No more camping out overnight at the Cincinnati Public Schools Education Center. No more driving around the city to guess which school will be the secret magnet school sign-up loca tion.

        For the second consecutive year, Cincinnati Public Schools' magnet school sign-up for next year will take place at the school where children will attend.

        The system, which CPS officials said was a success last year, is designed to miti gate the chaos that resulted in previous years when parents tried to sign up — all at once in one location — for the district's most coveted school offerings.

        CPS' 12 magnet programs at 28 sites attract about 13,000 students for their teaching in foreign language, Montessori method, arts and more.

        Pleasant Ridge resident Julie Schubert remembers the frenzy eight years ago surrounding the sign-up for her son, Chad, now in eighth grade.

        To make sign-up more fair and prevent people from camping out at the district's central offices, the secret sign-up location used to be announced on the radio on a Saturday, Mrs. Schubert recalls.

        “We did our research beforehand so we knew where all the schools were and how to get there,” she said.

        She waited at her then-downtown home and her husband was positioned in a different part of town. As soon as thelocation was announced, both set out in the direction of the school to see who could get there first.

        “I had a friend drive so I could jump out and get in line,” she said.

        Mount Lookout residents Andy and Charlene Bales went through the modified sign-up last year so their daughter, Grace, now 5, could attend Sands Montessori in the West End.

        The process was simple, she said. Her husband went to Sands and signed her up.

SIGNING UP

        To sign up for the 2002-03 magnet programs at Cincinnati Public Schools:

        • Oct. 15-19: Enrollment of students already in a magnet program, such as Sands Montessori, who are moving to a new school, such as Clark Montessori, by advancing to the next grade of the magnet program. Parents must enroll at the new school. Students who are not enrolled during this period lose their priority status and must apply during the general sign-up period in November.

        • Oct. 22-Nov. 2: Enrollment of siblings of students already in a magnet program. Also during this period, parents of third-graders in Schiel Primary School for Arts Enrichment and all students now enrolled at Crest Hills Year-Round School, which is closing, may enroll students in a magnet program. Parents must enroll at the new school.

        • Nov. 13: General sign-up begins for other students enrolling in any citywide magnet school or enrolling in magnet schools within their quadrant. Parents must enroll at the new school.

        • Jan. 7, 2002: Sign-up begins for children who live outside the quadrant of their chosen magnet school (if no waiting list exists and parents provide transportation). Parents must enroll at the new school.

        Students already in a magnet program who will stay at the school do not have to reapply.

        For information, call 475-7099.

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