The district’s annual “Choice” process, which allows parents and students to apply for a seat in any neighborhood school in the district on a space-available basis, begins today and runs through Friday, Jan. 31.

Parents wanting the best chance to secure a seat in a school outside their neighborhood school boundary should have completed enrollment forms for the 2003-2004 school year returned by that date. “Choice” forms are available at all schools. A lottery will be conducted if there are more applicants than space available in any school.

After Jan. 31, “Choice” forms must be completed at the school of interest and are considered on a first-come, first-served basis.

The "Choice" process differs from the many magnet programs throughout the district. Magnet programs conduct their own admission and application process. Some magnet applications deadlines match the Jan. 31 deadline for the "Choice" process. Others have already passed for the 2003-2004 school year.

However, several proposals pending before the Denver Board of Education could, if approved, begin with the 2003-2004 school year.

The proposals include a new International Preparatory Magnet (IPM) program at Smiley Middle School (2540 Holly St.); adding high achieving students to the Highly Gifted program at Gust Elementary School (3440 W. Yale Ave.); and adding Carson Elementary School (5420 E. 1st Ave.) to the list of schools serving highly gifted and high achieving students in southeast Denver.

Comment on the proposals is being sought at the Thursday, Jan. 9 meeting of the Board. That meeting is scheduled for Academia Ana Marie Sandoval (3655 Wyandot St.) beginning at 7 p.m. (Please call 720-423-3210 by 4 p.m. that day to speak at the public hearing.)

The Board may formally consider the proposals at its Regular Meeting on Thursday, Jan. 16.

Under the plan for the Smiley IPM program, students who attend Morey, Cole, Gove, Randolph, King, and Noel middle schools and who successfully apply to the magnet would be eligible for transportation. The program would be modeled after the highly successful IPM at Hamilton Middle School. The Smiley program would begin with sixth-graders in 2003-2004 and expand to about 150 students over the following two years.

At Gust Elementary School, about 25 additional “high achieving” students would be eligible to apply to attend the Highly Gifted program. Gust’s Highly Gifted feeder schools are Barnum, Castro, College View, Doull, Force, Godsman, Goldrick, Grant Ranch, Johnson, Kaiser, Knapp, Munroe, Newlon, Sabin, Schenck, Schmitt, Traylor and Valverde elementary schools. Transportation would be provided under district guidelines.

In the Hilltop neighborhood in east Denver, Carson Elementary School would join Cory Elementary School (1550 S. Steele St.) and Southmoor Elementary School (3755 S. Magnolia Way) as schools serving highly gifted and high achieving students in southeast Denver.

At Southmoor, highly gifted students are served in a self-contained program. At Cory, groups of highly gifted students are placed in classrooms throughout the school. The program at Carson would place highly gifted and high achieving students in up to three designated magnet classrooms.

The plan calls for all new highly gifted students from Carson feeder schools in grades one through four to be able to choose to attend either Carson or Cory with transportation provided. All new fifth graders and students from Southmoor feeder schools may continue to choose Southmoor or Cory.

Current program students at Southmoor from Carson feeder schools who will be in grades four or five next year will be able to finish there with transportation provided.

Current program students from Carson feeder schools who will be in grades two or three next year may continue at Southmoor and receive transportation if there is space on an existing bus route. Those students may also choose to attend Carson or Cory with transportation provided.

Proposed feeder schools for Carson would be Bromwell, Carson, Del Pueblo, Fallis, Fairmont, Greenlee, Lincoln, Lowry, Steck, Steele and Whiteman elementary schools. Transportation would be provided within district guidelines.

Another group of schools that provide a variety of choices to parents in Denver are the district’s 10 charter schools and the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning (a school co-managed by four school districts) at 1700 S. Holly St.

Three more charter schools are scheduled to join the DPS charter school family with the 2003-2004 school year.

The new three charters are Northeast Academy (to be located in Montbello), Denver Big Picture High School (scheduled to open at 5900 E. 39th Ave.) and the Life Skills Center of Denver (at an undecided location near central Denver).

For more information about Denver Big Picture High School, call Miguel Bernal or Jeff Parks at the Colorado Children’s Campaign, 303-839-1580, ext. 224; for more about Northeast Academy call Janet Darnell at 303-307-8837; for more about Life Skills Center contact Pierre Jimenez at 303-618-9750.

For more enrollment information, please visit the DPS Today web site.