With more families eager to send their children to Gillingham Charter School in Pottsville, the school started holding public lotteries for all grades this year.
The first was held June 11; the second will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at the school at 915 Howard Ave.; and there will be a third in August, according to Brittany Tressler, public relations manager for Sylvia Marketing, King of Prussia.
"This year is the first time the school has held public lotteries for kindergarten through grade 12. In years past, a lottery has been required for grades five and six, as there is always a constant waitlist for those grades. The state requires that schools with more interested students than available spots hold these lotteries," Tressler said Monday. Sylvia Marketing is Gillingham's appointed public relations firm.
Tara Cromis, one of the school's administrative support personnel, is in charge of the school's enrollment and the lottery, Tressler said.
"Preference goes as follows: siblings of current students, students who reside in the Pottsville Area School District and then students who live in all other school districts per state regulations. The names of applying students are separated by grade, put into a bowl and drawn with a witness present. Once they are drawn, the families are notified and can accept or decline the seat. The families must complete the enrollment paperwork to keep the seat, otherwise it goes up at the next lottery or [the prospective student will] move down the waitlist accordingly," Tressler said.
The lottery held in June was for grades kindergarten through 12, Tressler said.
"In that first lottery, 69 new students were selected at random for the 2014-2015 school year. The waitlist is currently 26. Classes at Gillingham are no larger than 22 students, with the exception of 23 in eighth grade," Tressler said.
With that lottery, Gillingham had filled its kindergarten, second-grade, third-grade, fourth-grade, fifth-grade, ninth-grade and 11th-grade classes, each with 22 students, its seventh-grade class with 21 students and its eighth-grade class with 23 students, Tressler said.
At the lottery scheduled for Thursday, Gillingham will attempt to fill one opening in first grade, one opening in sixth grade, four openings in 10th grade and 13 openings for 12th grade, according to Tressler.
"Currently, there are eight applications for the lottery," Tressler said. "The August lottery will be held to fill any remaining seats and then build the school's waitlist."