Officials are trying to deal with the lack of spots for kids whose parents want them in class closer to home.
By MELANIE AVE
Published August 7, 2004
TAMPA - On the first day of school Thursday, 992 students showed up at James K-8 School - 626 more than the 366 expected by educators.
At Booker T. Washington K-8 School, 624 students enrolled when only 478 were expected. On Friday, another 100 came.
The crowded schools crystallized what Hillsborough school officials already knew: There are simply not enough middle schools in the central city now that fewer children are being bused to the suburbs under the first year of the controlled choice plan.
Parents want their children to be educated close to home and there are not enough schools to meet the need.
Hillsborough assistant superintendent Ken Otero said children are not being turned away from James or Booker T. Washington if they live in the community.
"It is their neighborhood school," he said.
Many of the students who showed up Thursday and Friday were enrolled in schools more distant from their homes. But when they learned there was a school in their neighborhood, they decided to transfer.
Some families decided they wanted all their children at the schools for both elementary and middle school students, and moved siblings from other schools.
The result was schools scrambling to enroll students at the last minute.
One parent who waited to get her daughter registered at James was Jennifer Ammons. Last year, her seventh-grader, Ieshia Williams, was bused to Hill Middle School in Carrollwood.
"We were here an hour and a half yesterday," Ammons said Friday. "Today, it was two hours."
Booker T. Washington and James were originally planned to be regular elementary schools this year, serving urban students who are no longer being bused for integration.
Controlled choice has replaced busing and gives students greater choice of schools. It encourages children to enroll in schools outside their neighborhoods as a way to keep campuses racially mixed, but also allows thousands of black children to attend neighborhood schools rather than be bused to more distant ones.
A problem arose when the school district sought initial choice applications. There was not enough space for middle school students in the central city.
Of the five middle schools the students could attend, three - Ferrell, Orange Grove and Young - were magnet schools, in which students from all over the county compete for places, and the remaining two - Adams and Memorial - were full.
Educators said converting Booker T. Washington and James to K-8 schools made sense because elementary enrollment in the two schools was low.
Still, the flood of students Thursday caught the schools off guard.
The school system had expected that thousands of central-city children would continue their cross-county commutes. In all, 3,444 of these children had indicated before the school year began they wanted to stay put.
Based on Thursday's opening, hundreds have changed their minds.
Booker T. Washington, which can hold 722 students, should be able to deal with the unexpected influx. James has a bigger problem, with nearly 1,000 children in a school with capacity for 875.
Portable classrooms may be moved to the school, said principal Jeff Millman. Space in the cafeteria and the art and music rooms may be converted to classrooms.
Teachers will most likely be transferred from other schools to bring class sizes down after the 20th day of school. At James, some classes on Friday had 40 children.
Millman said he expects to get even more students over the next month. As the students filed into the cafeteria Friday for lunch, he joked: "What am I? Give me all God's children."
Mary Ellen Elia, chief facilities officer for the school system, said administrators are exploring long-term solutions. They include building a new middle school, or transforming an existing school into a middle school.
