School Board Approves Elementary Rezoning Plan

An elementary school rezoning plan to stabilize school populations across the county was unanimously approved Tuesday evening.

School leaders say the changes are to relieve crowding at some schools while taking advantage of room at others. The rezoning plan will affect more than 2,100 students at 27 elementary schools.  

Twelve of those schools are in St. Petersburg.

The 6-0 vote came after the Pinellas County School Board heard from a dozen parents, who voiced a variety of concerns. The public discussion was set for 7 p.m. to allow parents who work during the day to participate.

Jack Redding has two daughters who attend  in Clearwater.

"It seems like every time they turn around, you're talking about rezoning," he told school board members. "They say it's all about the students, but I'm not hearing that it's about the students, and I'm just not feeling the love from the school board, not feeling it." 

Fewer parents spoke Tuesday evening than at the school board meeting in early November, when a preliminary vote was taken on the rezoning plan. Dee Burns, director of school assignments for Pinellas County Schools, says the district worked individually with many parents to solve their problems.

"We've spoken to several parents over the past few weeks," Burns said. "We've been communicating with parents since the first reading. All the parents we've talked to have been great."

Burns says it has been an especially challenging time for some parents, who are passionate about the issue.

"Parents don't want to leave the school that they love. Whether their zone is changing or they got there through a special assignment or open enrollment, most of the time they have a strong attachment to the school. They don't want to leave; they want to be able to stay," she said. "So it's about lots of separation anxiety and lots of love for the school and belief that that's the place where their child is going to be most successful. It's hard for them to think about anything else."

Burns says in addition to the new 2012-13 school boundaries, elementary students who are not currently attending their zoned school will be returned to their zoned school, unless they meet one of the following special circumstances:

• Fourth-grade students can stay at their current school for fifth grade.
• Students who were in kindergarden in 2008-09 and were assigned to their schools through open enrollment may stay at their current schools.
• Students in kindergarten through third grade who were assigned to a non-zoned school because of overcrowding may stay at their current school.
• Some third-graders attending a non-zoned school because of special circumstances may stay at their current school; examples include the Exceptional Student and English as a Second Language programs, and medical circumstances.

Burns says other changes for the 2012-13 school year include: 

• The Open Enrollment policy will end and will be replaced by a Special Assignment Request policy.
• If a family moves out of its current school zone, the child will be allowed to stay at the non-zoned school, but the child will have to go to the zoned school the following year.

"Hopefully, we're done rezoning, and if we can get people to follow the policies we should have a bit more stability and not have to come back for zoning for a while," Burns said.

Schools to Be Rezoned

Here is the list of St. Pete schools to be rezoned next school year:

• Sawgrass Lake
• Lynch
• Shore Acres
• Sexton
• Westgate
• Northwest
• North Shore
• Woodlawn
• Melrose
• Campbell Park
• Lakewood
• Maximo