Boston Public Schools Delay Lottery Results Until April
The Boston Public Schools announced Friday that the first round of school assignment lottery results won’t be released until early April, which might complicate the school selection process for local families.
Families who plan to enroll their children in Boston Public Schools preference at least six schools, and as many as 10-14 schools, during the selection process. The school system then uses an algorithim similar to a lottery to determine which school the child will attend.
Denise Snyder, director of media relations for Boston Public Schools, told Boston.com the results will depend on the outcome of the March 25 vote on budget recommendations. During this meeting, the school committee will determine whether or not to close Elihu Greenwood Leadership Academy, Rogers Middle School, West Roxbury Academy, Community Academy, and/or the Middle School Academy program.
The number of schools closed will determine when the school assignments are released. Snyder said if no schools are closed, the results will be released quickly. If some schools are stripped from the list of choices, Snyder said it will take an as yet undetermined amount of time to implement the algorithm, as well as to ensure there are no errors.
“Everyone in the system knows this is so important for families, so we’re going to be working around the clock for them,’’ she said. “We’re going to plan accordingly to staff our call centers. It’s only fair, given the situation, and we don’t want to leave any families behind.’’
The first registration period began January 5 and lasted through January 30 for kindergarten, and grades six and nine. In the past, notification results from the first registration round have been sent to families in mid-March.
The traditional timing has been helpful to families considering private schools as an alternative for their kids. Most private schools in the area mail admission decision letters on March 10. The amount of time families have to accept a decision varies by school.
The Boston Children’s School, a private school in Boston’s West End, usually gives families until April 1 to confirm a position in the fall class. Judy Langer, the school’s director, said many private schools were hoping to receive decisions by the end of March, which won’t be possible this year.
“The public schools decision to delay the notification is going to affect all private schools in a not-so-great way,’’ she said. “I have been here for 34 years, and we have begged Boston Public Schools to work with us. We would love to sit down with them and talk about this. They haven’t.’’
Langer said the school will be forced to give parents longer to decide, but she isn’t yet sure how much longer they’ll give them.
“These are families that have been with us for two to three years,’’ she said. “These are our children. We can’t say ‘you have to make a decision or you’ll lose your spot.’ That’s not fair.’’
Joe Broughton, director of communications for The Winsor School in Boston, said the school will not alter its scheduled dates. Families will have until April 10 to respond, which he said will give them a full month to reserve a place.
“While a quarter of our students live in Boston, we have families applying from more than 50 cities and towns throughout the greater Boston area,’’ he said. “We set the dates for our admission process long in advance so families can plan accordingly.’’
Snyder said Boston Public Schools did consider that families might be deciding between private schools, but the district ultimately decided pushing the notification back was the best course of action.
“If we let people know now and families got assigned to schools that were closed, we’d have to tell them to make choices from what’s left or we’d have to place them in the schools that were left,’’ she said. “Chance are, if there’s seats available in those schools, they aren’t the most high performing. We need to make sure they have access like everyone else. We know this puts families in a difficult position.’’
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