Parents protest Pasco school redistricting plans

A unanimous Pasco County School Board has given initial approval to new attendance boundaries for several middle and high schools in east Pasco as part of an effort to ease crowding at Wiregrass Ranch High and Long Middle.

Board Chairwoman Joanne Hurley, though, said that before the final vote Jan. 18 she will review an alternative proposal from a parent who lives in the Ashley Pines subdivision in Wesley Chapel.

Students who live in Ashley Pines attend Long Middle and Wiregrass Ranch High, but would shift to Weightman Middle and Wesley Chapel High under the new boundary plan, which would take effect in August when the 2011-12 school year begins.

The idea of moving to new schools didn't go over well in the community and parent Simone Lowery presented board members Tuesday night with a petition she said was signed by 70 percent of the Ashley Pines residents.

"We are extremely upset," Lowery said.

She came up with her own boundary proposal that would leave the 50 middle school and 55 high school students in Ashley Pines where they are and instead move students in the Fox Ridge and Ashton Oaks subdivisions to Stewart Middle in Zephyrhills and Wesley Chapel High.

That would lower enrollment even more at Wiregrass Ranch High and Long Middle, she said.

Although Hurley assured Lowery that the board would consider her idea, she made no promises that the decision would change when the second and final vote is taken.

"Unfortunately, when we do set new boundaries, we do affect families and we understand that," Hurley said. "There are parents who will leave here this evening and won't be happy and some parents who will leave here and be happy."

Chris Williams, the district's planning director, said the boundary committee considered moving the Fox Ridge and Ashton Oaks students, but decided it would better to keep them where they are.

Board members also heard from unhappy parents in the New River community, which also would make the switch from Wiregrass Ranch and Long Middle to Wesley Chapel High and Weightman Middle.

Parent William Murphy said he researched schools carefully before moving to Wesley Chapel and chose the neighborhood accordingly.

"Now we are being relocated," he said.

Wesley Chapel High, previously a D school under the state's grading system, jumped to a B this year, giving it the same grade as Wiregrass Ranch High. Murphy, though, questioned whether the improvement was helped by changes the Florida Department of Education made in the way it grades high schools.

The proposed attendance boundary changes, developed by a committee of principals, parents and school district officials, mean a switch in schools for hundreds of middle and high school students in east Pasco County.

The main reason for shifting some attendance zones is that Wiregrass Ranch and Long Middle School are well over capacity, while some other schools are under capacity or at least not quite as overtaxed.

School district officials want to better balance the enrollment at the east Pasco schools.

Under the plan for high schools, Wiregrass Ranch High students in the Morris Bridge Road area also would be shifted to Wesley Chapel High. All incoming high school seniors would be able to stay put.

Under the middle school plan, in addition to the changes for New River and Ashley Pines, students in neighborhoods west of Morris Bridge Road would be moved from Long Middle to Stewart Middle.

One of the biggest changes the committee proposed would affect students who live in neighborhoods zoned for Cox Elementary in Dade City.

Right now, after they finish elementary school those children are bused to Weightman Middle and Wesley Chapel High. The school board drew the boundary that way in 1999 to add diversity at the two Wesley Chapel schools.

In the decade since, though, Wesley Chapel's demographics have changed and district officials say Weightman and Wesley Chapel High have plenty of diversity without busing in minority students from Dade City.

Under the new boundary proposal, the Cox Elementary neighborhoods would attend Pasco Middle and Pasco High.

Board Vice Chairman Allen Altman said everyone seems to agree that's a good idea, but said the district needs to provide additional resources for Pasco High and Pasco Middle because of low test scores for many students involved in that boundary change.

Altman also raised the issue of whether incoming high school juniors also should be allowed to remain at their current schools, or at least be given that option. The committee considered that, but ultimately rejected it.

rblair@tampatrib.com

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