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The district names 13 people to a committee that will draft boundary proposals for a middle and a high school set to open in 2002.
By LOGAN D. MABE
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 17, 2001
TAMPA PALMS -- With a new middle school and high school set to open in New Tampa in 2002, parents will finally get some relief from overcrowding. But which students will go where?
That is the question school district officials have answered in the past by showing up at community meetings with slides showing boundary lines they determined. Often those plans were met with confusion and controversy.
Now the task of setting attendance boundaries is being shared with the very parents whose children will be affected. For the New Tampa schools, a committee of 13 people was deputized Thursday night by pupil administrative services director Bill Person.
"This will let the community tell us what they want and what they will support, what they don't want and what they won't support," Person said. "Over a period of months, let's meet and craft something."
The committee, with representatives from across north Tampa, will get together several times over the summer to hammer out one or more proposals to present to the School Board.
Schools that will be affected by the opening of middle school "JJ" include Benito, Buchanan and Van Buren middle schools. Schools affected by the opening of high school "JJJ" include Wharton and Gaither.
"What's most important isn't what staff has to say, but what you have to say, what the community has to say," Person said. "I'm not going to craft this boundary. We're going to craft this boundary."
With eight schools to open in 2002, Person has created six boundary committees. Two of those committees are also considering boundaries for the middle schools in the Nine Eagles and Lutz-Lake Fern Road areas. The new schools are being built to accommodate massive growth in suburban Hillsborough County.
Some of the things the committees will consider when drawing lines include race ratios, traffic, demographics, overcrowding in existing schools and community identity.
-- Logan D. Mabe can be reached at 813-226-3464.