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REBECCA CATALANELLO and EBONY WINDOMThe last day of this year is a happy time for students, but officials and teachers worry about what damage all the budget cuts will do next year.
WESLEY CHAPEL - At the new Wesley Chapel Elementary, there were no tears, all cheers as 140 fifth-graders marched through the hallways for the last time.
They, like soon-to-be sixth-graders across the county, received a sendoff fit for celebrities: hundreds of faculty, staff and students lined the corridors to clap, cheer and congratulate the first outgoing class.
Celebrate by Kool and the Gang blared over the intercom.
The fifth-graders are the first class to experience this ritual since the school's opening in August. Some students stopped to ask friends to sign T-shirts while others posed for pictures.
Several kids wondered, out loud, what's in store for them in middle school.
"I'm kind of scared," Monica Marin, 10, said. "Instead of being at the top of the school, I'll be at the bottom."
"I heard there's a lot of homework," Andrea Smith, 11, said.
While teachers spent the day offering reassurances to sometimes emotional kids, school administrators were doing their best to answer questions from faculty and staff about possible staffing cuts.
News was just settling in that a $53.5-billion budget finalized by the state Legislature Tuesday might leave Pasco County with a shortfall large enough to cost the jobs of some of the system's 4,000 nonteaching employees.
"We read, and we wait," said Judy Petrizzi, a guidance counselor's secretary at Hudson Elementary, across the county. "If it happens, it happens. There's nothing we can do about it."
Superintendent John Long said administrators expect by Tuesday to have a final figure detailing the district's shortfall.
The district will get $22-million more under the new 2003-04 budget, but about $10-million of that is tied to reducing class size. Long maintains that with the student body expected to grow by about 2,000 next year, the system will be forced to make cuts.
"The timing is terrible, and we have all these unanswered questions," Long said.
Long said he hopes the School Board will be able to vote on cuts at its June 17 meeting.
"Honestly, I don't know how we can run the schools with fewer people than we have now," Hudson Elementary principal Linda McCarthy said.
The last day of school came and went at McCarthy's school like it did at public schools across Pasco County on Wednesday - with hugs, goodbyes, cupcakes, pizza parties and uncertainties.
"Miss Brinkley, what class am I going to be in next year?" a worried 8-year-old Toni Imbimbo asked teacher Karen Brinkley after giving her a hug.
Back at Wesley Chapel, some teachers waved red and white pompoms while others high-fived the students as they passed them by on the way to their school buses.
"Have a great summer!" coach Tim Barthle shouted. "It's pretty emotional. It (the school) was new to everybody. I think it was kind of special."
Some parents gathered to join in the sendoff.
Alex Cruz snapped photos as his daughter, Marie, 11, walked with her classmates.
"I'm very proud of her. She's becoming a lady," he said with a smile.
Now, administrators will prepare for the whopping 1,080 kids entering in the fall, up from 878 now. Despite looming budget cuts, Wesley Chapel principal Cynthia Harper has 16 teacher vacancies to fill soon.
Lynne Webb, president of the United School Board Employees of Pasco, said that while most school employees have been wrapped up in finishing the year, the budget process might present some hard realities come fall.
"This is going to be a rude awakening at the start of the school year for parents and students when their favorite bus driver or favorite paraprofessional isn't there to greet them," Webb said.