Board members could decide tonight whether to approve closing the marine science center.
By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published June 17, 2003
PORT RICHEY - Angel Baker's cheeks were red, her clothes were soaked, but her interest in the tiny marine life that crawled or flopped along the muddy seine nets was undivided.
"I dive because of this," the 12-year-old said.
Since visiting the Energy and Marine Center on a field trip at Anclote Elementary years ago, Baker has become a full-time fan of marine life. She's a counselor during the center's summer camp and a marine biologist wanna-be.
Now, the center where she discovered her passion for all things sea-related might be closing.
In an effort to trim $10.3-million from a $586-million Pasco County School District budget, officials last week placed the popular $295,000-a-year center on the chopping block for 2003-04.
School Board members could decide tonight whether to approve those cuts.
In the 29 years since the Pasco County school system obtained 10 acres of coastal property and created an outdoor classroom here, about 225,000 students have streamed through the cricket buzz of the Energy and Marine Center on field trips.
Children from fourth-grade through high school have cupped tiny diamond killifish in their hands, walked through scrubby hammock communities and brushed against the leafy mangroves that dot the center's watery back yard.
"It's probably one of the most recognized centers, and Pasco County has always done a good job of finding ways to fund it," said Ken Ford, a science teacher at the center who for 24 years has talked to children on field trips about blue crabs, mangroves, deer tracks and the indigenous plant and animal life that children raised around concrete and computers don't often see.
The center has been eyed for closure before, said Gary Perkins, program manager at the Energy and Marine Center since 1986.
In 2001, the saltwater science center was placed on the table when it looked like the system would have to make $5-million in cuts. It was spared that year. About eight years before, the center staff was cut from six to three because of budget trimming.
Today, it employs two teachers, a bookkeeper and a do-it-all custodian. Perkins said discussions of shuttering the program come up every few years.
"That's standard for environmental education centers," Perkins said, his T-shirt drenched with sweat from working outdoors on the Mary G, the instructional boat he and the staff built years ago to help complement the hands-on curriculum.
In an educational environment that is increasingly concerned with standardized testing and mastery of core classes such as reading and math, he said, programs like the center are seen as a luxury item.
"When there's money, you will have money to work with. And when there's no money, you won't. You get kind of used to it. My entire career has been like sitting on a bubble," Perkins said.
On Monday, news of the center's vulnerability was buffered by a shared hope that the closure would be only temporary.
Schools superintendent John Long said Friday that he would like to keep the property maintained enough next year that it would not fall into disrepair before money becomes available to reopen the center.
School Board member Kathleen Wolf said she isn't giving up on the idea that the facility could be reopened later. Wolf first visited the center when she was a fourth-grade teacher at Hudson Elementary on a class field trip.
"I'm really disappointed that we have to cut it, but it's not producing any revenue," Wolf said.
Schools are funded by the state according to how many students they have enrolled. Because the center does not house students full time, it does not get specially earmarked funds.
The center's summer camp programs, which draw a total of about 60 students in two sessions, are fee-based. But the money generated goes to pay for the program, Perkins said.
If the five-member School Board agrees to accept the proposed budget cuts tonight, Perkins said, he would let loose the native fish: the snook and the toadfish, the pinfish and sea urchin, the sheepshead and black drum.
But, he said, he'll continue work he began three years ago to create mangal forests - miniature mangrove aquariums in three on-site tanks.
"When we get it back to running, we need to have something that's up to date."
- Rebecca Catalanello covers education in Pasco County. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6241 or toll-free at 800 333-7505, ext. 6241. Her e-mail address is rcatalanello@sptimes.com
