School assignments leave some parents dissatisfied
By: Andrea Koskey
Examiner Staff Writer
March 16, 2009
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| Tough luck: Families that do not receive one of their seven choices of San Francisco public schools can try again in the second round of the assignment system. |
SAN FRANCISCO — Matt Rozen is one of the thousands of San Francisco Unified School District parents who did not receive any of the campuses they listed for their children. His 5-year-old daughter is entering kindergarten this fall.
“It’s sad she didn’t get in, but it proves this is a bit of a crapshoot,” he said. “It’s a bit like going to college, but its kindergarten.”
The school district estimates 22 percent of the 14,000 families who applied are in a similar situation as Rozen, failing to receive one of the seven choices they indicated on their applications for the controversial school-assignment system.
As part of the district’s assignment program, each family is asked to apply to as many as seven different schools, ranking them from most preferred to least. When there are more requests for a school than spots available, students are assigned based on a lottery that factors in several socioeconomic factors.
The system is controversial because children are often assigned to schools far away from home or are forced to attend a school they did not apply to.
Families can try again for their No. 1 choice by taking a chance in the second-round lottery. Applications are due by March 27 for the next round.
Rozen’s daughter was placed in Jose Ortega Elementary School. Rozen said Sunset Elementary, however, was the family’s No. 1 choice because of its accessibility on his route to work.
Sunset was also the top choice of Rozen’s sister, Jenny Benjamin, so they could send their daughters to school together. Benjamin’s daughter, however, was accepted.
“It seems incredibly arbitrary that we got it and they didn’t,” Benjamin said of her brother’s bad luck.
Hedy Chang, 44, of West Portal said although her son received his first choice for middle school, the process is biased toward parents who have the time and resources to check out each school. Chang’s 10-year-old son, Neil Chin, will attend Herbert Hoover Middle School in the fall. She said they chose the school because of its band program and the close proximity to home.
“It’ll be nice to have him at a neighborhood school,” Chang said. “We haven’t had that before.”
