Portables might stabilize Sickles classes until '09
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published October 15, 2006
CITRUS PARK - The threat of double sessions or new attendance boundaries for Sickles High School is losing steam.
The scenario that's gaining traction to handle crowding until a new high school opens in 2009 would add several more portable classrooms to the campus. Sickles already has 14 portables and is scheduled for a 16-classroom addition in 2008.
"With some additional portables, we should be able to hold the school until 2009," said Bill Person, general director of pupil placement for Hillsborough schools. "We're reviewing the options to put portables there."
Superintendent MaryEllen Elia still must approve the idea, which many consider less disruptive than creating shifts of students or moving some teens to Leto High, the only high school in the area with open seats.
Sickles has 2,700 students enrolled, but is built to hold just over 2,200. It is scraping by in the state's class-size measure, which requires that core courses such as English and algebra have no more than 25 students.
When the state starts counting heads in each classroom in 2008, though, district leaders have concerns that Sickles can't meet the mark without removing students or adding rooms.
Several English and math classes have more than 30 students each this year.
School district facilities workers have spent some time looking at where more portables would sit while construction on the new wing takes place. They began investigating the possibility after some parents and students stated their preference for a long-term solution to Sickles' crowding, rather than one that moved students several times or upset their academic environment.
Person had hoped to have Elia's support in time for Monday's 1:30 p.m. meeting of the school capacity advisory committee. He did not get time to present the idea before the end of business Friday, though.
If he gets the go-ahead, the potentially explosive debate over double sessions or new attendance zones would come off the committee's plate. Already, the committee expects to hear complaints about possible moves of students in both Westchase and Cory Lake Isles.
Person stressed that no ideas are dead. He remained hopeful to achieve the least intrusive solution for Sickles.
"If in fact we can do portables, we won't have to do double sessions and we won't have to move boundaries," he said. "If we're successful, that will meet the need of Sickles."
Jeffrey S. Solochek can be reached at solochek@sptimes.com or 813 269-5304.