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Group urges Pinellas school board open another fundamental high school

Staff photo by WALLY PATANOW

Pinellas County Commissioner Nancy Bostock today urged the school board to open another fundamental high school next year.

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By YOLANDA FERNANDEZ | News Channel 8

Published: November 10, 2009

LARGO - Pinellas County fundamental schools offer a more structured learning environment than other public schools in the district.

And they've become so popular that parents are asking the school board to add a second fundamental high school next year.

This year the school board expanded the district's fundamental program by 37 percent. Now there are six elementary schools and three middle schools, but only one fundamental high school, Osceola.

At a school board meeting today, Nancy Bostock, a Pinellas County Commissioner and former school board member, joined other parents arguing for a second fundamental high school.

"Our eighth grade capacity has expanded dramatically at your direction and now we need to ensure these students and others throughout the county can continue in a fundamental high school," she said to the board.

Bostock helped form the Fundamental Schools Advocacy Network, or FAN, to petition the board for a second fundamental high school.

Two months ago FAN started with four members and now boasts more than 2,000. About two dozen of which attended today's meeting.

The group's position is that fundamental students need more high school seats. This year there are 852 eighth-graders enrolled in fundamental middle schools. All of them are guaranteed a seat at Osceola Fundamental High School. The problem is Osceola can only accommodate 450 ninth-graders.

Also, there is a geographical argument.

Teresa Daiker, the mother of two fundamental students, said she would like to send her children to a fundamental high school, but Osceola is a 40-minute drive from her Countryside home in north Pinellas.

She said a second fundamental high school would make it more accessible to families in other areas.

Fundamental schools offer the same core curriculum as other public schools, but parents must sign a contract that they will attend monthly meetings, and sign their child's homework. Students follow a strict dress code and can be removed from the school for discipline or other problems.

Students at fundamental schools also traditionally score well on FCAT and other assessments.

But school board member Janet Clark has concerns about designating a second fundamental high school.

The first is that it would displace students zoned for whichever high school that is designated a fundamental school.

Another is that the fundamental school success rate can be deceptive. "If parents won't conform to the contract, if the child won't conform to the behavior guidelines, if the child doesn't keep up with grades and homework, they're gone," she said. "It would be real easy for any of our schools, if they could pick and choose their students, very easy for them to be A schools."

Finally, there's the issue of demand. For example, the waiting list for students wanting to gain entry into International Baccalaureate high schools is greater than for fundamental schools, Clark said.

The school board will consider the fundamental high school issue at a workshop next week. If members decide to move forward, they will direct staff to come up with a proposal to debate publically at a future school board meeting.

Reporter Yolanda Fernandez can be reached at (813) 221-5708.

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