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Time to redraw school districts
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK, Times Staff Writer
BROOKSVILLE -- The last time Hernando County school officials redrew school attendance zones, in 1994-95, they called the initiative "Hernando 2003." "We try to make sure when we redistrict, (families) are going to be in the same schools for any number of years before we do it again," School Board member John Druzbick explained. The name couldn't have been more accurate. Just seven weeks into 2003, the administration has released a map showing one possible way to ease crowding at several Spring Hill-area elementary schools and to boost sagging numbers at schools on the county's east side. Among the potential changes, about 207 children living in and around Masaryktown would be transferred from Suncoast Elementary to Moton Elementary. Suncoast would then pick up about 183 students from the western edge of Floyd Elementary's attendance zone. About 87 students from Pine Grove Elementary's eastern edge would be moved to Brooksville Elementary, and about 111 children living in the eastern section of the Brooksville Elementary zone would go to Eastside Elementary. Spring Hill Elementary would pick up about 76 Pine Grove students from an area west of U.S. 19 and north of State Road 50, and Eastside would gain about 36 Moton students. "We have two schools (Pine Grove and Floyd) that are way over (capacity) . . . and two (Moton and Eastside) that are way under," said Linda Fultz, transportation director. "But because of the locations of the schools, we couldn't just take students from the ones that are over and move them to the ones that are under. Geographically, that doesn't make sense." Instead, a sort of domino effect of moves must take place to even out the elementary school populations in the 800-900 range, Fultz said. The map distributed Tuesday shows what would happen by moving full bus routes from one school to another, she said, to keep neighborhoods intact even if the children must switch schools. Superintendent Wendy Tellone hedged her comments on the map, refusing to call it a proposal while still acknowledging the need to do something quickly to reduce crowding. She noted that Spring Hill Elementary's enrollment would rise too high for its capacity, and said the School Board will have to talk about all the issues involved before making any moves. Board members were not keen on the idea of creating new attendance zones, and expected a backlash from upset parents. They accepted the map as the likely future, though. "It's not an easy thing to have to do, but it's something I think is necessary," Vice Chairwoman Sandra Nicholson said. "You can't have over 1,000 students at two of the elementary schools and just over 600 at two others. It's just not right." She said she would like to see other options. Board member Robert Wiggins said the map offered "what I was envisioning," even as he guessed which communities would raise the most ruckus. "It looks like it might be troublesome, obviously if you're living in a zone that is affected," Wiggins said. "But the question is, can you come up with a better one?" He noted that Chocachatti Elementary School, which draws students by application and accepts them by lottery, was not affected by the possible changes even though its enrollment hovers closer to 700 than 900. "I think we need to look at adding maybe 50 to 100 students to Chocachatti," Wiggins said. Board member Gail David, who has mentioned that idea publicly several times, agreed. "You can just take them off the (waiting) list," she said. "That's the first step you need to take." The board plans to discuss redistricting, and possible additions to existing school buildings, during a workshop at 3 p.m. Tuesday. It also continues to seek properties to construct new schools.
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