Things Get Heated At Zarrow International Enrollment Lottery

A lottery drawing for Zarrow International was scrapped after things got heated Tuesday night.

After some confusion over what "sibling preference" meant, parents passionate about their children going into the school let their voices be heard.

It all started with an email sent out that said due to a historic number of applicants from quadrant four, siblings of the students in the quadrant already attending Zarrow would not be automatically enrolled for next year.

Instead, their names would be put in the lottery drawing with all the other applicants' names.

Quadrant four includes children in several school districts including Lee, Patrick Henry and Elliot.

According to an email from TPS Superintendent Dr. Deborah Gist, there were 59 total applicants from quadrant four - 27 of those are siblings, and there are only 20 spots available for the quadrant.

Parents in attendance said regardless of spots available breaking up families is wrong, and they were promised they would have "sibling preference."

Jonathan Arnold, president of the Zarrow International School Foundation, said, "I got a wind of it for being in leadership at school. I mobilized all these people and got them here to fight for not just kids that may not get in from quadrant four, but also for every family at Zarrow, to keep our sibling preference intact as it has been promised to us."

“Final word from tonight is we believe in transparency, we want an engaged community, we value community input and want to get things right," said TPS Deputy Superintendent Paula Shannon.

Because of the overwhelming amount of concern voiced from parents, TPS decided to delay the lottery so they could go figure out how to accommodate all siblings who have applied for enrollment.

They should have an answer on what they’re going to do in the next week.