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[quote=Anonymous]I honestly do not believe the system is rigged.  After more than a decade of submitting applications for different kids, I finally had one get into high school at HB this year.  (Designated gifted, yes, but so are a huge number of kids in some subject by the end of middle school.)  I am neither a politician nor a big donor.  It's really just random.  I too have heard many stories of siblings getting in that make the system sound suspicious, but there are even more stories (not repeated so much and not so memorable) of siblings not getting in, as well as of kids of HB employees not getting in.  It is just not crazy that some siblings get in because it is not THAT unlikely to get in - I did the calculations for my n.arl. Elementary school about 10 years ago and back then (pre-surge) each kid had like a 10 percent chance of winning a slot on the first round.  Now based on the numbers it looks like country wide the HB sixth grade is four percent of the countywide sixth grade population.  The chances of getting there are a lot more than one in a million, and it would not be incredibly unlikely for two kids in a family to enroll there, especially considering that happy HB families are more likely to have sibs apply and that numerous kids turn down HB after winning a spot.  I think our minds just tend to fixate on perceived patterns and invent stories to explain then.  (I have read about reasearch on this although I cannot cite it right now).

Also I just don't believe that the administration is lying about this - They seem honest and I just don't see any motivation for them to lie.  Why would they bend the rules for elementary principals?   What do they care?  Certainly the court decisions in the past made giving preference to diversity (apart from by neighborhood) illegal - why would they risk violating that?

Also, in response to the bitterness of parents in overcrowded schools - I share your concerns. My kids have lived though those problems other years and/or at other schools.  It sucks.  But blaming HB for it doesn't really make sense.  The building now is a rundown slum compared to other APS buildings.  Nobody is taking anything away from kids at other schools.   The per pupil expenditures are the same.  I totally agree that the new HB building shouldn't be an overpriced showcase, but that budgetary decision came from some APS administrator, not HB.   I see no need to blame HB kids for that. [/quote]

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