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A learning curve
By LOGAN D. MABE
© St. Petersburg Times,
Three new ones -- Chiles Elementary in New Tampa, McKitrick Elementary in Lutz and Alonso High School in Town 'n Country -- will join the ranks when the school year begins Wednesday. But the Hillsborough County school district is setting an unparalleled pace for growth that will set the curve for years to come. In 2002, the district will open 10 schools, the most it has ever launched at one time. In 2003, another eight schools will be built. Four more will open in 2004, five in 2005 and three in 2006.
And most of them will be built to address the rapid influx of students in the north Tampa suburbs. An alphabet soup of new schools is planned for a northern swath that stretches from Keystone to Tampa Palms. The new schools set to open in fall 2002 include: Elementary school "M" on Race Track Road at Nine Eagles Boulevard. The school will help alleviate overcrowding at Westchase Elementary, which is projected to operate at about 145 percent capacity this year, and Citrus Park Elementary which will be at 115 percent capacity. Middle school "MM" which will be built alongside the elementary. This school will help Davidsen Middle in Westchase (107 percent capacity) and Walker Middle (132 percent capacity.) Middle School "GG" is being built next to McKitrick Elementary off Lutz-Lake Fern Road. This school will also help Walker, as well as Buchanan Middle (120 percent.) Middle school "JJ" in New Tampa west of the Interstate 75-Bruce B. Downs Boulevard junction. The school will aid Benito Middle (125 percent capacity) and Buchanan Middle High school "JJJ" will be built alongside the middle school and will draw students from Wharton High (119 percent) and Gaither High (116 percent.)
In addition, the district is building Middleton High School on N 22nd Street just south of Hillsborough Avenue. While the school isn't in north Tampa, it will serve neighborhoods that send students to Gaither, Leto, Chamberlain and Sickles high schools for desegregation. Why the sudden surge in school construction? "Tampa Bay is a great place to live," said Jack Davis, the district's assistant superintendent for operations. "People relocate here for work and a lot of times they bring their children with them. And sometimes they have more children once they get here." Bill Person, who keeps track of student assignments and school boundaries for the district, said officials have known for years that more students were coming. But keeping apace of that growth is not yet an exact science. "According to Jim Hosler, a professional demographer with the Planning Commission, he predicted that the district would pick up about 11,500 students between 2001 and 2011," Person said. "Well, we've picked up an average of 4,000 kids every year the last few years.
"If we do not do a sufficient job of monitoring and predicting and projecting growth in the district, we end up opening brand new schools way over capacity. That's happened in the past. We opened Walker Middle and Westchase Elementary later than we originally wanted to. But we couldn't get the schools built fast enough." Through the decade of the 1990s the district gained about 35,000 students, Davis said, or about 3,500 each year. "And for every 25 to 30 students, you're going to need another classroom," Davis said. "You can do the math on that one." To help meet the demand, the district, like many others across the state, came to rely on portable classrooms. But most of those are being phased out now due to directives from the Legislature. Portables are what allow a school, such as Claywell Elementary at 139 percent, to exceed enrollment capacity. The new schools coming in 2002 will reduce or eliminate the need for most of the portables in north Tampa schools. "These schools are going to allow us to operate the existing schools we have today at a reasonable capacity," Person said. "Most of those school are all operating above capacity and they were not designed to operate at 140 percent capacity. Even with a bunch of portables, it impacts the cafeteria, parent drop-off zones, bus ramps, bathrooms, all those things are designed for 100 percent." But somehow, year after year, teachers and administrators in the trenches make do.
"But actually it runs pretty smoothly around here,'" Bass said. "When our principal came in she was aware that there was going to be a big boom in building, so we knew what was happening. Also, our community is extremely supportive. We've been very blessed to have numerous volunteers and business partners who supply people as needed." Not that there aren't inconveniences. "Our lunchroom is certainly full every lunch, and the media center does a lot of business throughout the day, and our secretaries have lots of phones to answer and parents to deal with," Bass said. "It is harder to know the names of 1,400 or 1,500 students than it is 900. So we just try harder." At Walker Middle School, designed for 1,085 students, Principal Kathy Flanagan expects to have about 1,500 kids show up the first month of school. "For a while there, I was a little paranoid that we were going to be like the Waltons, all in bunk beds," Flanagan said. "But the county gives us enough teachers and portables to handle it. It's a little overwhelming at dismissal, but it's not chaotic." Walker's student population is projected to decrease to less than 1,000 in 2002 when new schools open in the area. Flanagan said she's looking forward to that day. "I'll be loving life," she said with a laugh. "I won't know what to do." - Logan D. Mabe can be reached at 813-226-3464.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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From the Times |
"We're anticipating between 1,500 and 1,600 students by the end of next school year," said Westchase Elementary assistant principal Karen Bass. The school was built to house 938 students.
