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SCHOOLS MULTIPLIED; STUDENTS DIVIDED

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By ADAM EMERSON and COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR

aemerson@tampatrib.com cpastor@tampatrib.com

Published: January 24, 2009

TAMPA - Households throughout Hillsborough County will be scouring boundary maps during the next several days now that the school board is preparing to sign off on plans that would shuffle thousands of students.

After weeks of waiting, parents of high school students got their first glimpse of the district's attempt to relieve crowded classrooms and fill new schools opening this fall in the northern and eastern regions of the county. More than 4,200 students at six high schools eventually would transfer.

When those families get to weigh in on the proposals next week, the district will be better prepared for the rebukes that often come with the creation of new school attendance zones.

The district paid an analyst $140,000 to come up with the best possible high school boundaries, partly to soften the blowback from parents who in years past tried to dismantle other proposals.

The high school boundaries are just the start. Five new schools are opening in the fall, requiring the shuffling of more than 6,000 students. They will be the last new schools for several years.

That will give the district ample time to survey a countywide school enrollment in need of adjustment, said Bill Person, Hillsborough's general director of student placement and support.

There are dozens of schools exceeding capacity next to schools that have room for hundreds of students. After the school board approves the newest boundary changes, administrators will study how to transfer students out of crowded schools throughout the county.

Those students would move in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

"Now is the time to look at balancing the district," Person said. "If you have schools overcrowded next to schools under capacity, why don't you look at the boundary?"

No More Growth

The county now is losing students - for the first time in more than two decades. In recent years, the district was building schools to house thousands of students who poured into the county annually.

The new boundaries are designed partly to catch up with that growth.

Construction is nearly complete on Stowers Elementary and Barrington Middle off Boyette Road in Riverview. A development of hundreds of new homes was supposed to surround the new schools, which administrators had planned for six years ago.

The developer slowed the project as the real estate market soured.

The new schools now will draw students from crowded schools in other neighborhoods. Stowers, for instance, will get 348 students from Boyette Springs, which is running about 70 students over capacity.

The moves - children also would transfer out of Bevis, FishHawk and Lithia elementaries - would occupy only half of Stowers. The housing subdivision won't see major construction for two years, according the district's boundary plans for Stowers and Barrington.

Meanwhile, parents who may be forced to transfer their children are sharing their concerns.

Elizabeth Adams found out late Thursday that she may have to move her second-grade daughter out of Wilson Elementary along with 42 others into Cork Elementary. The transfer facilitates the new boundary changes that sprang from August's scheduled opening of Bailey Elementary in east Hillsborough.

"We live five minutes from Wilson," Adams said. "It's our neighborhood school. She's doing so well there. I don't think the change will be good."

A By-The-Book Analysis

The passion that comes from changing school attendance zones is one reason the district paid Tampa-based SeerAnalytics $140,000 to carefully draw up boundary plans for Steinbrenner and Strawberry Crest, which will affect more students.

SeerAnalytics specializes in telling companies such as CVS/pharmacy what kind of business they'll expect in particular locations. In drawing up attendance zones, its analysts gave the school district a few dozen options to consider. They accounted for transportation costs, ethnicity and socioeconomic diversity. Administrators picked the options they wanted.

If money permits, the district will ask SeerAnalytics or another company to survey the rest of the district, Person said.

Relieving crowded schools isn't as simple as balancing enrollments, Person said. Rather, he said, in examining a school's enrollment, administrators want to know, "Why is it over? Or why is it under?"

Not all crowded high schools will see relief in the newest proposal. Administrators are recommending no changes to Chamberlain High, even though parents had pressed for reassignments to free up space at the school. It's running at 273 students over capacity.

Bret Anderson, a mother in Lutz, also was disappointed that Freedom High was not included in the boundary shuffle. She was not surprised, though.

The proposal that came out this week looks almost identical to one she saw in the fall. Lutz families assigned to Freedom had hoped to get moved to Gaither or Steinbrenner, where the rest of the Lutz community attends. Moving from Freedom, the parents argued, would make room for the district to rezone some students out of Wharton, which is over capacity.

"It looks like our portion wasn't even considered," Anderson said. "I'm not really sure what this boundary map is. It's a fix for this fall to be able to say that the numbers match up for Sickles, Alonso and Gaither and to feed into Steinbrenner, but there's huge masses out there that are problems."

The high school transfers affect only those in grades nine through 11. The coming fall's seniors can stay put.

Anderson, whose son is considering applying for an International Baccalaureate program for ninth grade rather than attend Freedom, said she will attend the meeting next week. She expects others from Lutz and Chamberlain to speak out as well.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285. Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865. To see how crowded your child's school is, visit TBO.com, keyword: School Enrollment.

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