Hamilton county schools continued with their magnet school lottery today---drawing numbers for students who applied for the limited number of seats.
The school district feels it's the fairest way to deal with anxious parents.
You may remember scenes like this showing tents --set-up by parents on the campus of the magnet school where they want their kids to go. Some were there for a week. Getting a seat in class is a lot easier these days.
KARLA RIDDLE "The school board decided a couple of years ago they didn't like that process..they wanted something that was much more transparent..and with an acyclic drum, I don't think you can get anymore transparent than what we're doing."
For more than 5 hours today numbers were drawn from that drum for seats in the county's magnet schools.
KARLA RIDDLE, DIR. INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS "It's much different than...we use technology where we put all the information in computers....send it over to our information technology place..they punched a button and gave us the numbers back."
Entry into some Magnet schools are handled differently.
CSLA and CSAS parents must make formal visits before they get an application while the Center for Creative Arts requires an audition.
And, there's another factor.
KARLA RIDDLE "One of the things people need tp consider..as we're drawing the tickets..that's not a total guarentee that there's a seat to be offered." "The principal will tell us how many seats they predict they'll have available for magnet seats."
Parents who showed up in person, rather than watch the drawing on-line, were impressed.
NICHOLE HALL, MOTHER OF 2 STUDENTS "Actually, I think the process is a really good process..you can see things happening right before your eyes."
Notices to parents will go out in Monday's mail.
Also, the results will be posted on the Hamilton county Department of Education website on Wednesday.
