On Jan. 20 at 4 p.m., the two-week time window for school of choice paperwork in Ventura Unified School District (Ventura USD) will close. Ventura USD students are able to submit lottery applications annually during a two-week time period if they would like to attend a magnet school or a school they are not in the boundaries for.

Once turned in, the applications are submitted into a randomized number system on a computer at the Ventura USD office. Each application is assigned a number which indicates their positioning on the list to enter a desired school.

School of choice paperwork requires information about the school a student attends, which school they want to go to, the student’s grade and whether or not they have any siblings at this school. This paperwork can be found at any Ventura Unified school or online. It can be turned in to any school in the district, but Foothill Principal Joe Bova recommends turning it in directly to the school a student is applying for.

Foothill hosted an Information Night for interested families on Jan. 12 for more information on the application process and what the school has to offer.

Bova said Foothill receives a list of the students who applied around the middle of February. Bova also said the school will then mail out letters to students saying whether they’re accepted into Foothill, waitlisted or students who are at a point on the list where “they don’t have a chance getting into the school.”

With the window for applications closing in two days, Bova said the school will accept around 270 to 275 incoming freshmen this year, and he “probably won’t be able to take very many kids […] at the other grade levels, [but hopefully] a few.”