The city school board today will vote on overhauling admission procedures at the magnet schools and programs created about 30 years ago to help desegregate the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

The proposed changes were prompted by a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down race-based admissions policies in Seattle and Jefferson County, Ky.

If the board approves the overhaul, the district for the 2010-11 school year will abandon the practice of reserving up to half of magnet slots for black students. Instead, the district will try to promote diversity with a weighted lottery that gives students extra chances for admission for meeting certain criteria, such as qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches or living in proximity to the magnet.

To some degree, enrollment criteria still will vary by magnet:

• Some would continue to give preference to applicants with siblings already enrolled in the magnet, then use a lottery to fill slots left over.

• Students wishing to enter a middle-grade magnet would continue to receive preference if they participated in the magnet in elementary school. Similar preference would be given to middle-grade students rising to high school.

In each case, the lottery would be used to fill any slots left over.

• Some magnets would give preference to applicants who attended district pre-kindergarten, reflecting officials' efforts to get more students into the district at an early age and keep them enrolled in city schools.

Under the changes, the district also would do away with the practice of removing elementary children from magnets for disciplinary reasons. Middle-grade and high school students still could be removed for disciplinary reasons.

The district first used a weighted lottery last winter to select the first 250 students for the science and technology school, to open in August.

The lottery yielded a student body 50 percent black, 41.3 percent white and 64.2 percent eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.

The board also will vote today on discontinuing the law and public service magnet at Pittsburgh Oliver High School on the North Side and the German magnet at Pittsburgh Manchester PreK-8.

The magnets would be discontinued after the current school year. Officials cited a low level of interest in the programs.