Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Schools

Schools boundaries to change

At two area schools, 550 kids will be reassigned.

By LETITIA STEIN and HELEN ANNE TRAVIS
Published January 19, 2007

The School Board approved a plan Tuesday night to move about 250 students from Mulrennan Middle School to Mann Middle School. Another 300 students from the same neighborhoods were forced out of crowded Durant High School to Brandon High.

Fighting back tears, eight parents and students tried to stop a boundary change affecting the four schools in Brandon and Valrico next school year. They didn't succeed.

Because he'll be a senior next year, Cyle Olle won't have to leave Durant High. Still, he pleaded with School Board members to consider alternatives on behalf of his younger siblings. He recalled how hard it was for him to move from Mann to Mulrennan in his eighth-grade year.

"These are vital years. You find out who you are," he said. "Please, if there's an alternative, look into it."

His mother, Lourdes, also spoke, while her younger children - seventh- and eighth-graders - cried in the audience. It will be the family's third boundary change since moving to the Heritage Crest neighborhood off Sydney and Valrico roads eight years ago, she said.

"I feel it is not fair that we can be moved again because we sit at the convenient point," she told the School Board.

Mindy Wellman's husband is in the U.S. Air Force and he attends graduate school in Orlando. The Wellmans only reason for moving to eastern Hillsborough County was Durant High School and Mulrennan Middle School.

The Wellmans researched the area before moving. Although they discovered nothing negative about Brandon High School, they heard plenty of positive comments about Durant. Neighbors told them it had a great environment, and the school's rural environment don't offer the temptation of skipping class at nearby stores or fast-food restaurants.

Wellman is applying for special assignment for her three sons. The oldest has been to nine schools, and she doesn't want him to move again.

But the choice and special-assignment options are available only at schools that have room. East Bay, King, Lennard, Robinson, and Spoto high schools are the only in the district that are not at capacity, said Bill Person, the district's director of pupil placement.

For now, there's a little bit of wiggle room to get students into a school at capacity for the 2007-2008 school year because of the way the class size ratio is now calculated, Person said. That won't be the case in August 2008, when the method of determining class size ratios changes.

Students who weren't affected by this week's boundary revision aren't necessarily in the clear.

"Students who live north of (State Road) 60 who weren't affected last night very well might be affected in the future," Person said. School officials promised that students who are moved now won't be affected when a new school opens.

Letitia Stein can be reached at 226-3400 or lstein@sptimes.com Helen Anne Travis can be reached at 661-2439 or htravis@sptimes.com.

Fast Facts:

Other boundary proposals

This fall: Schmidt Elementary students will be shifted to Kenly Elementary. Boundary changes will be recommended to the School Board in February.

2008: A new elementary school in the Valencia Lakes subdivision will relieve crowding at Ruskin's Cypress Creek Elementary. Some students from Wimauma Elementary will also be moved.

Some students from Sessums Elementary will be moved to Riverview Elementary.

Some Yates and Mintz elementary students will be moved to Kingswood Elementary.

August 2009: New high school will affect students presently attending Durant, Plant City and Armwood high schools.

Also, new elementary and middle schools in the Lake Hutto area near Lithia will affect attendance boundaries at Boyette Springs and Bevis elementary schools; Randall, Rodgers, and Eisenhower middle schools; and possibly Lithia Springs Elementary School.

[Last modified January 18, 2007, 07:51:19]