LITHIA, Fla. — All eyes will soon be on the Hillsborough County School Board.
Tuesday, a special meeting is set for the seven board members to determine if and how the district’s school attendance boundaries should be altered.
The potential changes, which are designed to help the district reap cost savings by better utilizing its campus, have spurred a rigorous debate — and strong objections from both parents and students — for weeks.
In mid-February, Superintendent Addison Davis threw his support behind scenario four, the fourth of four possible scenarios at the time. Davis said the scenario would reduce the number of schools that would be impacted, reduce transportation costs, and increase savings within the district of more than $14 million dollars.
Now, according to the district’s boundary website, the superintendent’s recommendation has changed slightly.
A new scenario includes several sporadic changes to the fourth scenario.
Most notably, the new scenario seeks to reduce the overcrowding at Newsome High School in Lithia by transferring some families to Bloomingdale and Brandon High School instead.
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Patti Rendon, the board member who represents much of Eastern Hillsborough County, said she can’t say if the new scenario will alleviate the overcrowding felt at 24 schools in her district.
She also can’t yet say if she’ll support any of the scenarios during the Tuesday meeting.
“I’m very undecided on my vote. I’m very concerned, like I said, that we’ve not had discussions,” she said. “I’m definitely on the fence right now. I’m not really settled on one or another or any of them at this point. I really feel like we need more information, more time, and more discussion.”
During the Tuesday meeting, she said it is possible that she will ask the board to delay any decision to allow members more time to hash out how the boundaries should change and fully understand where the county is growing before they are changed. Rendon said she has requested that data from the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners.
“I’m waiting on information from the county commission on exactly where our future builds are,” she said. “We do know that the county commission has approved various housing communities up to the next 20 years.”
Meanwhile, in Twin Lakes of Brandon, a neighborhood impacted in the latest scenario, homeowner Nicole Perkins said some of her neighbors are reeling from the idea that the neighborhood will be zoned for Bloomingdale High, not Newsome if the board approves the superintendent’s recommendation.
“I’d say, overall, we’re a little disgusted,” Perkins said.
Perkins said she pulled her children from the district during the mask mandate in 2021 and said she thinks an unpopular boundary change combined with expanded school choice in the State of Florida might encourage other parents to do the same.
The school board is set to meet at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Any decision will require two votes.
