'Stupid lines' split community
By GINA PACE
Published January 12, 2007
LAND O'LAKES - Marissa Collier may go to Sunlake High School next year, but she will always be a Land O'Lakes High Gator.
"If I'm put in a new school, I will go to every Land O'Lakes football game," said Marissa, a sophomore. "My heart is with the Land O'Lakes team."
Marissa lives in Lake Padgett Estates, the oldest development in the area and the core of the Land O'Lakes community. She's gone to school with kids from Lake Padgett Estates East since she was in kindergarten.
But when the proposed boundary lines for Sunlake High were revealed in December, she and other families in the area saw that a line ran right through the middle of the Lake Padgett community. Those living north of Bell Lake Road would stay at Land O'Lakes; those south would go to the new high school.
Marissa, the president of the sophomore class, says the change now dominates students' conversations.
"Stupid lines on paper are causing an uproar in the entire community," Marissa said.
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Families filled Land O'Lakes High gymnasium Tuesday evening for a meeting to ask questions about the boundaries for Sunlake and Charles S. Rushe Middle School, also scheduled to open in the area.
Some asked about what academic and extracurricular programs the schools would have. Many were frustrated about where the boundary lines fell.
"Lake Padgett Estates and Lake Padgett Estates East - we're one community," said Land O'Lakes student Kendal Jackson as others in the audience cheered. "You can't split us up."
The explosion of growth in central Pasco in the last few years has spurred the need for new schools, as is typical for developing communities. But School Board chairwoman Marge Whaley said that many in the Land O'Lakes area were caught unaware.
"Lake Padgett is an older development," Whaley said. "People have lived there a long time, and they thought that was their school."
Land O'Lakes High has been over capacity for several years, Whaley said. It is designed to hold 1,458 students. This year, the school is 1,090 students over capacity, forcing a 10-period day, where students go to school in shifts.
Chris Williams, the district's supervisor of planning, said the boundary committee for Sunlake tried to come up with alternative boundary lines in Lake Padgett Estates, but had to include the neighborhood in Sunlake's zone to reduce the population at Land O'Lakes. Other factors such as long-term school construction plans and racial and economic diversity also were considered when drawing boundaries, Williams said.
"That particular neighborhood was looked at very intensely," he said earlier this week.
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Tuesday's meeting was district officials' first public forum for concerns, as they are doing for all five new schools during the next two weeks. The School Board will hold two public hearings about the five schools in February before the final boundaries are set.
Angie Stone, currently the principal at Hudson High School, has been named the principal of Sunlake, pending school board approval. She said not all parents are upset about the change.
"A lot of parents who are out there are sending me e-mails, saying they are really excited about their son or daughter going to a new high school," she said.
Susan Campbell, mother of a sophomore at Land O'Lakes, said she's waiting for more information about how the transition will work before she gets upset.
"I think Land O'Lakes is a great school, but I'm sure Sunlake will be too," she said.
Russell Adams, a Realtor who lives in Lake Padgett Estates, sold his first lot there in 1966.
"We've seen Land O'Lakes change from a small area to a large area," he said. "It's just always hard when you divide kids up, especially when they've been growing up and playing together."
Carla Collier, Marissa's mom, said she's not against the concept of a new school, because she knows it will be filled with the latest technology.
"I just know a lot of parents' minds would have been eased if they left Lake Padgett one way or another and not split it down the middle," she said.
Gina Pace can be reached at (352) 521-6518 or gpace@sptimes.com.Upcoming boundary meetings
New school: Double Branch Elementary School
Schools affected: Sand Pine Elementary School and Wesley Chapel Elementary School
Meeting: Jan. 16, 7 p.m., Sand Pine Elementary School cafeteria
New school: Gulf Trace Elementary School
Schools affected: Sunray Elementary School, Gulfside Elementary School and Mittye P. Locke Elementary School (Gulfside and Mittye P. Locke students would be redistricted for the 2008-09 school year)
Meeting: Jan. 18, 6:30 p.m., Sunray Elementary School cafeteria.
Maps of the proposed boundaries can be seen online at www.pasco.k12.fl.us