School board vote extends cell phone tower deal and outrages parents who call the towers dangerous

TAMPA - A nearly unanimous vote by the Hillsborough County School Board extends a deal that allows cell phone towers to be built on school property. It's a move some parents call dangerous.

"What are they thinking, what are they thinking?" exclaimed parent Cynthia Shellabarger.

Those words are what flashed through Shellabarger's mind as she watched the years-long fight to keep cell phone towers away from school die.

"They're not working for parents," Shellabarger said. "Who is looking out for our kids?"

Six of seven school board members said yes to extending the five-year-old deal with Collier Enterprises II.  The contract  gives the company exclusive rights to building towers on school property. The extension lasts for another five years.

The deal also allows principals to decide if they want towers on their school's land. If they say yes, the school gets paid by the tower company, and can spend the thousands of dollars they're given in any way they want.

"Some kids have some things that they never would have had if it wasn't for the towers," said board member Dr. Jack Lamb.

But from day one, the plan has had fierce objections from parents. Some parents have concerns about falling property values, while others believe the towers could cause a range of harmful health effects.

Some students and nearly a dozen parents made those arguments in Tuesday night's meeting, hoping to end the deal and stop any more tower from being built. Those students used a lego model to show the scale of a tower to a school as part of their push to change board member's minds.

That effort failed.

"It's just hard to see that you're just not listened to," said parent Lisa Ledbetter.