Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Neighborhood notebook

More classrooms are planned at Durant High

By Times staff writers
Published January 27, 2006

BRANDON - Durant High School students and parents can be glad it won't be worse.

Hillsborough's school leaders said last week that they have a plan to address crowding at Durant without creating double sessions or year-round classes.

Instead, they plan to build more classrooms.

Durant will gain a wing of 24 classrooms. The addition will add space for another 600 students.

This year, Durant ranked as one of Hillsborough's most crowded schools with 2,800 students filling a school built for about 2,400.

Brandon High also is growing and will add a classroom wing of the same size as Durant's.

At both schools, construction is scheduled for completion in January 2007.

Each classroom wing will cost $2.9-million.

School officials have not yet determined where to locate the new classrooms at each campus.

- LETITIA STEIN

RUSKIN - When he heard that his National Weather Service office had won the federal Department of Commerce's gold medal for its work during the 2004 hurricane season, meteorologist-in-charge Shawn Bennett felt pride.

But he also felt gratitude, he said, to the many people who had helped his staff disseminate crucial information about the storms that blasted through the Tampa Bay area.

"We couldn't have done this without our partners and supporters," he said.

So on Jan. 20, he held a "recognition ceremony" to share the honor of the Commerce Department's highest honor with the community.

During the storms, he said, the Weather Service office was a "crossroads of information - the hub of the spokes."

The ceremony recognized journalists, amateur radio operators and representatives from surrounding county governments.

"It's all about getting the word out," Bennett said.

- S.I. ROSENBAUM

[Last modified January 26, 2006, 09:02:05]