City Schools of Decatur Board of Education will meet on Jan. 14, and will consider making some tweaks to the school system’s pre-kindergarten lottery system.

CSD holds a lottery for parents to get on a waiting list to attend College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center. This year’s lottery is scheduled for March 3, 2014, according to the CSD website.

The proposed changes concerns how multiple-birth siblings – twins, triplets etc. – are treated under the lottery system.

According to the proposed change, “Multiple birth children will have one ticket submitted in the lottery. If this ticket is selected, then all multiple birth siblings will go on the wait list.”

“The edits regarding the lottery process and the application procedures for multiple birth children (e.g.,twins) is an effort to provide more clarity to the PreK enrollment process and to craft policies and procedures that are sensitive to the unique circumstances of families with multiple birth children,” CSD Curriculum Director Joe Austin wrote in his notes to the School Board about the proposed changes.

UPDATED 2:45 p.m.: Just saw this in the 4/5 Academy news letter and thought it provided some useful info about the Pre-K registration process.

Registration for CSD 2014-2015 Pre-Kindergarten begins on Monday, February 3, 2014 from 8:00 am – 3:00 pm at the Central Offices at Westchester, 758 Scott Boulevard.

Families whose child is currently enrolled in College Heights’ preschool program will have an enrollment packet sent home with their child to complete and return to the school by 3:00 pm on February 28th. College Heights’ preschool students are automatically placed in the Pre-K program and if needed, the after-school program.

Pre-Kindergarten slots are assigned based on a phased lottery: all “new family” registrations received at Westchester during the month of February will be considered in one lottery on March 3. Therefore, it is not necessary to be first in line! New families who register after the March 3rd lottery will be placed on the wait list according to date and time of registration. Similarly, all courtesy and non-resident registrations received during the month of March will be considered in one lottery on April 1st and future applicants will be placed on the wait list.

To access a checklist of necessary documents needed for registration, please visit our school website. Please spread the word to your neighbors!

Also worth mentioning: Superintendent Phyllis Edwards is sending out a letter this month to parents of rising third graders who want to remain in their current elementary school if their attendance zones recently changed. In December, the BOE approved new maps for K-3 attendance to accommodate the the reopening of Westchester Elementary in 2014.

“While this means the addition of teachers and more space at each school, it is something that the Superintendent has done in the past to help ease the transition,” Edwards wrote in her comments to the School Board.

The deadline for parents to apply for grandfathered status is Feb. 15.

The BOE meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 14, at 6:30 p.m. at the Board of Education Central office located at 758 Scott Boulevard, Decatur, GA 30030.