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In Pasco, 378 More Students Settle In For School Year

Tribune photo by Christine DeLessio

Tracy Peacock kisses her son Travis after dropping him off for his first day of school as a kindergartener at Oakstead Elementary Monday.

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By RONNIE BLAIR | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 19, 2008

Ladn O' Lakes - Perhaps teaching is in the genes for Beth Byrd, a kindergarten teacher in her second year at Oakstead Elementary School.

Her mother and grandmother taught in Pasco County, making her a third-generation educator.

Byrd feels right at home at Oakstead, where she works in a four-classroom pod as part of a teaching team that includes another kindergarten teacher, Jeannette Evans, and first-grade teachers Laura Sprague and Paige Fitterer.

"It's a family atmosphere," Byrd said Monday morning, the first day of the 2008-09 academic year.

The Pasco County School District, which opened two new schools Monday, reported 63,072 students countywide, 378 more than the first day last year.

Pasco was projected to grow by 1,387 students this year. It was unclear whether storm concerns or other factors kept the number down on opening day, district planning director Chris Williams said.

Pasco schools will be closed today because of Tropical Storm Fay.

Oakstead, with 1,200 students and 22 portable classrooms, is one of Pasco's more crowded schools.

Neither storms nor crowding were issues Monday for the Byrd-Evans-Sprague-Fitterer teaching team, though. The four had a smooth start to the school year and quickly settled in to explain classroom rules to the children.

Kindergarten and first grade had a subtle difference. Parents of kindergartners tended to linger. First-grade parents were a little more likely to drop off the children and bolt.

"They're seasoned professionals," Fitterer said.

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218 or rblair@tampatrib.com.

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