TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Class Size, Bus Routes To Test Schools In '09

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARILYN BROWN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 25, 2008

TAMPA - Hillsborough County school officials are struggling with changes in transportation, school boundaries and class sizes next school year, hoping to avoid the chaos they experienced with bus transportation this year.

In 2009, the district's new transportation plan is slated to expand districtwide, five new schools means reassignment for nearly 7,000 students - and the state class size amendment fully kicks in.

A strict cap on the number of students allowed in each class means some families could be turned away from their neighborhood schools, fewer choices of schools are likely and high school courses will be more limited.

"Your options are going to become more constrained," said Bill Person, the school district's general director for pupil placement and support. "It's like a funnel. It just keeps getting more narrow and more narrow."

That could mean the need for more bus transportation in some cases, if students are shut out of schools because classes are at the state-mandated caps.

A district committee of parents, teachers, administrators, and business and union leaders will come up with recommendations to address the big problem: Once all classrooms in a school are at the 18, 22 or 25 students per teacher, where do new students go?

One possible solution that grabbed committee interest Wednesday: Allow middle and high school students to opt for an online class in school if all classes in a subject are at the state-mandated capacity. The classes could be supervised in the media center or computer lab in middle schools.

"It's one of the most cost-effective ways," said committee member Deidra McDonald, a kindergarten teacher at Miles Elementary. "If you have five different students from five different schools that need the class, they can all take the same class on the computer. It allows them to stay at the school they want to stay at."

Allowing students to stay in the school assigned to their neighborhood is a priority of the committee.

Other ideas tossed out Wednesday:

• Allow students who move to a new house within assigned regional transportation areas to stay at their original school.

• Place more magnet schools or programs in the suburbs. That would control numbers of students in a school because students must apply to the programs.

• Require parents to reapply for choice options, including hardship placements, annually. Students now may continue until they enter middle or high school.

• Put "placement counselors" in each of the district's geographic areas to help parents with options when there is no room at a school.

Recommendations to the superintendent for changes must be made soon, Person said, because the district's 2009-10 choice materials will be printed in late October or November.

The constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2002 to cap class sizes has been phasing in. This year, school districts could meet the state class size amendment with school averages. Next year, it will be individual classrooms.

The Hillsborough district has met class size requirements so far because it continued to build schools and extra wings of classrooms to keep up with rampant growth and the class size amendment.

When student growth turned around statewide between 2006-07 and 2007-08, the district lost 442 students. This year it was down another 1,055. The loss, combined with construction, gives the district more than enough seats for the coming year, but the seats are scattered. A few schools are at more than 130 percent capacity, and some are well below. The district plans to leave space at each school next year for new families moving into the school boundaries.

After 2009-10, no more schools are on the drawing board until 2013-14, so growth or demographic changes would mean reassigning students to fill available seats.

Meeting the class size amendment could put further strain on the district's already taxed transportation system if neighborhood schools fill up.

The district's plans to tighten bus routes with fewer stops to save money and improve service may not be extended to the final three areas in mostly east Hillsborough next year, Deputy Superintendent Ken Otero said Wednesday.

"We're looking at them; we may wait," he said. "We've got to review the process and get it right first."

When the plan - which cuts bus stops and service - was extended to three geographic areas this year, it turned into chaos, mainly because many parents weren't informed of changes until the week before school started - if then. The district is still reviewing stops and making changes, Otero said.

Otero vowed that parents will get notice of their bus stops for next year before school lets out and that bus drivers will be involved in the routing.

Meeting class sizes is the greatest concern, Otero said. Turning students away from the school in their boundary "has got to be the last thing we do when there is no other alternative," he said. But "it's a possibility."

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT