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Tampa Palms parents are concerned that a higher ratio of black students mostly from poorer neighborhoods will strain the school's resources.
By MELANIE AVE
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 19, 2000
TAMPA PALMS -- Since efforts to divide Tampa Palms Elementary across two campuses were dashed last week, a new issue bubbling to the surface here is what some consider is an unfair racial balance at the school.
With two separate elementary schools in Tampa Palms next year, some parents are worried about a proportional decrease of white students at the existing Tampa Palms Elementary and an increase of black students from poor neighborhoods.
They fear the schools will have fewer volunteers to help the children, some of whom struggle to succeed academically. And they worry the so-called "satellite" students could hurt overall performance on standardized tests, driving down scores and possibly eroding state funding.
It is an issue that unites parents who, not long ago, argued bitterly over whether Tampa Palms should have one elementary school or two.
"It's not that we don't want the children there," said Tampa Palms parent Debi O'Hara, who is white. "It's not an elitist type thing. Those kids . . . come to school hungry, without warm clothes, without pens and pencils.
"They're starting with more barriers than our own kids. It's tough."
Adding to the fear, some parents said, is what they see as a disparity between their ratio of black and white students to other elementary schools in New Tampa.
Next year Tampa Palms Elementary is expected to have a student body that is 28 percent African-American, followed by 25 percent at Pride; and 23 percent at Lawton Chiles, the school that will open in Tampa Palms next year. Clark will be about 18 percent black and Hunter's Green 12 percent.
These school district projections worry Tampa Palms parent Ted Cardoso, who is white.
"I am very concerned that this will disproportionately stress our valuable resources at Tampa Palms Elementary," he wrote to the school district, which received at least five letters on the subject. "I feel that by not making the schools in this area more racially equal . . . Hunters Green would enjoy an unfair advantage."
Bill Person, the district director of pupil administrative services, said such ratios are not out of line with other county public schools, where the percentage of African-American students ranges from fewer than 10 percent to more than 80 percent.
"I don't see a major problem by having 28 percent and 23 percent (minority) when you look a few miles to the south and you find a school at 51 percent," Person said. "It's all relative to where you live."
Federal courts, which decades ago ordered the district into court-supervised desegregation, have found schools with a black enrollment of 10 to 40 percent to be acceptable, Person said. All of the New Tampa schools fall within the acceptable range, he said.
Furthermore, Person said white enrollment at Tampa Palms should grow in the coming years as more homes are built. And minority population at Hunter's Green is expected to increase when it becomes an "attractor" school under Superintendent Earl Lennard's proposal for voluntary desegregation.
This is not the first time Tampa Palms parents have voiced concerns about desegregation. Three years ago, the district changed the busing plan, bringing in children who had attended Shaw Elementary School. Some parents said children were being bused in from neighborhoods known for drug use. They feared the children would bring crime to the school.
The issue was reignited last week, when the school board decided that the Chiles school should serve grades kindergarten through five.
Some parents, fearing community division, had wanted older children sent to one campus and younger children to the other, with Tampa Palms Elementary functioning under one administration. The two sites are about a mile apart, both on Tampa Palms Boulevard, on opposite sides of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.
Under the plan approved last week, Tampa Palms Elementary children living west of Bruce B. Downs will be reassigned to Chiles and those on the east side will stay at Tampa Palms.
In carving out Chiles' territory, the district had to redraw attendance boundaries for the older school; but they kept the same satellite area from which minority students are bused. That area, near the University of South Florida, is generally bound by Fletcher, 124th and Nebraska avenues and 15th Street.
Officials predict enrollment at the older Tampa Palms Elementary will drop by about 350 next year. They estimate the enrollment of white students will drop from 80 percent to 72 percent, while the enrollment of black students will increase from 20 percent to 28 percent.
Parents involved in the Tampa Palms PTA, which recently was recognized by the Florida PTA for outstanding parent involvement, will be divided between the new schools, as will their resources for fund-raising, tutoring and donating uniforms and supplies.
"If we're losing so much of the resources . . . and keeping the same number of kids, we're ill-equipped to help them succeed," said parent Michelle Fountain, who is black. "You can't put amount a dollar amount on the number of people who volunteer at that school.
"We're handicapping the school's ability to succeed."
Fountain said her concerns are not about race, but about poverty and its affect on academic achievement. "From my perspective, I wouldn't care if the school was 100 percent purple," she said.
While some parents worry about the strain of serving poorer children, others just want to feel that all New Tampa schools are being treated equally.
"In a growing area such as ours, we would like to see the satellite/minority percentages decrease, not increase," wrote Tampa Palms parent Karen Blumenthal, who is white. "I heard recently that Hunters Green is now at 12 percent while Tampa Palms will be at almost 30 percent next year? How could that happen?"
O'Hara, who tutors some Tampa Palms children, pointed out that the school and its volunteers must meet the needs of children who often do not have much family support. "Now, we have a higher percentage of children who need extra help," she said. "It's a big, big concern. Who's going to help these kids?"
- Melanie Ave can be reached at (813) 226-3473 or melanie@sptimes.com.