Schools might see changes in staffing

As Pinellas' 10-day enrollment figures are tallied, teachers, portable classrooms and students could be shifted to achieve more balance.

By KELLY RYAN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 7, 2001

At Dunedin High School, 96 more students showed up this year than were expected. The school hopes the numbers will generate new teachers for English and science, courses with more than 30 students in some classes.

In another corner of the county, Lakewood Elementary School has 121 fewer students than the school was prepared to handle. The school is likely to lose a couple of teachers.

Every year after the 10th day of school -- when most families are settled into the new year -- Pinellas district officials take a student head count. The information is used to shift teachers and portable classrooms to where the students are.

It also gives the district's pupil assignment department a peek at what they might find when they do another count in October.

The goal of that count is to monitor whether the district is in compliance with a federal court order that puts limits on the number of African-American students in any school. The ratios vary in different parts of the county.

Based on the 10-day count released late Thursday, some schools are on the district's radar.

Campbell Park Elementary has a student population that is 49.73 percent black, andFairmount Park Elementary has an enrollment that is 46.88 percent black. Lakewood Elementary is 48.05 percent black. The district won't know what the cap will be for a few weeks, but in recent years it has been around 40 percent.

Kings Highway Elementary is 29.87 percent black, and North Ward Elementary is 28.22 percent black. In recent years in that part of the county, the cap has been closer to 25 percent.

To maintain a racial balance at schools in predominantly African-American neighborhoods, every two years the School Board selects a group of white students from north St. Petersburg and mid county to ride buses to southern Pinellas.

In February, the School Board picked 1,320 white students to ride buses to Gulfport, Campbell Park, Fairmount Park, Lakewood or Maximo elementaries for the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 school years to balance racial ratios. If those students don't show up or are not enough to achieve the required racial balance, the district could be forced to ask the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to waive the ratio requirements for one year. In the alternative, a new group of white students may be put on buses next year.

Superintendent Howard Hinesley wants to avoid the second option. His staff will analyze the numbers by Oct. 1. Among the issues the district is likely to study: why Walsingham Elementary, which was supposed to lose about 100 students to Campbell Park, unexpectedly grew by 95 students.

If some schools do exceed the ratios, district attorneys will meet with Legal Defense Fund attorneys to figure out how to proceed.

Predicting where students will show up for school is not as easy as it sounds. For one thing, Pinellas has a mobile population. This year, add another variable: In 2003, the district is ending traditional neighborhood school zoning for a system that gives parents more choice in where their children attend school.

Families were told that they could opt out of the new system and continue with their currently zoned elementary, middle and high schools if they were enrolled on the last day of school in 2000-2001. That led to a lot of movement at the end of the year.

The movement could be continuing even now, with families trying to get closer to desirable schools in the hopes that their proximity will improve their odds of getting in.

As of Thursday, 112,019 students were enrolled in Pinellas schools, 59 more than predicted. In the past year, the district has grown by 0.98 percent, or 1,083 students.

The 10-day count always brings surprises for some schools.

Brooker Creek Elementary, for example, is a highly sought-after school in a high-growth neighborhood, yet it has 111 fewer students than expected. Cypress Woods Elementary, not too far from Brooker Creek, was down 24 students.

Dunedin High officials don't know for sure why so many students have showed up. They are particularly surprised because for the past couple of years, far fewer have enrolled than the district predicted.

Elisabeth Becker, the assistant principal for curriculum, has a few theories about Dunedin's popularity. The school has a traditional program, modeled after fundamental schools, which parents are eagerly embracing. Also, the school just completed a $17-million renovation.

"The campus really has become such an inviting place," Becker said. "I think that has drawn people to the area."

At Clearwater High School, assistant principal Blythe Lodermeier said the district was pretty accurate in its predictions. The school was prepared for 2,174 and ended up with 2,177.

Even though the numbers weren't surprising, Lodermeier said the school's population has been slowly climbing every year. And that's making the school a tad too crowded. Some teachers don't have their own classrooms and are forced to float around campus to find empty rooms.

"It's just not as comfortable as we would like it to be," Lodermeier said. "I'm hoping they look at my numbers and say, "Wow! you're really big. We need to give you more people.' "

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