Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified runs kindergarten enrollment lotteries; some families not offered seats
April 23, 2024 | Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified, School Districts, California
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Andrea McDonald, identifying herself as from the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, led a live-streamed enrollment lottery for Cornerstone and the district's dual-immersion kindergarten programs and explained how seats would be allocated.
McDonald said the dual-immersion kindergarten has 24 seats and 23 requests, noting, “we have 24 seats available and, we have 23 requests,” meaning every requesting family in that cohort will be offered a seat. She said Cornerstone TK has a single TK class of 24 students but received 33 requests, so “we're going to have to not honor 9 of those requests.” For kindergarten, McDonald said the district has 30 seats and received 44 requests, leaving 14 families who “we won't be able to approve.”
McDonald described the district's prioritization and selection process: applicants with a concurrently attending sibling at Cornerstone (identified as current TK through fourth grade) are prioritized and placed into the first batch; remaining new applicants are put through a randomized sequence. “Each applicant was given a unique number when you applied initially,” she said, and staff use the website random.org to sequence those ID numbers, running the randomizer 10 times to produce a final acceptance order.
During the livestream, McDonald displayed lists of applicant ID numbers for specific cohorts (including dual-immersion students at Lanata Bay and Cornerstone applicants by grade). After running the randomized sequence and printing the final list, staff identified the top-ranked applicants equal to the number of available seats; McDonald said she would verify the lists and counts before sending confirmation emails. A staff member helping with the screen sharing ran the randomizer and said, “This is our final list” after the 10 runs.
The district did not take a formal vote or make a policy change during the session; the meeting was an operational demonstration of the enrollment lottery process. McDonald said families whose ID numbers were not selected would not receive an offer in this round and that all applicants would receive an email notifying them of their status once the lists are finalized.
McDonald said the dual-immersion kindergarten has 24 seats and 23 requests, noting, “we have 24 seats available and, we have 23 requests,” meaning every requesting family in that cohort will be offered a seat. She said Cornerstone TK has a single TK class of 24 students but received 33 requests, so “we're going to have to not honor 9 of those requests.” For kindergarten, McDonald said the district has 30 seats and received 44 requests, leaving 14 families who “we won't be able to approve.”
McDonald described the district's prioritization and selection process: applicants with a concurrently attending sibling at Cornerstone (identified as current TK through fourth grade) are prioritized and placed into the first batch; remaining new applicants are put through a randomized sequence. “Each applicant was given a unique number when you applied initially,” she said, and staff use the website random.org to sequence those ID numbers, running the randomizer 10 times to produce a final acceptance order.
During the livestream, McDonald displayed lists of applicant ID numbers for specific cohorts (including dual-immersion students at Lanata Bay and Cornerstone applicants by grade). After running the randomized sequence and printing the final list, staff identified the top-ranked applicants equal to the number of available seats; McDonald said she would verify the lists and counts before sending confirmation emails. A staff member helping with the screen sharing ran the randomizer and said, “This is our final list” after the 10 runs.
The district did not take a formal vote or make a policy change during the session; the meeting was an operational demonstration of the enrollment lottery process. McDonald said families whose ID numbers were not selected would not receive an offer in this round and that all applicants would receive an email notifying them of their status once the lists are finalized.
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