TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Wrestling With A Boundary Issue

ADVERTISEMENT

By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 9, 2008

KEYSTONE - Fallout from a meeting on middle school boundaries could prompt a change benefiting families in Wyndham Lakes, but the school district still is trying to figure out what to do for angry parents in Town 'N Country.
Smith Middle School will open in Citrus Park in August, giving the Hillsborough County school district the chance to draw new boundaries for the crowded middle schools around it. The proposal, released late last month, involves shuffling more than 1,500 students.

Parents have reacted to some suggestions with anger, signing petitions opposing the changes and calling and e-mailing district administrators. Several planned to attend a school board meeting this week.
District officials shared details and feedback on the plan on Monday at a school capacity advisory council meeting. The council, made up of parents, school staff and community members, meets periodically to review enrollment figures, construction plans and boundary adjustments and provides recommendations to the superintendent.

The committee asked the district to consider grandfathering students into their existing schools, researching other schools to relieve crowding and opening up more school choice slots that would be guaranteed to children displaced by redistricting.

"I hate to shove anything like this down people's throats," said Lynn Bikowitz, a Martinez Middle School parent on the advisory council.

The boundary shuffle would start with moving children from Davidsen and Walker into the new Smith Middle School. Walker is over capacity but would lose enough students to accept some from Martinez, according to the plan.

The proposal sparked criticism from Keystone parents who felt blindsided by the moves and argued that it was inefficient to send them farther away, through Gunn Highway traffic, to Walker when Martinez was an easier drive.

Debbie Berkiw, who lives in the area, said the neighborhood's elementary children had been bounced from Citrus Park Elementary to Schwarzkopf when it opened, then to McKitrick when it opened and, in August, to Hammond, when it opened. Middle school children have attended Hill, Walker and Martinez.

"They're pulling the rug out from under them again," Berkiw said. Parents invest hours and money into new schools to make them feel like home and have to keep starting over, she said.

Families in Wyndham Lakes thought they would avoid boundary changes after Steve Ayers, the district's director of community and parent relations, repeatedly referred to keeping everyone east of Gunn Highway in the Martinez boundary.

But Ayers overlooked where Gunn jogs to the west. Wyndham Lakes, with about 64 middle school-aged children, is sandwiched between Gunn and the boundary line the district drew, and would have been moved to Walker. The parents did not discover that until a community meeting had ended, said Sue Sferra, Martinez Parent-Teacher-Student Association president.

Parents felt misled, Sferra said. She started a petition asking for honesty and ethical decision making from the school board and requesting Wyndham Lakes remain at Martinez.

"I was not clear," Ayers said on Monday. "I did not give enough information."

After talking to neighbors about the distance they would travel to Walker and the confusion over the boundaries, Ayers said he would recommend keeping Wyndham Lakes at Martinez.

Berkiw said she was happy to hear of the changes, though she had concerns about other Martinez neighborhoods assigned to Walker as well.

Meanwhile, parents in the Baycrest area have circulated a petition protesting another part of the boundary plan.

Those families are assigned to Farnell, which is crowded and has no room to expand. The district had proposed lowering enrollment by shifting 262 students into Davidsen and 145 students into Webb.

The families slated to attend Webb have threatened to transfer their children elsewhere, citing concerns about safety in the community, rumors about gang activity and the school's C grade from the state.

Superintendent MaryEllen Elia suggested keeping current sixth- and seventh-graders at Farnell until they went to high school, although parents in other areas getting reassigned have wondered why that courtesy is not extended to their children. Advisory council members asked what the district was doing to improve Webb's reputation and whether there were different options for parents, such as sending children to Smith or Roland Park instead.

Carrie Bowcock, who lives across the street from a neighborhood that would move to Webb, has a child at Roland Park and loves the school.

"I have nothing but praise for that school," she said. "If parents learn more about it, they might accept it."

She did not think they would accept Webb.

Elia will review the council's suggestions and make her recommendation to district staff members, which will bring a final proposal to the school board for a vote this month or next. One part of the plan that has attracted no opposition: moving children into the new school. Ayers said parents seem happy with Smith and its recently appointed principal, Kathy Flanagan, a popular leader from Martinez Middle.

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT