PUSD Lottery Process
Poway Unified School District is very proud of its schools and programs that ensure career and college readiness for every student. There are situations that can occur upon enrollment into our schools or programs that necessitate a transparent lottery process to determine placement into a seat. Some of these situations occur at schools that are near capacity in certain grade levels, or schools where special programs/pathways are offered for which interest is high. To ensure consistency of practice, the following overall practices are district-wide as part of any lottery process:
and PUSD Board Policy/Procedures 5116.1 prioritizes enrollment of PUSD employees, both certificated and classified contracted employees, at the site.
https://www.powayusd.com/PUSD/media/Board-Images/BoardPolicy/5000/BP-5116-1-Intradistrict-Enrollment.pdf
- Information meetings are held for the community so that attendees will:
- Gain understanding of the program and/or need for a lottery to be used.
- Hear all timelines, priority criteria, and date(s) of the lottery draw.
- Parents confirm interest by filling forms made available so that parents/guardians may express interest in being considered for enrollment via a lottery process.
- The lottery is held on the date specified and is witnessed by the principal, staff from LSS and IT. A wait list is generated of those not enrolled via the lottery draw. Each draw will be videotaped.
- Communication includes website language, feeder school outreach, email notification if enrolled through the lottery, and personal communication from administrators if not enrolled.
- Staff from Ed Tech and LSS attend site meeting after lottery draw to participate in placement process.
Academy Programs - for schools that offer programs with extended learning time to students and families. Currently, Los Penasquitos Elementary School offers an academy with an orientation day and longer school day for students in grades 4 and 5. Black Mountain Middle School offers an extended school year and school day to support students in core academics of ELA and math. Meadowbrook Middle School offers an extended school day to provide an additional elective for students to explore. The following process will be used for students interested in applying for a seat in an Academy Program:
- Include language on the school(s) and district website that provides information about the program and explains the necessity of lottery.
- Hold parent information meetings and provide interest forms.
- Information for students who submitted an Academy interest form is entered into our lottery system.
- District staff from IT and Learning Support Services (LSS) works with the site staff to identify rules for the lottery to prioritize:
- PUSD employee who works at the school site in alignment with CA Education code.
- Siblings of students concurrently enrolled in the Academy.
- A percentage of the draw from feeder schools and a percentage of the draw from outside of the feeder schools within PUSD. At MB and BM, 85% of the draw comes from elementary feeder schools within residence of the site and 15% outside of the feeder schools. The percentages at Los Pen may vary dependent upon student enrollment.
- School staff will communicate any other site specific lottery rules at the Information Night. This information is available upon request of the site principal.
- On the specific date of the lottery, the school principal, staff from Technology and Innovation and Learning Support Services meet at the district office and conduct the lottery draw using the PUSD Lottery System.
- School staff notifies parents about the results of the PUSD Lottery System.