The school district must deal with a never-ending deluge of students while trying to reduce class sizes. That means the never-ending noise of saws and hammers.
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK, Times Staff Writer
Published July 22, 2005
Crestwood Elementary School in Town 'N Country will have a lot on its plate when the first day of school rolls around Aug. 4.
Educators will work closely with the children to counteract whatever situations led the school to see its state grade drop from A to C amid sliding FCAT scores.
The school, one of the county's largest with a projected enrollment of 1,078, also will cope with co-teaching, traveling teachers and the other deleterious effects of crowding.
Principal Dianna Smith hopes the construction of a 20-classroom addition - the school's second expansion in five years - won't distract the children from the key task at hand, that of learning.
She is not alone in that concern. This new school year brings the noise, dust and debris that accompanies new wings to 20 schools in the northern suburbs of Hillsborough County.
All told, the district will spend $36.2-million to add 278 classrooms in the region, including the first-ever expansion of Jefferson High.
That doesn't include the planned January completion of Turner Elementary in the Live Oak subdivision of New Tampa. Students will attend classes in portables at Heritage Elementary until then.
Several other new schools could begin the design process and possibly construction during the school year, as the district comes to grips with what superintendent MaryEllen Elia has deemed the area's two biggest concerns: continued population growth paired with a state requirement to reduce class sizes.
District project manager Tom Blackwell promises that the work will cause "minimal disruption."
"We will fence off the construction areas from the rest of the school and be as little inconvenience as possible," Blackwell said.
The need is clear.
Hillsborough schools' population has grown by about 5,000 to 6,000 students a year for the past several years. The increase is not expected to lessen.
Unlike several large districts that are shrinking, such as Pinellas and Miami-Dade, Hillsborough's is projected to rise by nearly 40,000 students during the current decade. That's just off the pace of fast-growing Broward and Orange counties.
Much of the concentration is occurring in Hillsborough County's northern portion. Five of nine elementary schools that have grown to 115 percent capacity or more, for example, are in the region.
McKitrick Elementary in Lutz is one of those. The school has been over capacity almost every year since opening in 2001. This fall, the school built for 898 children is projected to open with 1,116.
The district is adding an 18-room wing to the campus.
"When you're growing, it does create some pain," principal Lisa Yost acknowledged. "I just hope the kids won't notice. The kids should not have to deal with anything like that."
Alonso High School principal Sandy Bunkin, who opens a 24-room addition this year, attests to the district's effort to limit the interference with education.
"We had construction all year," Bunkin says. "It was really a nonevent."
That does not mean the growth in northern Hillsborough cannot stress the schools.
Alonso opened in 2001 in Westchase with less than 1,400 students and no senior class. It has already held double sessions once and had as many as 20 portable classrooms.
Even after this, its second addition, Alonso still will need 10 portable classrooms to meet the demands of an expected 2,642 students. Some teachers still will float from room to room; the threat of double sessions lingers.
"All you see are new houses, new apartments, new condos," Bunkin said about the neighborhood. "Somehow, you make accommodations and if you have the best people, it works. We'll be okay for next year. That's the way I look at it. One year at a time."
Looking into the future, though, district officials foresee nothing but more of the same.
Even before the new classroom wings open in August 2006, Blackwell said, still more construction could begin.
First on the list is a $17.3-million middle school next to Turner Elementary in New Tampa. Blackwell hoped to have the school open in time for the 2006-07 school year.
"The same contractor that is building Turner Elementary is building this school," he said. "That contractor has built this school (design) twice before. That's in his favor."
An elementary school in the Highland Park development on Race Track Road could open in 2006, though not likely at the start of the school year. Officials also hope to see quick action on new middle and high schools in Lutz.
Longer term, the demand is not likely to abate. The district has plans for several new campuses to handle growth and to accommodate lower class sizes.
These include a $45-million New Tampa high school in 2008 and an $11.6-million elementary school in the northwest in 2007. Several additional projects, including multimillion-dollar renovations at Gaither High and Hill Middle, remain unfunded in the district's five-year capital plan.
Elia says the district will try new ideas, such as multistory elementary schools, and will continue things that work, including shared libraries and play areas, to make sure the district creates the most efficient schools possible.
As usable land becomes more scarce, she said, that's an increasingly important effort.
One thing is certain in the future of schools in the north, Elia said: growth-related construction. "We are going to have more schools in that area."
