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Boundary Issue Concerns Parents

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 13, 2008

TAMPA - A Keystone mother took her appeal to the Hillsborough County School Board last week, asking members not to split her son from his lifelong friends.

Proposed changes to attendance boundaries could shake up five Northwest Hillsborough middle schools, affecting children as far north as Lutz and Keystone and south to Town 'N Country. About 1,500 students might have to change middle schools if the board passes the boundary plan as is.

The school district would place more than 1,000 of those children at Smith Middle School, which opens in August. They would come from Davidsen and Walker middle schools. The remaining students would shift from Martinez Middle to Walker, and from Farnell Middle to Webb or Davidsen middle schools.

Gayle Geagan, whose son would move from Martinez to Walker for eighth grade, urged the board to think of the community as a whole, not only neighborhoods, as it considers boundary changes. Geagan said Keystone is spread out and rural, so her son has developed friendships in many of the subdivisions that feed into Martinez.

"His community of friends are at Martinez, and these are the children he has been at school with since kindergarten," she said.

The district plans to move about 58 children from Martinez to Walker, and Geagan said few are eighth-graders.

Although her son would have to move, students who had selected Martinez through school choice are guaranteed spots until they complete middle school. Geagan said it did not seem fair to bump community children and not touch students attending under choice.

"Please tell me that you could extend the same courtesy to the few rising eighth-graders," she said.

Geagan has not been alone in her concerns about the boundary plan.

Parents have sent e-mail and called the district, saying the district will disrupt children's schooling by making them switch schools. Families slated to move from Farnell to Webb have said they would not go because Webb is not perceived to be as good a school.

One neighborhood that had been up in arms over a suggested change received assurances last week that it would not get moved. The board and superintendent have to sign off on the decision, but district officials are recommending keeping the Wyndham Lakes neighborhood at Martinez instead of moving families to Walker.

Wyndham Lakes was told it would not have to move, but a proposed map showed differently. Sue Sferra, a parent-teacher association leader at Hammond Elementary and Martinez, started a petition to stay at Martinez, and other parents called the district. She thanked the district Thursday for responding.

She was concerned, however, at the inconsistencies between what parents were told and what they found out later. She said she could deal with possible changes, but she questioned the integrity of the process and the district.

District officials took the boundary plan to the community last month and are collecting feedback to present to the superintendent, who will make recommendations to the school board. The board could vote on the plan in March.

Here are some maps of the proposed boundaries, excluding a possible change to Wyndham Lakes in Keystone.

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

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