In the event that Elysian receives more applications than there are openings in a specific grade, a public lottery will be held. The public lottery for spots in all grades (K–8) is normally held in mid-January for the following school year admission. Families are invited to attend the lottery.
If necessary, the 2011–2012 school year lottery will be held on Thursday, January 20, 2011 at 9:30AM the Rue Building (3rd and Garden Street) on the 4th floor. Families that have submitted an application for 2011–2012 admission by the application deadline of 3PM on Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 will be issued a lottery number. Lottery numbers will be issued by mail beginning on January 4–5th, 2011. If you have submitted an application by January 4th and do not receive a lottery number by mail by January 11, 2011, please contact Lynne Shapiro at 201 876-0102. Families turning in applications between January 11th and January 18th should call Lynne Shapiro to make arrangements for obtaining lottery ID letter. Families may call Lynne Shapiro on Friday, January 21, 2011, and any day thereafter, to find out lottery results
The process is as follows:
- For each grade, the students are divided into two groups: In-District and Out-of-District
- Each family’s lottery number is placed in a lottery bin. We choose from the Hoboken residents’ bin first and then we go to the lottery bin containing lottery numbers from families outside of the district.
- As numbers are chosen, a list is established.
- The list is posted publicly. Open spaces within this grade are first assigned to the Hoboken resident list.
- If that list is fulfilled, the Out-of-District list follows.
- Sometimes in the upper grades, we will exhaust our waiting lists completely. At that point, with no one on any list, someone who walks in might get a spot.
- This process continues for each grade.
As expected, we usually have the most open spots (30) in Kindergarten however, due to attrition, we often have openings in other grades.
With Kindgergarten, Elysian can have as many as 30 spots open for new families, however this number varies each year since families with children already enrolled in Elysian are guaranteed a spot in Kindergarten for siblings. There is preference for siblings in every grade.
After the lottery date, anyone else who comes in for admission for the upcoming school year, goes on a waiting list (also separated into Hoboken and non-Hoboken). Hoboken residents are always given first preference.
Once the academic year passes, families who were not enrolled must re-register for the lottery by the January deadline in order to get onto the new waiting lists. Old waiting lists are destroyed at the end of the academic year.
