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Schools Leader Hears Concerns

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 29, 2007

NORTHDALE - Parents took their concerns about safety, buses, bullying and nutrition straight to the top at meetings this month.

Superintendent MaryEllen Elia visited schools across the county to talk to the community about initiatives in the Hillsborough County School District and answer questions. Meetings locally took place at Martinez Middle, Twin Lakes Elementary and Gaither High.

Though school district employees made up the bulk of audiences, parents provided a steady stream of questions at the three area sites.

Elia talked about what the district is doing to keep children safe and improve student achievement. She also directed parents with specific concerns to district officials in the audience who could talk with them one-on-one about unruly children at a bus stop, a child who was being bullied online and a student who struggled with standardized tests despite good grades.

The parents wanted to know whether there is a chance the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test will go away. Elia said it isn't likely but that she wishes the state recognized more ways to measure students' successes.

'I believe that the FCAT as a test of an accountability measure is here to stay,' Elia said. 'What I believe we have to do is put that test in perspective.'

A common thread was school crowding and boundaries.

Countywide, student enrollment is up by about 500 this fall, a tiny number compared with the 6,000 additional students the district encountered a couple of years ago, Elia said.

'We're not unhappy with that,' she told the group at Gaither this week.

State law restricts the number of students per teacher, which means the district needed to hire more teachers and create more classrooms to lower class sizes. It would have been difficult to deal with that on top of thousands of new students annually, Elia said.

But several northwestern Hillsborough schools remain crowded from the growth boom. Two elementary schools opened in August; a middle school is under construction; and a high school is scheduled to open in 2009.

Shawn Martineau, whose daughter attends Forest Hills Elementary, wondered whether relief would come to her child's school. Forest Hills is not near any of the new schools, but has 1,135 children at a school built for 1,049.

'Forest Hills is a wonderful school, but I'm beginning to worry about my daughter because it's so crowded, so busy,' Martineau said.

Other parents in the areas that would get relief from new schools wanted to know how the district would select neighborhoods for attendance boundaries. Elia said the district was looking at enrollment projections and meeting with schools that might be affected. Before decisions are made, district officials will present plans and seek feedback during community meetings.

Tish Dietrich, a parent who endured a rezoning that split the Westchase community, came to the Gaither meeting to make sure the district didn't forget lessons it learned. Westchase and other communities affected when the district shifted students among elementary schools in 2006 had protested the process. They said they were not given adequate notice and that the district should not splinter a neighborhood by sending children to multiple elementary schools.

Now, Dietrich said, Westchase parents are wondering what will happen when the new middle and high schools open. The middle school is in Citrus Park and might not draw from Westchase. The high school would open in Lutz and relieve Sickles High School, which, in turn, could send students from crowded Alonso to Sickles.

'It's worth being out there to watch and encourage them to keep the community together when possible,' Dietrich said.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503 or cpastor@tampatrib.com.

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