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Boundaries get mixed reaction
By JANE BOKUN © St. Petersburg Times, published October 1, 2000 TOWN 'N COUNTRY -- School officials have offered their first ideas about who should attend a new high school opening next year, and initial reaction from parents seems mixed. About 120 school officials, parents and students met Thursday night at Leto High School to discuss two proposed boundary plans for the as yet unnamed high school. The school will be built along a future extension of Montague Road, south of Waters Avenue and north of Memorial Highway. Discussion was heated at times, but James Gatlin, the area's director for Hillsborough County schools, said overall, he sensed a general consensus with the proposed boundaries. "But this meeting was purely preliminary," Gatlin said. William Person, director for pupil administrative services for Hillsborough County Public Schools, said two slightly different plans are in the works. In one, children zoned for Bay Crest, Bellamy, Lowry and Westchase elementary schools would attend the new high school. Westchase pupils who live in Fawn Ridge would still attend Sickles High School. Also, children from the nearby Timberlane area, currently zoned for Lockhart Elementary, would attend the new high school. A second plan would add students from Woodbridge Elementary's attendance zone to the new high school. They are currently zoned for Leto High. Each proposal has the same key problem, however. "With each of the plans, there will not be enough minority children who attend the new high school," Person said. So the district would add to the new school's attendance zone, a satellite area bounded by Hillsborough Avenue on the north and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on the south, between 34th and 40th streets. Person said that would add about 91 minority students who currently attend Chamberlain High School. But the 13-mile bus trip was discouraging to several parents at the meeting, who said they would rather have their children continue at Chamberlain. Other concerns included parents of Bellamy Elementary pupils who prefer their children to attend Sickles High, and from Woodbridge Elementary who want to go to Leto High. Person said nothing is set in stone. He expects there will be adjustments to the plan and future public meetings, though none have been scheduled yet. "We need to take what we've learned at the meeting back to the superintendent of schools before a decision can be made," he said.
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