After a mix-up earlier this month left out all private school students and many priority students from Maspeth High School's admissions lottery, parents and elected officials are calling for changes to the process as NY1's Van Tieu reports.
Tempers flared as parents demanded answers and reform to Maspeth High School's enrollment process during a community meeting Tuesday night.
This after parents say a mix-up earlier this month left out all private school students and many priority students from the school's admissions lottery. Education officials clarify, saying a number of students were not properly marked with priority status in its lottery.
Parents from area parochial schools say they feel like they were discriminated against.
Officials at the Department of Education say no school was treated differently, and blames the mix up on a clerical error.
"How do you do that to kids? An error? I mean that’s a major error not putting catholic schools in the lottery. A major error. I mean a lot of kids are heartbroken," says parent, Alicia Vaichunas.
Alicia Vaichunas's son,a public school student who had priority status. To get priority status, students living in District 24 must sign up at an open house or information session. Vaichunas says he went to multiple sessions and listed Maspeth as his top choice. After the lottery mix up left him out, he now plans on going somewhere else. He's crossed out Maspeth high School as his dream school. His protest in the form of a Maspeth High School sweater emblazoned with the word “Liar.”
"I feel like they’re lying to us saying that oh this is a school that’s for us. It’s right next door and we can’t even go to it,” he says.
Angered parents at the meeting say it's unfair students who may not live in the district or did not go through the steps to earn priority status received offers.
"Four kids in his class didn't even go to the open houses put [Maspeth] as third and fourth on the list, and they got in. Something is wrong. Something is wrong with the system,” Vaichunas says.
Enrollment officials refute the claim that neighborhood students lost out to others outside of District 24. Only one student that received an offer lives outside of District 24, and was given an offer on a special-needs track, officials say.
“Every student who should have received an offer at Maspeth High School according to its admissions priorities has received an offer. We are continuously working to improve the high school admissions process, and value feedback from the community,” says Will Mantell, Spokesman for the Department of Education.
Officials at the meeting explain that the mistake was fixed when an additional 207 students were marked for priority, and 66 of those students received offers.
The most difficult factor boils down to supply and demand. About 4,000 students applied, and the school only has about 250 seats available. School officials give out more offers than seats- expecting many of them to turn it down. Parents say that’s unfair to those who are fighting to get in.
Council Member Elizabeth Crowley says the mistake was a failure on the school’s part and is calling for changes to the priority zone process.
"It’s very difficult for parents to understand because it’s invisible to them," she says.
Crowley says the process needs to be a public process, with the lottery drawn with families present. She also wants to see the responsibility of running the lottery out of the school’s hands.
“It’s completely unacceptable the school needs to be held accountable the person responsible for making this error and excluding this group of students needs to be held accountable,” Crowley says.
During Tuesday night’s community meeting, parents turned their frustration on her.
Many parents saying Crowley hasn’t done enough. One man, whose child did receive an offer, says he’s grateful but the lottery mix-up isn't one mistake, but a completely flawed system that needs to be overhauled.