Is school's location risque business?
The only place Hillsborough could build the new Carver Exceptional Center was across the street from some adult businesses.
By MELANIE AVE
Published December 15, 2004
TAMPA - This is the view from the site of the new Carver Exceptional Center school: Lipstixx Nude Cabaret, Adult World and the XTC Supercenter.
Even before ground is broken on this unlikely spot for a public school, eyebrows are arching.
"If a student wanders off campus - you know it's been known to happen - that could be a potential problem," said Hillsborough School Board member Carol Kurdell. "We need to reassure people."
Construction is scheduled to start today on the new Carver school, in the Drew Park neighborhood off Lois and Hillsborough avenues.
Three adult businesses - two bookstores and a nude dance club - are across the street from the school, which will house 150 emotionally disturbed students between the ages of 12 and 18. Other adult clubs and stores are nearby, as is Hillsborough Community College and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Educators say they had to relocate the Carver school to Drew Park, much of which is zoned for adult use, because they couldn't find any other available property in the school's attendance zone.
"We couldn't get a site anywhere else," said Mary Ellen Elia, the chief facilities officer for Hillsborough schools. "In a normal course of events we wouldn't put any program where there is a number of adult stores."
The existing Carver school site, off Laurel Street, belongs to the Florida Department of Transportation. The school district sold the property to the transportation department for $2.6-million in August because it was in the way of a planned widening of Interstate 275, set to begin in 2007.
The old school will close in June. In August, the new one will open on property owned by the school district. It will sit between existing school maintenance and technology repair offices.
Because of the proximity of businesses such as the XTC Supercenter, which sells adult videos and sexual paraphernalia, Elia said the school will be built in the middle of the property. It will be surrounded by a wall and will face away from the adult businesses on Lois Avenue, toward Hubert Street.
Elia said she doesn't expect the school location to be a problem.
All of the students will be riding buses, she said. None will be walking to and from school.
"The kids are going to be on the bus. They're going to be in the classroom," she said. "We're not driving them through the Drew Park neighborhood where the shops exist."
Carver principal Bradford Mueller said the school will have a full-time security officer as an extra layer of protection.
Mueller said he hasn't formally notified parents about the school's location, but said those he has talked to are excited about the new facility, which will offer special career programs in cooking, horticulture and computers.
"We're going to be a unique program out there," Mueller said.
Lisa Steele, whose 16-year-old daughter, Cassandra, will be a student at the new school, said "you can't hide your kids from everything."
"They seem to do an excellent job keeping my daughter safe," she said. "I would expect it to be the same in the new school."
Mueller said his school, unlike traditional schools, has smaller class sizes and more supervision. He said that will continue.
"When our kids come here, we take ownership of those kids," he said.
Tampa police Detective John Sluckis, who monitors adult businesses for illegal activity, declined to say whether the students would be at greater risk in Drew Park than elsewhere in Hillsborough County.
"The key is security within the school grounds," he said.
Most of the complaints Sluckis said he investigates in Drew Park relate to prostitution and drugs. Customers visit the businesses throughout the day, but he said the busiest times are at night, when school would be closed.
"Not all of the (businesses) are a problem," he said. "Some are and some are not. As long as the places are operating legally, they have a right to do it. But when they don't, we're on top of it as best we can."
Employees at nearby adult businesses declined to comment.
Kurdell, the School Board member, said she will visit the property and review the school's design.
"Student safety is an issue for us," she said.
Melanie Ave can be reached at 813 226-3400 or melanie@sptimes.com