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The school district discusses plans to reassign students in some elementary schools after a new one in Land O'Lakes opens in 2003.
By JAMES THORNER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 10, 2002
LAND O'LAKES -- Hundreds of students will be shuffled between four elementary schools as part of next year's planned opening of Pine View Elementary in Land O'Lakes.
And at the school where the shuffling could be the most intense -- Lake Myrtle Elementary -- parents gathered Monday night seeking answers about where their children will learn next year.
Built for 857 students but housing more than 1,000, Lake Myrtle could lose hundreds of kids and a couple of dozen teachers to Pine View next year.
Tentative maps show Pine View grabbing Lake Myrtle students from the 1,100 homes of Lake Padgett Estates East and Eagle Island Estates. The new elementary will sit on Parkway Boulevard across from Pine View Middle School.
But school district planning director Mike Rapp urged calm in the face of a redistricting process that begins in November with parent-teacher committees and ends in February with two public hearings and a vote of the School Board.
For those wavering about the need for shuffling children, Rapp handed out a photocopy showing a fictional school with a sign reading "Jam Packed Elementary."
He also told some family history, about how his two children were redistricted against their will into Lake Myrtle years ago.
"Everything that's going to happen to you folks my own family's been through," Rapp told the crowd of about 40 in Lake Myrtle's cafeteria.
Land O'Lakes' three existing elementaries are nothing if not crowded as each year brings hundreds of new families into the suburban community.
In addition to Lake Myrtle, west of Collier Parkway on Weeks Boulevard, Denham Oaks has more than 1,000 students in a school built for 840 south of State Road 54.
Sanders, west of U.S. 41 on School Road, is slightly over capacity this year, with almost 800 students.
The opening of Pine View on Parkway Boulevard promises to relieve pressure on all three schools. Early maps place Sanders students from Sable Ridge, Ehren and other neighborhoods east of U.S. 41 in Pine View.
To alleviate crowding in Denham Oaks, some students are due to shift into the newly vacated Lake Myrtle.
The groundbreaking date for Pine View Elementary is early October, but school officials raised the possibility that the cafeteria wouldn't be finished by opening day in August 2003.
In that case, children would have to "brown-bag it" awhile until the food hall was finished, Rapp said.
But Rapp cautioned that parents and teachers will be able to comment before redistricting is complete.
"Nothing is official until that second board meeting in February. Prior to that vote everything is fluid and subject to change," he said.