.
Thanks to organizer Julie Hoang and the Friends of Playa Vista Elementary School, another fabulous gathering of parents convened last night curious to learn about their public Middle School options on the Westside.
It’s never too early to learn “the lay of the land” so time can be spent touring, gathering info, talking to parents and collecting school impressions –all which will help formulate your school plan.
Westside Guide to Public Elementary School
and
Westside Guide to Middle School
newly revised and updated for the 2014-15 school year!
$20 each. Click HERE to purchase.
Shopping Middle Schools on the Westside? Then you’ll want to check this out.
Thurs, October 24th starting at 6p, a dozen area middle schools will be under one roof at Mark Twain Middle School presenting their pitches, power points and pamphlets. Come, listen, learn. Afterward there’ll be a chance to walk up to each school table and ask questions.
And of course, I’ll be there to help focus you on your options.
WESTSIDE MIDDLE SCHOOL FORUM!
Thurs, October 24, 2013 6-8:30p
at Mark Twain Middle School
2224 Walgrove Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90066
It’s FREE!
Shopping Middle Schools on the Westside? Then you’ll want to check this out.
Thurs, October 24th starting at 6p, a dozen area middle schools will be under one roof at Mark Twain Middle School presenting their pitches, power points and pamphlets. Come, listen, learn. Afterward there’ll be a chance to walk up to each school table and ask questions.
And of course, I’ll be there to help focus you on your options.
WESTSIDE MIDDLE SCHOOL FORUM!
Thurs, October 24, 2013 6-8:30p
at Mark Twain Middle School
2224 Walgrove Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90066
It’s FREE!
Thanks to organizers Julia Morgan and Sandi Wise, and the VNC Ed Committee. Thanks also to Mark Twain for hosting. No thanks to Venice HS (originally pegged to host) who had so much school pride they wouldn’t allow their space to be shared with a mix of charters, pilots, and magnets. Well, likely it was only the charters and pilot. Seriously? How HS of them!
Every year LAUSD offers up a list of schools that have seats available to anyone who would like to apply for them through a process called Open Enrollment (OE). This is an easy way to transfer to another school without having to jump through all the hoops one typically does with the permitting process.
Every year the District determines which schools will have open seats and how many for the following fall, then posts the list in May on their website. Schools are listed under their Educational Service Center: North, South, East, or West.
During the application window, which opened this year on Mon, May 6th and closes on Fri, May 24th, you may go to as many of the OE schools listed and apply for a seat. Applications are available at each school site, and are a brief one-page transfer request.
At the end of the application period, if there are more seats than applicants, everyone who applied will be offered enrollment. If there are more applicants than seats, the school site will hold its own lottery to determine who gets offered enrollment and the sequence of their waitlist. You may apply to as many OE schools as you like. Once enrolled on an OE transfer, you do not need to reapply each year.
For more info, see
LAUSD OE info page:
http://tinyurl.com/lyg2aj3
2013-14 Open Enrollment List
http://tinyurl.com/k6qn8rq
If you applied for the magnet or one of the echoices programs, you should have received both an email (if you applied online) and a hard copy letter in the mail this week announcing your initial results.
If you were waitlisted, do not despair just yet. There is still a long time to go, namely several months and 4 weeks into the school year or mid-September, before things are completely finalized.
If you received an acceptance letter, you have until Friday April 19th, 2013 to either accept or decline the offer. You must respond. If you delay and avoid and do not respond, (eh herm, some people actually think this tactic will work), that will be considered a decline.
After April 19th, remaining seats (by those who declined them in the initial offer) will be offered to the next students on the wait list. This process of working their way down the wait list and offering remaining seats to the next on the list will continue through April, May and June. School offices will close for the month of July but getting all the seats filled will resume again in the beginning of August – through the first day of school, Tuesday August 13th – and continue until all the seats are filled and settled at the end of the 4th week of school, September 13, 2013.
After then, if you still have not received a magnet offer, then your wait list points will become finalized for the 2013-14 school year.
I hope this is clear. Mainly, I hope this gives you some clarity that there’s still plenty of time to get offered a spot. Good luck, all!
SAS, (which stands for Schools For Advanced Studies), will open their application window April 1-April 30th for the 2013-14 school year. Acceptance notifications will come out May 6-10th.
In order to apply to an SAS school, students must meet eligibility requirements, either by being identified as GATE (Gifted and Talented), verified by their teacher and principal, or by meeting specific testing thresholds.
For more on SAS (Schools for Advanced Studies) programs, including eligibility requirements and the list of school programs in each local area, see:
http://www.lausd.net/lausd/offices/GATE/prog-opt-3.html
It also helps to tour specific programs, as each SAS program varies significantly from school to school depending on who runs it, how they run it, and how many students they have in the program.
**Also, since April 1st is Cesar Chavez Day and technically a holiday, SAS apps will actually be accepted beginning April 2nd, not April 1st.
Speaking of charters, we are now fully ensconced in what I refer to as “Charter Season.” The time to tour and get your charter school applications in before their deadlines and lotteries.
While not exhaustive, here’s a select list of some of the upcoming elementary school charter application deadlines and lottery dates around town. Most applications can be downloaded online on the school’s website and either mailed in or physically handed in to their office.
Feel free to peruse my color-coded school finder MAPS for individual school contact info and a direct hyperlink onto their websites. All charters are marked in green on my maps.
Remember, independent charters open their lotteries to anyone from any district. Affiliated conversion charters, an LAUSD hybrid type charter, gives first priority to those residing within the school’s attendance area with any remaining seats going up for lottery to non-residents.
All charters give preference to siblings of existing students, and some charters offer other priorities in their lottery structure, such as to founding families, students residing within LAUSD, or students qualifying for Free/Reduced Meal Plan (ie. low socio-economic status.)
Each lottery is independently operated and instituted by each individual charter school. Applications are handled directly with each school site. There are no points involved, thankfully. If you applied and were waitlisted last year, you need to reapply this year.
Ok, here’s that list.
SELECT UPCOMING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHARTER DEADLINES:
(certainly not an exhaustive list and in no particular order)
Pacific Palisades Charter Complex* Schools — apps avail now in each office, deadline March 11th 12p, lottery March 22nd 8:30a *(schools include Canyon, Kenter Canyon, Palisades, Marquez and Topanga Charters)
WISH — apps avail online now, deadline March 6th 6p, lottery March 15th
Goethe — apps avail online now, deadline Feb 28th, lottery in March tbd
Ocean Charter School — apps avail online now, deadline Jan 25th, lottery Feb 27th 10a
Larchmont Hwd — apps avail now online, deadline Feb 20th 4p, lottery Feb 23rd 9a
Larchmont WeHo — apps avail now online, deadline Feb 8th 4p, lottery Feb 23rd 9a
Citizens of the World/Hwd — apps avail online now, deadline March 1st 4p, lottery March 21st 6p
Citizens of the World/Silver Lake — apps avail online now, deadline tbd, lottery April 4th
Citizens of the World/Mar Vista — – info Mtg 1/31 in MV, apps avail online now, deadline March 1st, lottery April 11th
Los Feliz Schl of the Arts — apps avail online, deadline Feb 28 (by mail) or March 5th 12p (in person), lottery March 5th
Valley Charter — apps avail online, deadline Feb 8th 4p, lottery Feb 22nd 5p
Chime — apps avail online now, deadline March 8th 3p, lottery March 15th
Ararat — call 818.994.2904
Our Community Charter — 818.920.5285
Again, please view my school finder maps for more info and links.
Update! 2 more schools added to the lineup!
Learn all about your Middle School options on the Westside:
Middle School Forum
Thurs, Oct 18th 6-8p – FREE –
Coeur d’Alene EL Auditorium
810 Coeur d’Alene Ave,
Venice, CA 90291.map
.
School representatives from:
Animo Westside MS
Mark Twain MS
Marina del Rey MS
New West Charter
Ocean Charter
Palms MS
Paul Revere MS
Westside Global Awareness Magnet.
Magnolia Science Academy
The City School Charter
For more information please contact Jen Madamba 424.214.7482 or by email Jen.Madamba@kehillatisrael.org by October 8, 2012
GoMamaGuide 