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Relief on way for class crowding
By MELANIE AVE © St. Petersburg Times, published January 7, 2001 NEW TAMPA -- Many of New Tampa's schools are populated with too many children, but the next two years promise to bring some relief. One new elementary school will open in the fall and construction will continue on two others throughout 2001 as the school district prepares for the 2002 opening of a middle school and high school in Tampa Palms. Lawton Chiles Elementary School will open in the fall, west of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. The school will house grades kindergarten through sixth the first year to relieve overcrowding at Benito Middle School. After the first year, only kindergarten through fifth graders will attend. The elementary school, the second in the Tampa Palms neighborhood, will ease crowding at Tampa Palms, Pizzo and Clark elementaries. The Lawton Chiles attendance area will draw Tampa Palms Elementary children from the west side of Bruce B. Downs, Clark Elementary children who live south of Interstate 75 and some children from the Pizzo Elementary satellite area near University Mall. The Hillsborough County School Board is scheduled to choose a new principal for the school on Tuesday. And the Tampa Palms Elementary School PTA has organized a "celebration committee" to help the children make the transition to Lawton Chiles and welcome the new school into the community, said Kathleen Mueller, PTA president. "That's our way of reaching out to the new school from Tampa Palms," she said. "For all of the children, it's going to be a change." North of Lawton Chiles, workers are clearing land for the yet unnamed "High School JJJ" and "Middle School JJ" off Interstate 75 and Bruce B. Downs, near the USAA insurance complex. The two schools will reduce crowding at Wharton High School and Benito, the only other high school and middle school in New Tampa. The School Board is expected to give the final go-ahead this spring for the schools, which will share 141 acres with a city park. The high school and middle school students will share some facilities, such as the auditorium and cafeteria, and all will be able to use ball fields, playgrounds and tennis courts that are technically on park land. Plans also are under way for another elementary school in Heritage Isles to ease the crowding even more. "It sounds like it all should be alleviated," said Lois Haas, chairwoman of the New Tampa Community Council's education committee. "But none of us expected the growth this area has experienced."
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From the Times |
