Lottery Information
Lottery Information for 2024-2025
McPherson's Virtual Lottery Orientation Will be Held on
January 23, 2024, at 9:00am
Click the Following Link to View the Lottery Orientation
THE LOTTERY APPLICATIONS WINDOW WILL BE OPEN
ON JANUARY 23, 2024 @ 10:00AM
ANY APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED AFTER
JANUARY 25, 2024 3:30pm, WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED
McPherson's Lottery will be run on Wednesday, January 31, 2024. You will receive an e-mail from Lotterease by the end of the day on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, regarding your lottery status.
Understanding McPherson’s General & Sibling Lottery
McPherson Magnet School, an OUSD K-8 Magnet School, is open to all OUSD resident students, including inter-district transfers for parents/guardians whose address of employment are within the OUSD boundaries. For inter-district transfers, a copy of the district release from the resident district must be emailed or given to the McPherson registrar, Christina Cruz, prior to the lottery orientation. Our district registrar, Christina Cruz, can be reached at ccruz@orangeusd.org. You must apply every year for an interdistrict transfer if you live outside of OUSD boundaries and qualify for employment related transfers.
Enrollment Priority
Priority #1 - Siblings of current Kindergarten through 7th grade Students and Children of McPherson Employees
Sibling status will be verified. In case of guardianship other than same birth parents, legal proof must be provided to our registrar, Christina Cruz. The Sibling and McPherson Staff Lottery application window will be open from Friday, January 12, 2024 @9:00am to Monday, January 15 @ 3:00 pm. Sibling status will be verified prior to January 15, 2024. Siblings include brothers, sisters, step-brothers and step-sisters only. Siblings must reside within the OUSD school boundaries. There are NO EXCEPTIONS for Sibling Status. If we are unable to verify sibling status, the application will be removed and disqualified for the 2024-2025 Lottery.
Prospective McPherson students who have siblings currently attending kindergarten through 7th grade at McPherson must submit the required application. If a sibling application is submitted during the General Public Lottery application window, the application will run with the General Public Lottery and not given priority.
Inaccurate or incomplete information on the lottery entry submitted will result in disqualification.
Directions to create a Lotterease account is below.
Priority #2 - New students Kindergarten through 8th grade
Before the Lottery—Orientation and Information
All new parents or guardians of prospective students, entering the McPherson General Public Lottery, must view the virtual orientation. The virtual orientation on Microsoft Teams will be streaming live on January 23, 2024, at 9:00am. If you are unable to attend the virtual orientation at that time, a link to a recording of the orientation will be posted later that day.
Parents or court appointed guardians of prospective students entering the lottery, who have a child currently attending McPherson, do not need to attend the virtual orientation.
Inter-district transfers must submit a copy of the district release from the resident district to the McPherson registrar prior to the lottery orientation.
Applications will be submitted through a third-party website, Lotterease. An account must be created for your child(ren) to apply for the McPherson Lottery. The General Public Lottery will be open for applications on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 @ 10:00am to Thursday, January 25, 2024 @ 3:30pm. You MUST submit your application during this time, it is the ONLY time applications will accepted.
Only one lottery entry per each child entering the lottery is allowed.
Prospective McPherson students who have siblings currently attending kindergarten through 7th grade at McPherson must submit the required application. If a sibling application is submitted during the general public application window, the application will run with the general public lottery and not given priority.
Inaccurate or incomplete information on the lottery entry submitted will result in disqualification.
Directions to create a Lotterease account is below.
The Lottery Drawing
Parents, please be advised McPherson Magnet School will be using a third-party system, Lotterease, to run our enrollment lottery for transparency and fairness. Since Lotterease is an independent system, the school staff does not have the ability to manipulate or adjust the lottery outcome. In addition, all activity that takes place with your application is tracked in a history log that you can view at any time by logging into the parent portal in Lotterease.
After the application window closes and all applications have been verified, we will upload all applications into Lotterease. At that time, you will receive emails from McPherson_Magnet@lotterease.com that an account has been created for you and your child(ren) and that they were entered into the lottery. You will be able to login to your account and change the password once it is created. For future years, you can use this same account to apply for MCPHERSON MAGNET SCHOOL, so please keep your login information.
NOTE: Please be sure to add McPherson_Magnet@lotterease.com as an email contact to ensure important emails do not go to spam. MCPHERSON MAGNET SCHOOL is not responsible for emails or deadlines that are missed.
In the case of twins or multiple-birth siblings, all prospective multi-birth students will be clustered together. There is a possibility not all multiple-birth siblings will have a spot available. An applicant’s waitlisted position may be lowered in order to accommodate the multiple-birth sibling cluster(s). Multiple-birth siblings are defined as twins, triples, quadruplets, etc.
Disclaimer for Parents: Please be advised that if you falsify any information during registration or enrollment, your child’s application will be null and void, and admittance will be revoked.
Lottery Results
After the lottery is run, you will receive an email and a text message if your child was selected, and an email if your child was waitlisted. If your child has been given a lottery spot, you will have 5 calendar days to accept or decline the position. If you choose to accept, the email will explain the next steps to complete enrollment. Should you choose to decline the spot, your name will be removed and the next person on the waitlist will be offered the seat.
How to create an account with Lotterease:
Please visit the Lotterease website to create your account:
https://app.lotterease.com/cgi-bin/sl_V2_1.pl?session_id=&user_id=&account_id=&nav=Parents
Please click on the link and follow the directions on how to create an account.
Link to: Lotterease Account SetUp.pdf
What is the Lotterease Seal of Transparency and Fairness?
When you see the Seal on a school website, you can be confident that your application will be included in the school lottery in a fair and transparent way.
That is because Lotterease is an independent automated lottery system that the school uses to manage their lottery and waitlist. Since Lotterease is an independent system, the school staff do not have the ability to manipulate or adjust the lottery outcome. They must work within the requirements of the system.
In addition, all activity that takes place with your application is tracked in a history log that you can view at any time by logging into the parent portal.