The school year that begins today will be the last to feature busing for desegregation. A controlled choice plan begins next year.
By MELANIE AVE
Published August 6, 2003
The school year beginning today for Hillsborough County children will be a historic one, marking a record number of students and the beginning of the end to busing for desegregation.
This is the last year that 12,600 children who are bused to integrate suburban schools must continue their cross-county commutes. A new student assignment plan begins next year.
Their parents, and parents of children in neighborhood schools who are entering kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades next year, may begin choosing from several schools in their area this fall.
The new assignment plan, known as controlled choice, officially begins in August 2004.
Bused children, most of whom are black, will be able to attend neighborhood schools for the first time since busing began in 1971. They may also stay with their current schools.
"It's kind of an end, if you will, to more than 30 years of busing for desegregation purposes," said Donnie Evans, chief academic officer for the Hillsborough school district. "It is historic."
To get ready for choice, parents of 46,000 students - one-fourth of the district's enrollment - may choose their top three schools in their area beginning Nov. 15 through Jan. 9.
Parents can pick schools within seven geographic regions, if there's room, though most children are free to remain at their neighborhood schools.
Children will be assigned to schools based on a random computerized lottery.
The hope is that children will attend schools outside their neighborhoods and keep many campuses racially diverse.
Special courses, such as technology and the arts, will be offered to entice enrollment at some schools.
Sam Horton, president of the Hillsborough County branch of the NAACP, said he is wary of the choice plan. His organization plans to keep a close eye on it, and he fears it will make many more schools mostly black or mostly white.
"We have some apprehension that the choice plan as outlined will result in more segregation," he said. "As an organization, we are committed to an integrated society."
In addition to the choice plan, the district is expecting another enrollment boom.
The school system expects 5,375 extra students to show up within the first month, boosting enrollment to 179,466. In comparison, by the 20th day of school last year, 171,399 children were in attendance.
But even that's not the end to the growth.
Another 1,500 students are expected to enroll halfway through the year.
To make room for all the new students, the district is opening eight new schools: Newsome High in Lithia; Jennings Middle in Thonotosassa; Mulrennan Middle in Durant; Heritage Elementary in New Tampa; Muller Elementary in north Tampa; Nelson Elementary in Durant; Schmidt Elementary in Limona; and Sessums Elementary in Riverview.
Superintendent Earl Lennard said 1,000 buses will be driving county streets and roads beginning at 6 a.m., and there may be some confusion among children.
"We hope the driving public will be patient with us," he said. "Some students will show up at places we didn't know."
