HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — While some parents are in favor of the Hillsborough County School District making changes to its school attendance boundaries, many parents across the county have concerns.
“It’s really hard,” said parent Shawn Boyle.
With this attendance boundary analysis, the changes could mean thousands of students would go to new schools next school year.
“It affects the whole community,” said Boyle.
The district said it’s looking into rezoning because it’ll save money consolidating, in some cases sending students from overcrowded schools to under-enrolled ones.
“We’re very sensitive to this information and how it impacts communities and how it impacts our entire organization. However, as an organizational leader, we have to be able to look at the utilization of our schools,” said Addison Davis, Hillsborough County Schools Superintendent.
But many parents don’t agree with this idea and want to make sure that their voices are being heard, with plans to show up to Tuesday’s school board meeting.
“I don’t think the district is really listening,” said parent Michele Smith.
However, district leaders said they are.
“We want our constituents to understand phase two that we’re in," Davis said. "This is all about active engagement to our constituents. We want to listen, we want to learn, we want to grow. We want to be able to make the best decisions that we can for students and also for this organization at scale."
Parents told ABC Action News they want to share their main concerns with district leaders at Tuesday’s board meeting.
One, they think these changes will have a major impact on their children.
“My son’s devastated. He’s got five of his best friends that are all going to Coleman next year, and next year if he has to go to Pierce, he’s going to be starting over,” said parent Gerald Boyle.
“My daughters are doing really well in high school. They’re getting A’s and B’s, and they’re in clubs, and they’re going to be taking a bunch of AP classes next year. They’ve been recommended for those. And they’re taking theater. A lot of those aren’t offered at Jefferson," said parent Patricia Cannon.
“I don’t understand why people who have bought a house specifically for a school district are going to be basically taken from an A school to a C school without any consideration,” she added.
“My son, who is right now scheduled to go to Coleman, would be taken from all of his friends, and he would be sent to Pierce middle school, which is a C- school compared to an A school. He would be ripped from all of his friends,” said Smith.
This is something Smith knows about all too well.
“When it was my turn to go to high school, all of my friends went to Plant, and I was forced to go to Jefferson. I was ripped from my friends, and it was very hard. And I don’t want to see that happen to my child,” said Smith.
Many parents also believe changing the attendance boundaries right now feels rushed.
“The fact that they did this during holiday, and they put it through so quickly,” said Cannon.
“The biggest problem I had with this is they dropped this on us like a week or two right before Christmas. It impacted all of our holidays. We were utterly consumed with this from the moment it started,” said Smith.
"The way they set this up, they went on vacation, I sent my emails. My responses were the generic email, 'Sorry, we’re on vacation until the 9th,’ so it’s nice that they got to go on vacation and enjoy their holidays while they dropped this bomb on us," she added.
Another concern some parents have is there aren’t many options left for families this late in the school year.
“Because we’ve passed the time of choice. Being able to choice into a school. We’ve passed that time. So it’s super unfair,” said Cannon.
“We have no way to prepare for this if this does get pushed through. As I said, alternative schools' enrollments are closed,” said Smith.
If the school district does move forward with one of the new attendance boundary plans, families told ABC Action News they’ll have to make some hard decisions.
“I would pull my son out of school, and he would be homeschooled,” said Smith.
“If I had to, I would maybe do with Florida Virtual, maybe take some of the core classes that they have to take, I don’t know. We might consider moving. Like it’s just super frustrating,” said Cannon.
