HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — On Thursday, the Hillsborough County School Board is meeting for a workshop to discuss how to move forward with school boundary changes.
Last week, superintendent Addison Davis asked the board to vote on scenario four.
Documents show scenario four would shift about 15,144 students to new schools, save the district $12.8 annually, and reduce the number of overcrowded and underutilized school buildings from 23 to 0.
That plan was paused during a contentious meeting last week where dozens of parents spoke in front of school officials and voiced their concerns about the school boundary changes.
Those included everything from minority student impacts to safety and increased travel times for students who’d have to go to new schools.
Parents also argued that too many families haven’t been able to share their opinions yet.
Ultimately, the school board agreed to give those families with lack of access more time and unanimously decided to hold off on a vote.
“Based on the community input and based on a financial platform, that’s realistic, but right now, I can’t go with this four or whatever you want to call it because we just haven’t represented the entire district,” said school board member Lynn Gray.
Now on Thursday, the board is set to discuss how to move forward and what the next steps could look like in this process.
“It is so difficult. We’re trying to be as compassionate as we can. We’re trying to be as sensitive as we can with this process because we know we’re talking about children’s lives and their impact. You know, for us, we’re trying to be as intentional as we can with reducing and lowering the number of students impacted, but from this process, we know that parents are going to be frustrated. I’m trying to get the board where they’re in a comfortable place where they feel armed with enough information in order to make an informed decision. We hope that comes sometime before April,” said Superintendent Addison Davis.
Thursday’s workshop begins at 10 a.m.
