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School Boundary Changes Won't Ease Crowding At Chamberlain

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 11, 2009

TAMPA - About 2,200 high school students in northwestern Hillsborough are scheduled to change schools in August, but the moves will do nothing to ease crowding at Chamberlain High School.

The school board on Tuesday approved boundary changes for Sickles, Alonso and Gaither, lowering enrollment enough at those three schools to bring them under capacity. Sickles and Gaither will send students to Steinbrenner High School, which is opening in Lutz.

Alonso will move about 480 of its students into Sickles.

Chamberlain, however, has about 270 students more than its capacity. But school board member Candy Olson reassured parents that the district would address its crowding in the future. In the meantime, families could apply for school choice now that other nearby schools have space.

Some Lutz parents had also asked if they could get reassigned from Freedom High to Gaither or Steinbrenner, because those schools are closer to their homes and the rest of the Lutz community attends them. Olson said she understood that it was a long drive for them to Freedom and suggested they apply for school choice, for now.

"We have to work with what we have," she said.

One option for the future, Olson said, could be to peel off part of Chamberlain's attendance zone to send to Freedom and look into moving Lutz families to Gaither or Steinbrenner, if Steinbrenner did not fill up with growth.

Board member Susan Valdes said she welcomed efforts to reduce crowding at Chamberlain as long as changes preserved diversity at the school.

The board said it was pleased with how district officials handled school boundaries this year for Steinbrenner and Strawberry Crest, a new high school coming to eastern Hillsborough. The district had hired consultant SeerAnalytics for $140,000 to develop dozens of scenarios for new attendance zones, weighing factors such as transportation costs and diversity.

Hundreds of parents attended community meetings and many complained about the plans. But no one spoke at the board meeting Tuesday against the proposals. The district made some adjustments after the first meeting, keeping about 200 students at Sickles instead of moving them to Steinbrenner. Officials also decided not to move about 230 Durant students to Plant City. They will stay at Durant.

"We do take community input," Olson said.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503.

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