TAMPA, Fla. — A new tool from Hillsborough County Schools is showing parents what changes from an attendance boundary analysis could mean for their child's school.
Simply put: some Hillsborough County Schools have too few students, while others have too many, and now the district has a set of proposed plans to try and better utilize its schools. Each plan could have a different impact on students, even where some go to school.
“This is a very serious initiative," said Superintendent Addison Davis. "We say that because we have got to be able to address our boundaries within our school district. We have got to create trust within this community that we’re being fiscally responsible and we’re managing every facility that we have within this organization.”
According to the district, the boundary analysis "will provide an impartial analysis of current school boundaries, feeder patterns, and program locations and to develop, with community input, scenarios for adjustments in order to populate new and expanded school facilities and balance facility utilization through the county."
The district said 53 of its schools are over-utilized, operating with more than 95 percent of the school's seats filled. 70 schools are appropriately used, and more than 90 schools are under-utilized, with fewer than 80 percent of their seats filled.
The district is now looking at three boundary scenarios, from smallest to biggest impacts.
Scenario three would have the greatest impact with up to 24,000 assigned students rezoned and up to seven schools repurposed, while also saving around $163 million in capital funds.
"We understand that this is going to be very difficult for every one of our family members, moving from one school to the next school where they’ve built relationships, so we have to be very sensitive in this approach," said Davis.
The current analysis is in Phase 2. In this stage, the district is asking for feedback from the community based on three draft scenarios. The scenarios are outlined in an interactive map where parents can plug in their address and then click on and off map layers to see what changes might come from each scenario.
The school system also held a boundary analysis webinar that can be seen below.
According to the district, the next step will be ten in-person meetings at high schools across the county where parents can view boundary maps, submit feedback, and talk to the consultant project team. The high school meetings will be held January 9-13 from 5:30 pm - 8 pm. at the following schools:
- Middleton High
- Plant City
- Brandon High
- Sumner High
- Plant High
- Leto High
- Gaither High
- Sickles High
- Bloomingdale High
- Wharton High
Under two of the three plans, Earlishia Oates' son's high school would change.
“That has been our neighborhood school for quite a while," said Oates. "I actually went to Armwood in that same neighborhood, so that has been the school that a lot of our kids attended for high school and that change to Middleton is just something that our community, we don’t want that.”
While some parents are upset by the proposed changes, others are happy about it, like the parents behind the Carrollwood K-8 initiative.
“This would be the answer to so many people’s questions and prayers on where are we going to send our kids to middle school,” said parent Brittany Cooper.
They’ve been pushing to turn Carrollwood Elementary into a K-8 school because they want a better middle school option for their kids.
The boundary analysis makes that a possibility.
“We are very encouraged by it. Carrollwood K-8 has been listed as a possibility on two out of the three scenarios, and this has been what we’ve been pushing for, what we’ve been trying to make our voices heard for this year,” said parent Krista Mills.
“We’ve been working so hard with this K-8 initiative, and it is just so wonderful to see the fruits of our labor possibly become a reality,” said parent Danielle Eichmann.
Right now, students in the area are zoned for Adams Middle School.
According to state documents, it’s a “D” grade school, and the district shows Adams only has about 45% enrollment.
Instead of sending their kids to Adams, many families in the Carrollwood area have put their kids in private or charter schools over the years.
Parents told ABC Action News that changes from this boundary analysis could mean they no longer have to do that.
“It definitely keeps kids in the district. We’ve seen kids specifically at Carrollwood are leaving at 3rd grade for other options, whether it be charter or private or even homeschool, and so making Carrollwood a K-8 would really keep those kids here,” said parent Raquel Pullaro.
Any boundary change will be made by the school board, and if changes are approved, they are expected to take effect for the 2023-24 school year.
