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Schools

A brand new year

In some ways, Pinellas opens its doors as a very different school district.

By THOMAS C. TOBIN
Published August 3, 2005

	[Times photo: Scott Keeler]
	Kindergarten teacher Helene Dueben spends a moment outside her classroom at Southern Oak Elementary School in Largo with new student Tyler Porter, 5, on Tuesday at orientation. "It will be a good day," she told him. By the end of orientation Tyler was smiling. Photo gallery Pre-K begins without a hitch Back to School section New year, new attitude Teacher suspended for epithet

More than 140 public schools will reopen today in Pinellas County with freshly decorated classrooms, the smell of new erasers and the chatter of young friends.

The first day of school never changes. Yet in some ways, Pinellas opens its doors a much different school system than it was a year ago.

Superintendent Howard Hinesley still ran the district last August while Clayton Wilcox waited, unable to take control until his Nov. 1 start date.

During the year that followed, two students were killed in bus-related accidents, another was seriously injured after running away from school, and a 5-year-old girl was handcuffed by St. Petersburg police after misbehaving - all of it bringing the worst kind of attention to Pinellas schools.

Tested by those events and altered by the changes a new superintendent inevitably brings, the district has a decidedly different feel as school begins this morning.

A new dress code, a reorganized bus system and a revised Web site are a few of Wilcox's more publicized changes. He has assigned new principals to several schools, restructured the district's chain of command and reduced the number of administrators at district headquarters.

But at a recent meeting with his principals, he also rolled out a series of less heralded changes in tone and philosophy. Those are detailed inside.

[Last modified August 3, 2005, 07:00:21]