2 Dunedin School Districts Could Be Redrawn

School board members will decide next month whether to move forward with a rezoning plan that could affect 2,100 students at 27 elementary schools, including Dunedin and San Jose elementary schools in Dunedin. 

A vote at Tuesday's Pinellas County School Board meeting was the first of two needed to approve the plan, which would take effect during the 2012-13 school year. School officials say rezoning is needed to relieve crowding at some schools, while taking advantage of room at others.

In Dunedin, that would mean changing the boundaries of:

• . Students who live in the area bounded by Sunset Point Road, Keene Road, Union Street and Hercules Avenue would attend Dunedin Elementary. Those students currently attend McMullen Booth Elementary. Dunedin Elementary would also give up current students who live in the area bounded by Sunset Point Road, Highland Avenue, Flagler Drive and Keene Road. Those students would attend Sandy Lane Elementary. 
• . Students who live in the area bounded by Curlew Road and County Road 1 south of Sandra Drive would attend San Jose. Those students currently attend Ozona Elementary. 

Local Parents Speak Out Against Changes

About two dozen parents spoke against the change Tuesday, including Eric Keaton of Dunedin, whose son attends Ozona Elementary in Palm Harbor.

Keaton said he and his wife are highly involved in their children's community. The family attends the school's holiday festival, and the Keatons have been involved in the Great American Teach-In and coaching Little League. They had planned for their daughter to attend Ozona, as well.

Keaton said his children were originally zoned for Palm Harbor Elementary, which was closed due to budget constraints, and the family has adjusted and found a home at Ozona. The couple moved closer to the school, and their son sometimes rides his bike to school on the Pinellas Trail. 

Keaton told the board he tried to review student assignment for his neighborhood since 2001, but the link on the school district website wasn't working.

"I felt that there's been continued tinkering with our neighborhood and the adjacent neighborhoods affected by this rezoning or overcrowding issue that the board and the school board says we have," Keaton told board members. "I wanted to find out if another two years down the road, if this was going to happen again."

He said his family is happy with its current assignment, and with the quality of education he and his wife have come to expect from Ozona.

"Ozona Elementary is an A school. I have high expectations for my kids that they're going to earn A's. Why would I want to take them out of an A school?" Keaton said. "It should be my choice where they go to school. We pay the property taxes; we direct you to make the right decision. So, I'm asking you to make the right decision."

Keaton also asked the board to set the next hearing for 5 or 7 p.m. instead of during the day so more parents would be able to attend, a suggestion many in the audience applauded.

Crowding Affects Quality of Education, District Says

School officials say crowding is having a negative effect on teachers, students and parents alike.  

All of the elementary schools being recommend for rezoning have had to add portable classrooms to accommodate students, according to an overcrowding report on the district website [PDF]. That hurts teachers' ability to work as teams and has resulted in instructional time being cut to accommodate student movement from building to building. In some of the schools, libraries, basketball courts, hallways and closets have been turned into instructional space.

The crowding isn't limited to school hours, either. Drop-off and pickup areas are strained beyond capacity before and after school, which means parents and buses are stuck in long lines waiting to drop off and pick up students. 

The crowding also negatively affects lunch times, prekindergarten programs, customer service and student access to computers and other equipment, the report says.

"The schools that are overcrowded have given up libraries, they've given up computer rooms, they have not had an effective and efficient way of working, so our capacity and class size amendment is an issue," school board member Linda Lerner said in Tuesday's meeting. 

"I think we have to make it real clear to our community, we want stability, and that's what we hope that passing this recommendation will give to the schools, but never buy your house based on what schools are zoned for now," Lerner said.

The school board is scheduled to take a final vote on the rezoning plan at its Dec. 6 meeting.