Magnet Season to Begin Online

LAUSD has added a twist to magnet season: the brochures are going online. Starting on November 1st, families will be able to look up various programs, apply online, receive confirmation, change their minds, and reapply to different programs until the December 16th deadline.

Which is great news. But speaking as a parent of a college student with vivid memories of the UC websites crashing near the deadline, I urge everyone to visit the website early, and apply early. If a family has a huge epiphany and wishes to change, avoid that last week, because lausd.net is notorious for going down when parents need information the most. And since parents need to visit parent.access.lausd.net first, I suggest checking that access page and signing up as quickly as possible.

For families of Valley middle school students there is a “Meet the Magnets” Night, and for high school at least two schools feature information for parents. Sepulveda Middle School hosts their annual magnet night on Wednesday, November 2nd from 6 to 8 pm for information on middle school magnets throughout the Valley, while for high schools, Monroe High School hosts their magnet night on Thursday, November 3rd, and Walter Reed Middle School offers a Meet the High Schools Night (including public and private school options) on November 2nd from 6 to 8 pm. Considering the dedication of the new high school in San Fernando is also November 2nd, I suspect there are more than a few LAUSD calendars that are NOT being consulted before scheduling events, but these events are all great options for families to get a lot of information for the investment of just a couple of hours.

After that, it will be the tours. Plenty of them, I suspect. I am already trying to figure out how I can be dropping off a child at 7:45 am (and no sooner) and magically be across the Valley by 8 am. So to the schools that offer tours at varying times of the day–THANK YOU. The upside of 8 am tours is that we will become well-acquainted with the traffic that we will actually have to endure each morning. We’ll be clearing our calendars and doing the tours just like everyone else, so I’m already practicing my breathing exercises.

A lack of printed brochures will make some of the seminars I give for gifted parents a bit of a challenge, since I won’t be able to refer everyone to page X or Y for information, but hopefully, it will work out just fine. I’m looking forward to hitting that return key and getting the confirmation.

For more information or to ask specific questions on LAUSD magnet programs, please visit askamagnetyenta.wordpress.com