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Schools

Build to meet class size rules, study says

An ambitious program to build more classrooms and schools is needed to meet new state rules limiting the number of students in a class, a district report says.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN
Published August 26, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - School officials need to build dozens more classrooms over the next few years at many overcrowded schools if they want to meet the new state class size requirements, a district study says.

The School Board will hold a workshop at 3 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the findings of the recently completed report and consider plans for school construction and enrollment. The report could also re-energize a debate about magnet schools in Hernando County, since it says that both Chocachatti Elementary and Challenger K-8 School of Science and Mathematics are housing too many students.

"The solution is going to be a very ambitious and aggressive construction timetable," said School Board Vice Chairman Jim Malcolm.

Last spring, the School Board had a lengthy debate over adding students to Chocachatti after spending $1.2-million to build a new wing there. Also, state officials ruled that Hernando failed to adequately reduce class sizes in grades three and lower.

That ruling also prompted state officials to bar the county's public schools from participating in the new universal prekindergarten program this school year and forced the district to dedicate more money to school construction.

For years, the district had judged the student capacity of new schools using 1999 state guidelines. But a 2002 voter amendment to the state constitution significantly altered those rules.

That amendment requires the state by 2010 to limit class sizes to no more than 18 students for kindergarten through third grade; 22 for fourth through eighth grade; and 25 for high school. It will eventually require schools districts to cap students in every single class to those limits.

Conducted by staffers in the district facilities office, the study was done to find out how many more classrooms the district needed to meet those strict requirements. Not surprisingly, the report says that many schools still have a long way to go.

J.D. Floyd Elementary, for example, is housing about 1,250 students, about 100 more students than it has room for. Suncoast Elementary's enrollment of around 900 is about 35 more than it should be, the study says. This year, Pine Grove Elementary has 1,072 students - that's about 100 too many.

But the study also says that Challenger and Chocachatti are two of the most overcrowded schools in the county. According to the report, Chocachatti currently has room for 765 students, though it houses 920. And Challenger should have only 1,277 students, not the 1,419 it has now.

"Magnets seem to be affected more," said district facilities director Roland Bavota.

Part of the reason for that discrepancy is the dearth of portable classrooms at the district's magnet schools. Challenger doesn't have any portables; Chocachatti has three.

Meanwhile, Spring Hill Elementary has 26 portable classrooms and 31 regular classrooms. The study says it has room for 200 more students in its classrooms, even though many consider it to be one of the most overcrowded schools in the county because of lack of space in its cafeteria and the large number of portables on campus.

A large renovation project at the school is scheduled to finish by the end of 2007. The cafeteria at Spring Hill could possibly double in size by the end of 2006; a new two-story classroom facility would be built in 2007. The School Board has also authorized rezoning 6.87 acres of vacant land at the school, possibly for a new prekindergarten building.

Central High is also struggling with a rapidly growing student body. Last year, the School Board decided to rezone dozens of students to Hernando High because Central was so overcrowded. At one meeting, board members fretted that double sessions might be necessary if they didn't act.

But the district study now says Central has 2,117 student stations, or room for about 150 more kids. Bavota pointed out that the study did not consider rooms like the cafeteria or the media center, which were strained by more students.

Malcolm said he doesn't anticipate making any changes to school enrollments. Instead, he said board members should speed up construction of more schools to give relief to places like Spring Hill and Central.

"When you go to those schools, you see they are filled up in the classrooms and hallways," Malcolm said. "They are crowded."

Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or 352-848-1431.

[Last modified August 26, 2005, 01:36:21]