HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — As the Hillsborough County School District continues to consider making changes to school attendance boundaries, several families are worried about the same thing.
“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,” said parent Michele Smith.
“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,” said parent Patricia Cannon.
It’s the same concern: some parents are protesting the attendance boundary proposals because, in some cases, students would go from an “A” school to a lower-performing school with fewer resources.
"So those outside extracurricular activities, opportunities they’re not going to get,” said parent Gerald Boyle.
“I don’t think we’ll go with Pierce Middle or Jefferson High because those are just 'C' rated schools,” said parent Emma Rogier.
The district is doing this attendance boundary analysis to better utilize under-enrolled campuses and start saving money next school year.
The three current proposals on the table could rezone thousands of students to new schools, which means some kids would go from an “A” school to ones with lower grades.
You can use this map to see how each scenario would impact each school and its enrollment.
Some parents tell ABC Action News they’ll look into other options if that’s the case.
“Probably private schools, charter schools, magnet schools, are all on the table right now,” said Rogier.
ABC Action News took that concern to district leaders to find out how officials plan to improve lower-performing schools for all students, including those who are already enrolled there and don’t have the same options or resources.
“We still know that we have work to do at some of our schools. We have to continue to have that continuous improvement mindset,” said Davis.
He said the district has a renewed focus on creating new initiatives at lower-performing schools, with or without attendance boundary changes.
“We will work diligently and every single day to improve the educational experience. For those that are moving from an 'A' to a 'B,' we’ll make certain that those resources, that those wraparound services, the high-quality teacher and attractors continue to follow that student so the student can continue his or her passion,” said Davis.
“This is an opportunity for us to kind of create a reset reboot situation where we continue to put accelerated initiatives into our schools,” he added.
Davis told ABC Action News that there has been recent improvement to school grades district-wide and that leaders are working to continue that upward trend.
He said rezoning students could help with that.
“When we have kids that move from an 'A' school to a 'B' school, an 'A' school to a 'C' school, we have fluent performing learners, when they transition to a new school that’s openly going to help that overall performance of that school," said Davis.
There is a possibility leader will consider a fourth attendance boundary option.
The superintendent will present his recommendation to the school board at a workshop on February 13.
There will be community meetings from February 20-23.
The school board could make a final decision on March 9.
