And here we go with the annual post about HB...

I am a parent who had one kid get in and the younger sibling didn't get in.

Anonymous wrote:OP, they did the lottery live on MS Teams. I watched the whole thing. Yes, it only showed the numbers of the kids who won, not the names, but there will be a clear paper trail, it would be simple to audit after the fact. The type of shenanigans you are implying would require a high level of fraud, with many people “in on it.” I know it is disappointing when your kid doesn’t get in, but the lottery is not rigged.

Exactly. It only shows numbers. If this process is on the up and up, why doesn't APS show you what your kid's lottery number is when you register for the lottery? Then when the numbers are announced, you would know if your child was admitted. I can't think of another reason to do it this way except to leave themselves room to manipulate the outcome.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, they did the lottery live on MS Teams. I watched the whole thing. Yes, it only showed the numbers of the kids who won, not the names, but there will be a clear paper trail, it would be simple to audit after the fact. The type of shenanigans you are implying would require a high level of fraud, with many people “in on it.” I know it is disappointing when your kid doesn’t get in, but the lottery is not rigged.

I have participated in the lottery and yeah there is some manual intervention. It happened 2 years ago and they had tried to hide the fact they had 2 copies of lists in the system - one created by the system from parents who registered and then one they created manually in the system. it became apparent and people started commenting. I bet someone could dig up a thread here. It probably had to do with needing to retain some seats that they could assign for whatever reason - maybe administrative transfer?

There is no way to administrative transfer to hb. It is not an option on the website so only some direct back door deal is possible to get in.

After meeting the principal and vice principal of HB I have such a hard time imagining they would endorse or tolerate favoritism for siblings or school board members’ supporters. But I guess anything is possible.

I will say that I find favoritism for school board members’ supporters more plausible than sibling favoritism. A parent who applies for one sibling is more likely to apply for another, and not everybody applies. At our school, only 29 out of over 100 students applied. So it makes sense that younger siblings are more likely to get in than any random student.

Anonymous wrote:OP, they did the lottery live on MS Teams. I watched the whole thing. Yes, it only showed the numbers of the kids who won, not the names, but there will be a clear paper trail, it would be simple to audit after the fact. The type of shenanigans you are implying would require a high level of fraud, with many people “in on it.” I know it is disappointing when your kid doesn’t get in, but the lottery is not rigged.

I have participated in the lottery and yeah there is some manual intervention. It happened 2 years ago and they had tried to hide the fact they had 2 copies of lists in the system - one created by the system from parents who registered and then one they created manually in the system. it became apparent and people started commenting. I bet someone could dig up a thread here. It probably had to do with needing to retain some seats that they could assign for whatever reason - maybe administrative transfer?

APS parents: if my kid doesn’t get a spot, it’s rigged! The program needs to be dismantled!

HB is clear that some students get in outside the lottery for various programs and reasons. The obvious answer is buy a house in the zone where you are okay with the neighborhood school and quit constantly complaining.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, they did the lottery live on MS Teams. I watched the whole thing. Yes, it only showed the numbers of the kids who won, not the names, but there will be a clear paper trail, it would be simple to audit after the fact. The type of shenanigans you are implying would require a high level of fraud, with many people “in on it.” I know it is disappointing when your kid doesn’t get in, but the lottery is not rigged.

Every parent I know who has been actively involved in the political campaigns of school board members has a kid who "won" the HB lottery. Coincidence? I think not.

Didn’t happen.

Anonymous wrote:OP, they did the lottery live on MS Teams. I watched the whole thing. Yes, it only showed the numbers of the kids who won, not the names, but there will be a clear paper trail, it would be simple to audit after the fact. The type of shenanigans you are implying would require a high level of fraud, with many people “in on it.” I know it is disappointing when your kid doesn’t get in, but the lottery is not rigged.

Every parent I know who has been actively involved in the political campaigns of school board members has a kid who "won" the HB lottery. Coincidence? I think not.

Ashlawn 3 times that I know of between 2011 and 2018. Heard siblings again this year. Those are some lucky families. Seems rigged.

Yep. I have friends who are close to someone high up in APS administration. My friends always said the only APS school that they would send their kids to after elementary was HB. Lo and behold, the older kid got in. Lo and behold 3 years later, the younger one got in.

Coincidence? Maybe, but nah.

I have one at HB and my other one did not get in.

How many kids are we talking about from your elementary school? Because families with one child already at HB are more likely to apply for siblings than families with older children at other middle schools, the odds of a younger sibling getting in are significantly higher than you would expect.

OP, they did the lottery live on MS Teams. I watched the whole thing. Yes, it only showed the numbers of the kids who won, not the names, but there will be a clear paper trail, it would be simple to audit after the fact. The type of shenanigans you are implying would require a high level of fraud, with many people “in on it.” I know it is disappointing when your kid doesn’t get in, but the lottery is not rigged.

No idea but I do there are a lot of kids at HB who have siblings who did not get in.

Has anyone else noticed this pattern? The lottery for HB Woodlawn is supposed to be random, but every single rising rising six grader that got in from my daughter's elementary school this year, all have siblings at HB Woodlawn. This can not be a coincidence.