel so blessed that my boys are there.

I am curious about what the right wording would be. After filling out the the required paperwork (more than once, tried for 2 separate school years) and even had a letter from the principal I wanted my child to go to school at okaying the request, & still the school board denied my request more than once. I was told that child care or lack of, or even distance from your job is not & could not be considered a hardship to justify a zoning change.

Also, speaking of magnet schools what is exactly the trick to get in? I have had my child on the waiting list for BEA for 4 years now. I called last month curious of where they was on list and we are #48! I called at the start of last school year & we were 79, so we did move up slowly, but at this rate I seriously doubt we will get in for the elementary years.

I did try this for little man, and what I found out was this does have alot to do with the schools themselves, the "transfer" was approved but the principal from the other schools were the ones who denied it, basically they said they wanted to keep the openings for the children in thier zones. So even though you may get approved the final say is up to that school.

quote:

Originally posted by -1 TIRED MOMMY:
I did try this for little man, and what I found out was this does have alot to do with the schools themselves, the "transfer" was approved but the principal from the other schools were the ones who denied it, basically they said they wanted to keep the openings for the children in thier zones. So even though you may get approved the final say is up to that school.

The school you want to transfer from or the school you want to transfer to?? I was denied the first year and someone adviced me to get a letter from the principal of the school I wanted my child to go to okaying the request & even with that I was still denied.

It was extremely frustrating doing everything by the book & get denied multiple times.
I am just curious how others have received approval.

quote:

Originally posted by Rella123:

quote:

Originally posted by -1 TIRED MOMMY:
I did try this for little man, and what I found out was this does have alot to do with the schools themselves, the "transfer" was approved but the principal from the other schools were the ones who denied it, basically they said they wanted to keep the openings for the children in thier zones. So even though you may get approved the final say is up to that school.

The school you want to transfer from or the school you want to transfer to?? I was denied the first year and someone adviced me to get a letter from the principal of the school I wanted my child to go to okaying the request & even with that I was still denied.

It was extremely frustrating doing everything by the book & get denied multiple times.
I am just curious how others have received approval.

Actually I was approved by the school board, but denied by the principal of the school I was trying to attend. So, Little Man ended up at a charter school, there was nothing I could do at that point.

Well,
I've spoken with the school board who is telling me that I have a better chance changing my son's high school if my son is interested in one of the "academies" offered by a school, that is not offered at the school we are zoned for ( this only works when you're dealing with high school).
We looked at the career academies offered by the school we're interested in and he turned his nose up...
However, to my surprise, he was somewhat receptive to Summerlin Academy, which is having open enrollment. He is not happy at all with the uniforms as he's a kid who goes out of his way to be different. But he's into martial arts and the ocean and they offer Scuba Diving and Judo there.
So I applied, now I'm hoping he gets in there. If not , then I'm off to fight the system again.

Thanks everyone for your responses, it's been very helpful.

Open enrollment for Magnet/Charter schools is in January. There are some schools that I can mention off the top of my head that i've heard real good things about, including Summerlin, which you already know about. There is Union Academy, McKeel Acadamy, Lincoln, Rochelle School of Arts, Bartow Academy. Keep an eye out on the Polk County website, come the first of the year, and there will be lots of information thre. I have my kids on the list for McKeel AND, if they don't get in, I'll be going to Union which I've heard nothing but wonderful things about!