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New high school will start full, board says
By ROBERT KING, Times Staff Writer BROOKSVILLE -- As crowding continues in the county's high schools, School Board members decided Tuesday that Nature Coast Technical High School, due to open in 15 months, must hold at least 1,200 students when it debuts, not the 600 its principal originally hoped for. To do that, Nature Coast will have to recruit students who are willing to start at a new high school during their junior or senior years. If they don't come willingly, the ugly prospect of mandatory rezoning could creep into the picture. Tizzy Schoelles, who was selected to be the school's first principal, said that under ideal circumstances she would have been able to open the school with 600 students -- all of them freshmen and sophomores. That would have allowed the school's programs to mature alongside its students as they moved on toward graduation. Teachers would have had more time to develop upper level classes, for example. As it is, they will have to work faster. But Schoelles said she can still make the new school something special. "I shot for the stars," she said. "I didn't land there." Board members said they simply couldn't justify spending $40-million on a new school that would open at half capacity while two of the county's three other schools would still be badly overcrowded. As of Monday, Springstead High (with 1,815 students) was more than 500 students above what the state considers its capacity. Central High (with 1,747 students) was around 400 students above its state-listed capacity. Hernando High was a few students under capacity. However, late spring is always a lean time of year for high school enrollments. Largely, that's due to the number of kids who drop out between August and April. Come fall, all three schools will have to find room for many more students. Springstead, for example, could top 2,000 students for the first time. Central could hit 1,972. Even Hernando could be close to 1,400. Together, the three schools could be more than 1,300 students above capacity a full year before Nature Coast's opening in August 2003. Given that Schoelles says it wouldn't be feasible to open with more than 1,250 students the first year, the county's remaining high schools could still need portables even after the $40-million school opens. Yet many questions remain about whether Nature Coast can draw students by itself or whether the School Board may have to give kids a nudge. Schoelles is optimistic that she can find 1,200 student takers if she is given time to put together an effective presentation about the new school's high-tech attributes. She had intended to make the recruiting rounds in August among the county's eighth-graders, conducting interest surveys along the way. However, board members are getting a little antsy about getting the surveys sooner. And Schoelles said Tuesday she may try to conduct her surveys over the next month. Whatever the case, Schoelles and school district officials say they need firm numbers by October so she begin hiring teachers, including some in hard-to-staff specialty fields. But the School Board wants a contingency plan in case the volunteers are few. Two possibilities: Redrawing the high school attendance zone lines and ending one or two vocational programs at Springstead and Central and offering them instead at the new school.
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From today's Hernando Times |
