Brandon's Steve Ayers sets attendance zones for new schools - "an art," he says, "not a science."
By LETITIA STEIN
Published July 15, 2005
Parents love him or hate him.
Most don't know his name.
But when Steve Ayers changes attendance boundaries for Hillsborough County's schools, thousands of families take notice. More often than not, he gets stuck in the cross fire.
Ayers would rather crack open a book or flip on the History Channel than stick out his neck before a crowd of parents.
"I live more in my mind than I do anywhere else," Ayers said. "I'm not an out-front kind of guy."
Like work, life has forced Ayers to venture beyond his comfort zone. For someone who doesn't like organized athletics, Ayers follows sports closely. Never a Boy Scout, Ayers now ties knots with Troop 89 at Nativity Catholic Church in Brandon.
Three sons will do that to you.
As Ayers sees it, the interests must skip generations. In his childhood, he played pickup sports in the Interbay neighborhood of South Tampa.
Born in Washington, D.C., he moved to Tampa in the second grade, when his father retired from the Air Force. Ayers attended Ballast Point Elementary, Monroe Middle and Robinson High.
He enrolled at the University of South Florida, where he could pay $90 per term and live at home. An English literature major, he ultimately chose teaching over the Air Force.
"You couldn't get much work as an English lit major," Ayers said, noting that his mother, a nurse, always had wanted to become a teacher herself.
He landed a job teaching English at East Bay High and stayed for 17 years. Ayers also taught reading before becoming an assistant principal. He stayed so long because he enjoyed working with parents and students in a rural community at the edge of Tampa's suburbs.
"It was a "yes, sir; no, sir' kind of a place," said Ayers, who didn't see any reason to move on. "I don't deal with change real well."
A single man could live on a teacher's salary. But by then, Ayers had persuaded Kathleen, a salesclerk he met at WestShore Plaza, to become his wife. The couple quickly outgrew their 1,000-square-foot stucco house in Palma Ceia with the arrivals of Patrick, Phillip and Gregory within six years.
So the Ayers family moved to Brandon about a dozen years ago for a larger house in a quiet neighborhood. Weekends became devoted to ball games with the boys.
Spectator sports are bonding time for Ayers and his eldest son, Patrick, now 17 and an honor student at Brandon High. Born with cerebral palsy, Patrick can't play sports, but loves watching competitions and collecting autographs.
Three kids stretched his teacher's salary even further. In 1993, he left East Bay for various administrative positions. He eventually moved to the school district's headquarters in downtown Tampa; he joined the office that oversees pupil assignment and became its director in 2004.
Ayers oversees the placement of all school-aged children in Hillsborough County. They show up as green dots on his computer screen - 176,000 dots at the latest count.
In the past two years, Ayers has designed boundaries for 15 new schools. Each time a school opens, students get shuffled.
"I'm charged with watching that fine line between the individualized needs of the parent and the long-term goals of the school district," Ayers said.
"The worst part of the job is knowing it's disruptive to families," he said.
His calm demeanor helps at public meetings, when irritated crowds protest school zone changes. People aren't shy about venting frustrations. Still, he passes out cards like candy, so parents can be in touch. He also works with families on an individual basis.
When the revised boundaries work out, Ayers receives grateful e-mails and phone calls.
WHAT THAT MEANS: Ayers sets boundaries for new schools, oversees special assignment, works with the choice program and serves as the school district's liaison to emergency planners during hurricanes.
HISTORY BUFF: "I'm at a point in life where I like real things," Ayers says.
WHAT HE MISSES ABOUT TEACHING: "I miss interacting with the kids."
