HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Monday kicked off the start of a series of community meetings about plans that could shift attendance boundaries for Hillsborough County Public Schools and change where thousands of children attend school.
According to Superintendent Addison Davis, the district is working on the project because some schools have too many students while others have too few.
Leaders are looking into student enrollment, feeder patterns, and school program locations.
There are three different scenarios officials are considering.
With these plans, anywhere from 11,000 to 24,000 students could be rezoned, and several schools could be partially or completely repurposed.
The district said this effort could save up to $163 million in capital funds through transportation savings, janitorial savings, and the natural attrition of certain administrators.
“Our schools that we currently attend, those are our homes. Those are our neighborhood schools that have rich traditions, but openly, we’ve got to look at every particular school and determine are we offering the best education to our children in those particular spaces and are we really leveraging every dollar and every cent and maximizing that within the organization," said Superintendent Addison Davis.
Monday, the district held its first two of ten public input sessions about the plans.
Harsha Makhijani and her family drove here all the way from Lutz to attend the session at Middleton High School.
She’s worried about her son, Ansh, a second grader at Lawton Chiles Elementary School.
All three scenarios would send him to a different school. Their home would be only blocks away from the boundary line.
“This is not fair," she said. “We moved here last year just so that my son could go to Chiles Elementary.”
The three scenarios were released to the public in December. According to Davis, the school board will make a choice in late February.
At the Monday meeting, multiple parents expressed concern that the timeline is too short and that their voices were not truly considered or heard upfront as the district crafted the scenarios.
“I just really do feel like it was a waste of my time," said Sara Holley — who has multiple family members at district schools — as she left the meeting.
ABC Action News asked Superintendent Davis if the feedback from parents will be considered before a scenario is chosen.
“No minds have been made up," he said. "We want to listen, learn, and grow to make the best decisions possible.”
Davis said the ultimate goal is improving the district and students' experiences. He said he and other administrators could make changes to the plans based on what it hears from parents in the meetings.
Makhijani hopes that will be the case.
If her son is sent to a different school, she said she’ll be forced to move again.
“I only have hopes in my heart thinking that, you know, something will change," she said.
Makhijani is not alone.
Two of Shawn and Gerald Boyle's children could be impacted by the proposed plans.
“To have to tell her that she’ll have to go to a different high school maybe and that we don’t find out until February is kinda of very rushed and last minute, and the transparency of everything has me very concerned," said Shawn Boyle.
Parents in their neighborhood even went around canvassing, passing out flyers as well as yard signs to make people aware of what was happening.
“We did this, this was right after the webinar, I would say about 80 percent of the people, whether they have school-aged children or not, had no idea that this was going to happen," said Gerald Boyle.
The remaining community meetings will be held at high schools across the county from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
At these meetings, families will be able to view boundary maps, submit feedback, and speak with members of the district and consultant project team.
- Tuesday, Jan. 10:
- Brandon High School
- Sumner High School
- Wednesday, Jan. 11:
- Plant High School
- Leto High School
- Thursday, Jan. 12:
- Gaither High School
- Sickles High School
- Friday, Jan. 13:
- Bloomingdale High School
- Wharton High School
