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Meetings On School Boundaries Set

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By RONNIE BLAIR The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 6, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - Parents will get a chance this month to voice concerns or ask questions about proposed attendance boundaries for two new schools opening this year.
Crews Lake Middle and Veterans Elementary are set to open in August.

The school district plans two meetings for parents whose children will be switching schools because of the proposed boundaries.

The meeting on the Crews Lake Middle boundaries will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the performing arts center at River Ridge High School, 11646 Town Center Road, New Port Richey.

The meeting on the Veterans Elementary boundaries will be at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 15 in the cafeteria at Quail Hollow Elementary, 7050 Quail Hollow Blvd., Wesley Chapel.

Ultimately, the Pasco County School Board determines what the boundaries will be. The board is scheduled to hold two public hearings - Feb. 5 and Feb. 19 - before taking the final vote at the Feb. 19 hearing.

Veterans Elementary, which will hold 762 students, is being built on Wesley Chapel Boulevard (County Road 54) at Progress Parkway. Crews Lake Middle, with capacity for 1,306 students, is being built on Shady Hills Boulevard at Crews Lake Drive.

The two schools are being built to help alleviate crowding at six schools that rely on portable classrooms to handle the student overflow.

The opening of Crews Lake Middle affects attendance boundaries for River Ridge Middle, Bayonet Point Middle, Hudson Middle and Pine View Middle schools.

Veterans Elementary will bring changes to attendance boundaries for Quail Hollow Elementary and Seven Oaks Elementary.

Committees made up of district administrators, principals and parents drew up the proposed boundaries.

The committees considered issues such as transportation, growth and capacity, and socioeconomic balance as they tried to decide where best to draw the lines.

In December, Superintendent Heather Fiorentino sent letters and maps to parents whose children are affected by the changes.

Fiorentino noted in those letters that, even with the slowdown of development in Pasco County, the school district still gained 1,900 students this academic year.

Large maps also were placed in the affected schools.

Dawn West, a parent who represented Hudson Middle on the boundary committee, said she hasn't heard anything from other parents about the plan. She said that may be because the letters went out just before the winter break.

"I've made them all aware things are going to change," West said.

Her son, Blaine, 12, is in seventh grade at Hudson Middle. Although West's neighborhood would be zoned for Crews Lake Middle under the proposed change, she said she likely would use the district's choice plan to try to keep Blaine at Hudson Middle since he will be an eighth-grader next year.

"I'm kind of loyal to Hudson Middle," she said. "My daughter went there also."

West said she expects most parents to welcome the opportunity to send their children to Crews Lake Middle, especially those who live near the Hernando County line. Some students who attend River Ridge Middle spend as long as an hour each way on the bus.

"I think there are going to be some happier people in that area," she said.

West said this was her first time helping draw attendance boundaries. She said she was surprised by how much information related to growth and other issues that school district planning officials were able to provide to help the committees as they drew the boundaries.

"I was impressed by how it went," West said.

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

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