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Pinellas Plans To Close 5 More Elementary Schools

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 18, 2008

Updated: 11/18/2008 04:24 pm

LARGO - The Pinellas County School Board was presented with a plan this afternoon that calls for five elementary schools to be closed.

They are Palm Harbor Elementary, Gulf Beaches Elementary, North Ward Elementary, Kings Highway Elementary and Rio Vista Elementary. The board had already agreed to close a sixth, Clearview Elementary.

If the plan is approved, the six schools would be closed at the end of this school year, said Jim Madden, assistant superintendent of student assignment. The proposed closings would save roughly $4.2 million.

Administrators are attempting to shave $40 million from a budget of roughly $1.5 billion. Also under consideration are proposed transportation changes and moving two so-called fundamental programs into existing schools.

The proposed school closings come as the Pinellas school system is seeing its enrollment decline. The population of students from kindergarten to the 12th grade was 111,483 in the 2005-06 school year, but it is expected to drop to roughly 98,000 students in 2011-12, school administrators say.

The school board has not voted on the school-closings proposal. A workshop on the plan is scheduled for Dec. 2.

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