For some parents, they’ve just got into this year’s school routine but it’s already time to start planing for next school year.
Hillsborough County Public Schools is now accepting applications from families interested in having their students attend a magnet school in the 2024-25 school year. The first application window closes Dec. 15 at 11:59 p.m.
Computers sort through all the applications after the window closes and then, through a lottery selection process for elementary and middle magnet schools and criteria-based selection process for magnet high schools, offers go out in late Jan. or early Feb. 2024. Parents have a brief window during which an offer must be accepted before it expires.
With 42 national and global award-winning magnet schools that boast more than 80 programs for students, there’s plenty of options to best meet the needs of students.
Lincoln Elementary Magnet School, an authorized International Baccalaureate (IB) school since 2007, is the only magnet elementary school in Plant City. Its International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme offers an academic curriculum that focuses on the whole child and teaches students to be inquirers, communicators and open-minded thinkers. From its Spanish classes to strings classes, robotics club to chess club, students have opportunities to engage in activities that interest them while learning transdisciplinary units of study. It also offers bus service to its students in Plant City, Valrico and Seffner.
With 475 IB students, the school has about 80 spots in kindergarten and approximately five to 10 available spots in every other grade level. In a typical year, they receive 120 applications for kindergarten and 215 total applications. Lead teacher Sarah Keel said she’s already given tours to two families. “If you want your child to come here next year, apply now because we just don’t have as many slots available,” she said.
Kindergarten teacher Julie Hamilton’s daughter Hailey won the lottery two years ago and attended the school as a kindergarten student. Hamilton, who had been teaching at Wilson Elementary for 18 years, was impressed by what her daughter was learning at school. “She was coming home and telling me what she was learning in the IB program and I thought it was amazing,” she said.
As the school year was ending, her daughter’s teacher told her the school was going to be hiring a teacher. “My daughter encouraged me to be a risk taker,” said Hamilton. “I thought it was so cute how she encouraged me to take that leap.”
Representatives from Lincoln will be in attendance at a county-wide Magnet & CTE Expo Wednesday, Nov. 8 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at ZooTampa. Prospective families can attend an open house at the school on Tuesday, Nov. 14 from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. or 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Representatives will also be on-hand at a regional magnet event on Thursday, Nov. 30 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Spoto High School.
Keel’s own children went to Lincoln, then Williams Middle Magnet School in Tampa and finally to Strawberry Crest High School as IB students. “We teach communication skills, research skills, time management, material management, thinking skills and all of those things are things you need just to be successful in life,” she said.
A list of all virtual Magnet events can be found at hillsboroughschools.org/magnet. Applications and more are available at hcps.net. To schedule a tour of Lincoln Elementary Magnet School, email Keel at sarah.keel@hcps.net or call 813-757-9329.