3 Largo School Districts Could Be Redrawn

School board members will decide next month whether to move forward with a rezoning plan that could affect 2,100 students at 27 elementary schools, including Frontier, Oakhurst and Fuguitt elementary schools in Largo. 

A vote at Tuesday's Pinellas County School Board meeting was the first of two needed to approve the plan, which would take effect during the 2012-13 school year. School officials say rezoning is needed to relieve crowding at some schools, while taking advantage of room at others.

In Largo, that would mean changing the boundaries of: 

• Frontier Elementary. Students who live in the area bounded by U.S. 19, Haines Bayshore Road and Whitney Road would attend Belcher Elementary. Those students currently attend Frontier. 
  
• Fuguitt Elementary. Students who live in the area bounded by Ulmerton and Walsingham roads just west of Ridge Road would attend Fuguitt. Those students currently attend Oakhurst Elementary.
• Oakhurst Elementary. Students who live in the area bounded by 102nd Avenue and 131st Street just north of 94th Avenue and west of 121st Street would attend Oakhurst. Those students currently attend Bauder Elementary. Oakhurst would also give up some students to Fuguitt (see above).

Local Parents Speak Out Against Changes

About two dozen parents spoke against the change Tuesday, including Michelle Allred, a former public school teacher in Pinellas County whose son is in kindergarten at Oakhurst Elementary. 

Allred said she researched schools before her son enrolled and settled on Oakhurst. She worked with school officials to make her family's desire a reality, and they got the good news July 29.

"We worried and worried and worried about getting him in," she said. "I was assured by the staff and students at the school that he could remain there until fifth grade, so I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. And now, four months later, it seems that you all are changing the rules and my son will not be able to go there."

Allred says her son is comfortable at Oakhurst, and she worries that changing schools will distress him.

"He's extremely happy and loves to go to school every day," she said. "I feel like you're saying he's not important as a family who may or may not later move into that zone."

Allred told board members that she thinks the changes are detrimental to both students and their parents.

"It's unfair for you to cause anxiety and frustration for families year after year after year, and parents worry that their children won't be allowed to attend their current school every year," she said. "If you've made a commitment, you should honor it."

Crowding Affects Quality of Education, District Says

School officials say crowding is having a negative effect on teachers, students and parents alike.  

All of the elementary schools being recommend for rezoning have had to add portable classrooms to accommodate students, according to an overcrowding report on the district website [PDF]. That hurts teachers' ability to work as teams and has resulted in instructional time being cut to accommodate student movement from building to building. In some of the schools, libraries, basketball courts, hallways and closets have been turned into instructional space.

The crowding isn't limited to school hours, either. Drop-off and pickup areas are strained beyond capacity before and after school, which means parents and buses are stuck in long lines waiting to drop off and pick up students. 

The crowding also negatively affects lunch times, prekindergarten programs, customer service and student access to computers and other equipment, the report says.

"The schools that are overcrowded have given up libraries, they've given up computer rooms, they have not had an effective and efficient way of working, so our capacity and class size amendment is an issue," school board member Linda Lerner said in Tuesday's meeting. 

"I think we have to make it real clear to our community, we want stability, and that's what we hope that passing this recommendation will give to the schools, but never buy your house based on what schools are zoned for now," Lerner said.

The school board is scheduled to take a final vote on the rezoning plan at its Dec. 6 meeting.