Ozona Elementary Parents Upset About School Zoning

More than a dozen parents of students at  turned out at a Pinellas County School Board meeting Tuesday to let officials know what they think of a plan to change the boundary line for the school.

Under the proposed boundary, their children would no longer attend Ozona Elementary. Instead, their kids would attend in Dunedin. The new boundaries for San Jose Elementary would include the area bounded by Nassau Drive on the north, Curlew Road on the south, Gary Circle on the west and County Road 1 on the east.  

Many of the parents who spoke at the meeting live in neighborhoods north of Curlew Road, which is an area that has seen multiple school zone changes in recent years.

Ozona Elementary PTA president Jenny Moncrieff told board members, "There is no stability for our neighborhood. We've also changed in the middle and high school level in the last few years, and we are always changing."

Moncrieff estimated 15 Ozona Elementary parents showed up at the meeting. Many shared similar concerns, including Mark and Jill Aljian, who have three children who have attended Ozona Elementary since kindergarten.

"Our neighborhood, Waterford Crossing, has been in the crosshairs ever since I can remember. Every year, it's the same thing. Our concerns are really basically uprooting our children from a place where they spend the majority of their time during the school year and just breaking that family that we feel we have at the current school we're at, Ozona," Mark Ajian said.

Another parent said he has a son and daughter who attend Ozona. "If the current proposed changes are approved, San Jose Elementary would be the fourth school my son would attend during his elementary school years," he said. "One can argue that one school may be better than another, one can argue that there's a need of restructuring the school system, but I think no one can argue that moving kids around is a positive thing."

Liz Beckers has spoken to the school board before about rezoning in the neighborhoods north of Curlew Road.

"These zone map changes every year or so in this area need to stop," she told board members. "If you are going to make these chronic changes, you need to guarantee to the families that their children will be able to finish out wherever you put them in the first place."

Beckers thinks continual rezoning is bad for her neighborhood. "Would you buy a house in a neighborhood not knowing where your children will be going to go to school the next year? I wouldn't," she said.

School board member Linda Lerner told the audience that the goal is stability, but cautioned them about buying a home in a particular school zone.

"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," she said.

Eric Keaton's son attends Ozona Elementary. His family lives in Dunedin, but they are close enough for his son to ride his bike to school on the Pinellas Trail. Keaton told board members that a school's grade is important to him.

"Ozona Elementary is an A school, I have high expectations for my kids that they're going to earn A's. Why would I want to take them out of an A school? It should be my choice where they go to school. We pay the property taxes; we direct you to make the right decision," he said.

Pinellas County Schools Deputy Superintendent James Madden told the audience that staff members will be working until the next meeting Dec. 6 to see whether they can accommodate parents' requests.

"I'm humbled by the passion you've shared with us today in terms of your commitment to your students and your schools, and we respect that," Madden said. "That's why the commitment is still out there to work with you."

The rezoning plan could affect 2,100 students at 27 elementary schools.

The vote at Tuesday's 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.

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. 

The school board is scheduled to take a final vote on the rezoning plan at its Dec. 6 meeting. The board is considering setting a later time for this meeting so parents who work during the day can attend.