the lottery and how it works
TRANSCRIPT
The TCMS Lottery
The Software
Several years ago, TCMS began using a software program that randomly selects numbers that will be assigned to students (“Lottery ID numbers”).
Prior to purchasing this program, we wrote each student’s name on a key tag, put them in a bucket, pulled the tags one by one and created a list as they were called out.
Over the years, as the school became better known and as the number of applicants increased, the lottery would take hours to complete. After researching several options, we decided to purchase this program which was written by a young man who had sat through a charter school lottery and decided there had to be a better way!
The Day of the Lottery
The lottery will begin promptly at 4PM and will take place in the gym. Because it takes place at the end of the school day, we will not have enough time to set up chairs in the gym. Please plan on standing…
We ask that you do not arrive before 3:45 as we have afternoon pick-up and the parking lot is used at dismissal. We will open the gym doors at 3:50PM
We will begin with 8th grade, move to 7th and finish with 6th grade, as it has the largest number of applicants and will take the longest.
Siblings of currently enrolled students and children of board or faculty members do not have to enter the lottery.
How it Works!
Because the software program does not allow us to enter any information about the applicants (i.e., gender, ethnicity), it can only select the number of applicants it is programmed to select.
You will not know the results the day of the lottery…
WHY??? The numbers the program selects to fill the number of
openings could be all male or all female. It has no idea what gender those numbers represent.
The next morning, once all students have been matched by their ID numbers to the numerical order in which they were selected, the principal may have to balance by gender which could cause students to moved into the “accepted” category and others moved to the waiting list
You do not need to be present at the lottery – it does not impact whether or not your child gets into TCMS
Oftentimes, we have situations where we have siblings who enter the lottery for the same grade where one gets selected within the 133 and the other does not.
We will move the sibling that did not get a spot into the “accepted”category and bump a student to the waiting list.
How is that determined? “Last One In, First One Out” – If we have 150 openings and the 150th student is the last one selected, that student will be moved to the waiting list if another student needs to be moved into the accepted category.
Lottery ID Numbers
The deadline for applications to be eligible for the lottery is 2PM on January 25, 2013.
All data collected by Survey Monkey will be downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet and student names are alphabetized by the students’ last names (A-Z).
If we receive 500 applications for 6th grade, all 500 are assigned a number based on the first letter of the last name (i.e., Aardvark- #1, Zulu - #500).
Those numbers are how we will identify who the students are the day after the lottery in order to provide you with the results.
Number of Openings for the 2013-2014 School Year
We have will post the number of openings in each grade levels on the Enrollment page of our website on the Friday before the lottery. Because siblings/children of board or faculty members automatically get a seat at TCMS, we deduct the number of siblings/children of board and faculty members from the total number of student seats(220).
There may be no openings in 7th or 8th grade at the time of the lottery, so all students will be placed on the waiting list in the order in which they are randomly selected.
On the day of the lottery, we will first enter the name of the school, the grade level and the number of applicants into the program.
We will project the selections on a screen in the gym.
The number on the left side of the screen will be the position drawn (example: 1-500). The number on the right side of the screen will show the lottery ID numbers as they are randomly selected – that is where you will see the number your child was assigned.
This is what you will see
Once we click “Submit”, there will be a slight pause – you will see the #1 in the left box and the right box will show the first lottery ID number that was selected.
The program will then begin the process. It moves rather quickly.
Once all of the student numbers have been selected, the results will print.
We will post the results, by grade level, on the wall in the gym for 30 minutes and then move them to the front doors in the main office until 7AM the next morning.
This is what you will see
We really don’t know
Please do not ask any administrator present at the lottery if your child has been accepted – they will see the same thing you do – a whole bunch of numbers!
Waiting List
Students who are not accepted after balancing and sibling adjustments are made are transitioned into the waiting list in the order in which they are selected.
Example: Student #151 becomes #1 on the waiting list, student #152 becomes #2, etc.
But I was at the lottery and my child was selected #150. You said you had 150 openings!
If you attend the lottery and see that your child was selected in the 150th position, it does not mean that your child will get in – if there are siblings in the same grade level and one is selected in the lottery and the other one is not, we will have to bump a student in order to accommodate that sibling.
The same applies if there is an opening in 7th grade and the student who gets in has a sibling who was entered into the lottery in 6th grade and was not selected for an available seat.
The 6th grader is moved up and the student in the last spot is bumped to the waiting list (last in; first out).
Notification
We will begin notifying families of their child’s acceptance or placement on the waiting list via e-mail starting February 11, 2013.
All families should be notified by February 15, 2013.
Administrative policy prohibits TCMS from giving lottery results over the phone. We respectfully request that you wait until you receive your e-mail notification.
E-mail addresses and Spam/Junk
If your e-mail address changed since you submitted the application, please contact Mrs. Ratcliffe to make sure she has the correct e-mail address on file.
Be sure to enter [email protected] into your Contacts so that any e-mail sent to you from her is not recognized as spam/junk.
Check spam/junk folders daily JUST IN CASE.
If you do not receive any notification by February 15, please call the school.
My child was placed on the waiting list - what happens next?
Students selected in the lottery will receive a document via e-mail that they need to complete and return to the school by a specific date.
If the form is not returned by the date and time specified, the parent has forfeited the child’s seat and the space becomes available. There are no exceptions.
A student on the waiting list shall be contacted.
How will you contact me?
Families of students on the waiting list are contacted first by e-mail.
If there is no response by e-mail within 24 hours, we will attempt to contact you by phone.
Once the contact has been made, parents have 24 hours in which to make a decision.
If there is no response to the phone call, it is assumed that the child will not attend TCMS and the next student on the waiting list is contacted.
When can I expect to be contacted?
The majority of the movement on the waiting lists occurs during February/March (right after the lottery)and then again in July, after the second round of magnet/choice school results are sent.
Students who choose not to attend are replaced through the summer months until the end of the first quarter, and then again at the beginning of the second semester.
Please feel free to contact Mrs. Ratcliffe to check on your child’s waiting list status – we do not notify you each time it changes.
Magnet or Choice Schools
If your child has also been accepted into a magnet or choice program, and TCMS is your #1 choice, you will have to contact the Choice Office directly to decline the seat at the other school.
Once you agree to send your child here, we will contact his/her current school to request assignment to TCMS. We cannot do so if your child is assigned to a magnet or choice school and you have not declined the space.
THANK YOU…
for considering us for your child’s middle school education, and wish you good luck in the upcoming lottery.
Mrs. Ratcliffe has been responsible for the student lottery for the past 14 years and is always available to answer your questions!