CHAMPAIGN – After a special magnet school registration period, Champaign school district officials are pleased with the number of families who've chosen Garden Hills or Booker T. Washington elementary schools as their top choice.

The district held an earlier kindergarten lottery for both schools, which are to become magnet schools this fall. It also accepted transfer requests during that time from families wanting to move from another elementary school to Garden Hills or Washington.

There were 115 students who participated in the magnet school registration period, from late January through the end of February. That included 66 families seeking entry into Garden Hills and 49 into Washington.

Both schools have historically been underchosen, meaning they usually don't get as many families choosing them as their first choice school as there are available seats. Last year during the regular March kindergarten lottery, 40 families chose Garden Hills as their first choice, and 36 chose Washington.

"I think it's a good start, particularly since it's such a new concept and we were moving very quickly to establish a timeline for the lottery," said Deputy Superintendent Dorland Norris of the results of the early magnet school lottery.

Sophia and Richard D'Mello of Savoy were among the parents hoping to get a child into a magnet school. Sophia D'Mello said her son Swain is already showing an interest in science. He asks how cars and airplanes work. His parents were eager to encourage his interests, so they were excited to hear that the Washington magnet school program would be Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

They talked with Principal Asia Fuller-Hamilton about the program and attended a panel discussion of STEM experts from the University of Illinois.

"This school is coming with such a wonderful program," Sophia D'Mello said. "UI (professors) will be able to share their knowledge with the kids, and maybe they'll be future scientists and technologists."

Of the 49 families choosing Washington during the early registration period, 32 of them were families with incoming kindergarten students, such as the D'Mellos. The other 17 were families seeking to transfer a child to Washington from another elementary school.

For the 66 students registering for Garden Hills, 60 were incoming kindergartners, and six were transfer requests.

"I really think the whole appeal to international-mindededness and inquiry-based learning is a strong appeal, and knowing this is a proven program across the world," said Principal Cheryl O'Leary of Garden Hills' magnet theme, Primary Years Programme. It is part of International Baccalaureate, which offers curricula based on international education and understanding of different cultures. The school plans to teach Mandarin Chinese.

"Knowing that we're pursuing this here in Champaign is exciting," O'Leary said.

"The Garden Hills staff is elated to have such high numbers of students that want to come," she added.

Garden Hills will have four kindergarten classrooms, with one for bilingual children. That means it has 92 kindergarten seats available.

Norris expects more families to choose Garden Hills and Washington as their first choices during the regular kindergarten lottery, going on during March. In fact, two families came in to the district's Family Information Center on Monday morning and chose Garden Hills, said Michelle Brown, a choice specialist at the center.

One of the reasons for the earlier lottery period for the magnet schools was to determine the amount of staff the schools would need, as each is growing. Washington's bilingual program will move to Garden Hills, and Washington will have three regular education classrooms at the kindergarten level next fall.

That means 69 seats available. While just over half that number of students registered during the early lottery, the school usually gets more students after the lottery period, Norris said, so the district will staff three kindergarten classrooms.

As the magnet schools build their programs and more people learn about them, interest "each year ... should get stronger," Norris said.