CodeRVA Regional High: Running a Transparent, Complex Magnet School Lottery

CodeRVA’s enrollment model is unusually complex, even for a magnet school.

The school serves students from 15 different school divisions (similar to school districts in other states), each of which purchases a set number of seats for its students. The lottery must account for those seat allocations while also supporting the school’s mission of expanding access to computer science education.

Unlike many magnet schools, CodeRVA operates as a no-barrier entry program. There are no GPA requirements, essays, or prerequisites.

“You wanna come? Put your name in the lottery. You don’t have to have a certain GPA or recommendations,” says Associate Principal Rebecca Harmon.

The school also weights female applicants slightly higher in the first round of selections to promote gender diversity among their student population.

On top of that, the lottery process must accommodate several operational realities:

• Each of the 15 divisions purchases a specific number of seats
• Applicants must be verified as residents of their division
• The lottery runs multiple times each year
• Students may be accepted as late as September 30 to ensure every paid seat is filled

With 15 divisions purchasing seats, a 30-member governing board, and a public commitment to fairness and equity, CodeRVA’s lottery process must be transparent, defensible, and precise.

But that wasn’t always the case.

CodeRVA previously worked with an outside organization to run their student lottery. However, the process lacked transparency, a serious concern given the school’s publicly funded, multi-division model.

“[That vendor] wouldn’t explain to us how they were making the lottery selections,” Harmon says. “They claimed it was proprietary. We thought that was a little sketchy.”

Beyond transparency concerns, the previous vendor was slow to respond and limited in flexibility. “They weren’t timely, and things were wrong,” Harmon explains. “When you’d ask them to do something, they would take a while to get back to you or would say, ‘We can’t do that.’”

CodeRVA needed a magnet school application and lottery system that offered both configurability to their needs as well as complete transparency into the back-end lottery process.

To solve their enrollment challenges, CodeRVA selected SchoolMint Enroll.

Unlike their previous vendor-managed process, SchoolMint Enroll allows CodeRVA to run and manage the lottery themselves while configuring the system to match their unique enrollment model.

With SchoolMint Enroll, CodeRVA can:

• Input and manage seat allocations by division
• Weight female applicants in the first lottery round
• Run the lottery multiple times to fill remaining seats
• Track automatic declines vs. parent declines
• Generate reports to validate and confirm selections
• Provide a clear audit trail if families have questions

“What’s really cool in SchoolMint Enroll is it says in there why an offer was declined; it’ll say auto decline versus parent decline. And that’s really nice, because if somebody calls and asks why their child wasn’t accepted, you’ll know exactly what happened.”

Equally important, the system is fully operable in-house. When Harmon stepped into her role, she had no lottery experience and no formal training, yet she was able to learn and run the system confidently.

“I’m someone who has no experience, zero training, and I’ve been able to figure it out,” she says, adding that she’s able to:

• Locate incomplete accounts
• Reset passwords for families
• Pull reports
• Verify lottery selections
• Run multiple lottery rounds
• Troubleshoot issues independently

“I feel safe clicking on different things, searching different things, and it’s not complicated,” she says.

The support experience also stood in stark contrast to their previous vendor: “As soon as I reach out to my contact, she immediately responds and sends me to somebody and a link with a video that tells me exactly what I need to do. It’s fantastic.”

Since implementing SchoolMint Enroll, CodeRVA has transformed how it manages its complex regional lottery process. What was once dependent on an opaque third-party vendor is now a transparent, internally managed system that staff can operate with confidence.

The result is a more efficient process for administrators and a smoother experience for families across all 15 participating divisions.

1. Transparent, Defensible Lottery Decisions

For a regional magnet school governed by multiple divisions and a 30-member board, transparency is essential.

With SchoolMint Enroll, CodeRVA can now clearly see and explain how every lottery decision is made. The platform provides detailed visibility into seat allocations, selection logic, and offer outcomes, allowing staff to confidently answer questions from families and stakeholders.

“All I heard was that from an operational perspective we can do things timely, see the transparency, and know exactly what’s happening,” Harmon explains.

This level of visibility ensures the school can demonstrate that its process is fair, unbiased, and aligned with its mission to expand access to computer science education.

2. A Lottery Process Staff Can Run With Confidence

SchoolMint Enroll has also made it possible for CodeRVA’s team to run the lottery entirely in-house, even without specialized technical expertise.

When Associate Principal Rebecca Harmon stepped into her role, she had never run a school lottery before and had no formal training on the system. Yet she was able to quickly learn how to manage the platform, run multiple lottery rounds, verify applicants, and troubleshoot issues independently.

“I’m someone who has no experience, zero training, and I’ve been able to figure it out,” Harmon says.

The system’s intuitive design gives staff the confidence to explore reports, investigate issues, and make updates without fear of breaking the system, a stark contrast to the rigid limitations of their previous vendor.

3. A Smooth Application Experience for Families

While operational improvements were critical for staff, the experience for families is just as important.

Because parents only interact with the system occasionally, the application process must be simple and easy to navigate. Since adopting SchoolMint Enroll, CodeRVA has seen a notable absence of complaints from families — a strong signal that the system is working as intended.

“From the family perspective, I’m not hearing anyone saying, ‘This is so difficult. I can’t figure out what to do,’” Harmon explains.

For a school managing thousands of student applications and running multiple lotteries throughout the year, that simplicity helps ensure families can participate in the process without frustration or confusion.

4. Stronger Support When Questions Arise

In addition to the platform itself, CodeRVA has benefited from responsive support when questions come up.

Rather than waiting days for answers from a vendor who controlled the process, staff now receive quick responses and clear guidance from the SchoolMint team, often including step-by-step instructions or video walkthroughs.

That responsiveness allows CodeRVA to keep enrollment operations moving without delays, even during the busiest parts of the lottery cycle.