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Hillsborough Looks At Boundaries With Schools Opening

News Channel 8 photo by PAUL LAMISON

Hillsborough school officials say they may change attendance boundaries after new high schools, including this one under construction near Plant City, open in 2009.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 8, 2008

Updated: 10/08/2008 11:38 am

TAMPA - Two new high schools in Lutz and Plant City will result in redrawing boundaries in those areas. Hillsborough County school officials will use the opportunity to look at shuffling students from crowded schools to existing ones that are under capacity.

Just where the tweaking ends is unknown, said Steve Hegarty, spokesman for the school district, but it is unlikely any students not affected by the new schools will be reassigned for at least two years. Some of the schools that may be examined, such as Plant High School in South Tampa, are miles away from the new facilities.

"We are going to have new schools, and we are going to have to move students around," he said, and most of the boundaries under consideration will be in the areas where the new schools are being built.

A study of boundaries around the new schools may address issues elsewhere, Hegarty said, but that is not a priority, and action involving those schools probably won't happen until after the 2009-10 school year.

"The only way Plant gets involved is that it is a bit crowded, and we might shift things around to get some relief over there," he said. "We have a lot of options on the table. We don't have any dotted lines yet.

"We look at boundaries every year. Historically, we change boundaries when there is a new school. But it's more of a reality now that we will change boundaries to make best use of the capacity we have and to save a few bucks."

The fallout is that students and parents may not want to switch schools, he conceded.

Changes around the new schools will be made with full public vetting, he said, but that may not be the case with other boundary adjustments.

Community meetings on boundary changes will be scheduled before the winter break, and any modifications will be presented at those meetings. The school board likely will make the changes early next year.

The new high schools will open in the fall of 2009.

Student growth has ebbed in the past few years, and that alone requires an annual look at evening out school populations, Hegarty said.

Starting in 2006, student growth turned, and last year, the Hillsborough school district lost nearly 500 students. This year, the population fell by more than 1,000.

The reduction, combined with construction of new schools, gives the district more seats, but those seats are scattered. A few schools are at more than 130 percent capacity, and others are well below. The district says that 56 of 229 schools in the county are over capacity.

After next year, no more schools are scheduled to be built until 2013.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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