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Gulf Trace Elementary Finally Makes Its Debut

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By RONNIE BLAIR, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 9, 2008

HOLIDAY - Students and staff at Gulf Trace Elementary finally have a place to call their own.

The new school on Gulf Trace Boulevard celebrated a belated opening Tuesday as children returning from winter break enjoyed their long-awaited opportunity to learn in classrooms built especially for them.

Parents and students began the morning lined up at a gate next to the administrative offices, then scurried through when the time arrived to head to class.
Construction delays prevented Gulf Trace from opening in time for the start of the school year in August, so the students and their teachers spent the past five months in portable classrooms at Trinity Elementary, about 10 miles away.

Janine Rago, an active PTA member, was among those happy to have her children in the new building, which is close enough for her to bicycle from home with daughters Nicole, 10, and Rachael, 6.

"Thank God," Rago said. "The bus ride was 40 minutes. The kids came home looking like they had just taken baths, it was so hot."

Principal Hope Schooler said other parents also are happy to have a school near their neighborhoods. Right now, the only bus that comes to the school is a special-education bus.

All the other students walk, ride bicycles or are driven to school by their parents because everyone lives within the 2-mile limit that would qualify them for bus transportation.

Gulf Trace is operating with a reduced student body for its first year because the Pasco County School Board approved a phased-in attendance boundary for the school.

This year, the school drew students from Sunray Elementary. In 2008-09, some students from Gulfside Elementary and Locke Elementary also will begin attending Gulf Trace.
Schooler said the current enrollment is about 230 to 240 students, but she anticipates 400 or so additional children for the 2008-09 academic year when the entire attendance boundary takes effect.

The school is built for 762 students.

Although Schooler and her staff are happy about getting their own school, she said the situation at Trinity Elementary worked well.

"They were wonderful hosts," she said. "They were very accommodating."

The beginning of the school day went smoothly Tuesday and Schooler said that might be in part because Gulf Trace held a "school warming" Monday night. The chorus made its debut, students visited their classrooms and parents watched a presentation about the school.

One of the students who took an early look at the campus was Hunter Young, 6, a first grader who likes math and proclaimed his new school as "cool."

Hunter is in teacher Sandra Edwards' class, and he is impressed with her.

"She's a good teacher," he said.

Hunter arrived to school Tuesday morning escorted by his grandmother Thu Hunter. She said she also drove him to Trinity Elementary so he didn't have to ride the bus.

As is typical for new schools in Pasco, one thing is missing from the Gulf Trace campus: a playground.

Rago said the PTA has already begun efforts to seek donations to pay for one.

Gulf Trace isn't the only school having a late opening this year.

New River Elementary in Wesley Chapel is scheduled to open next month. Those students are housed in portable classrooms at Sand Pine Elementary in the meantime.

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

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