TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Hillsborough County Public Schools are back at the rezoning whiteboard again this week. After Superintendent Addison Davis presented his ‘Scenario 4’ to the board at last week’s workshop, it’s time to get public feedback in the form of five community meetings.
If the district chooses to rezone students in Scenarios 2 or 3, some parents are extremely worried about the consequences.
“It’s a total catastrophe and very destructive for the education of my kids,” Emma Rogier said.
Rogier has kids at highly-rated Coleman Middle and Plant High Schools.
“That actually is why we moved to this area six, seven years ago,” Rogier explained. “That is the school choice. We have made the choice to be here.”
Rogier is fine with Scenarios 1 and 4, since her kids wouldn’t switch schools. But thousands of other students would.
“I have a total of 13 schools that’s going to be disrupted,” School Board Member Shake Washington said. “Kids from all over is going to be moved. We’ve got kids from Robles going to be moved, Booker T. Washington, Graham, Palm.”
Some school board members, like Washington, said the latest proposal from Davis would disproportionately impact students of color.
“I hope they have better options to address the overutilization problem, transportation, saving money,” Rogier said. “Than just switching students around.”
The school board didn’t vote on any of the proposals at the workshop on February 13, and decided to hold another workshop to figure out other options. According to the district, there is no other workshop scheduled right now.
If you’d like to attend one of the community meetings this week, they are as follows:
Monday, February 20. 6-7:30 p.m. | King High School | 6815 North 56th Street, Tampa |
Monday, February 20. 6-7:30 p.m. | Mulrennan Middle School | 4215 Durant Rd., Valrico |
Wednesday, February 22. 6-7:30 p.m. | Webb Middle School | 6035 Hanley Road, Tampa |
Thursday, February 23. 6-7:30 p.m. | Madison Middle School | 4444 W Bay Vista Ave., Tampa |
Thursday, February 23. 6-7:30 p.m. | Chamberlain High School | 6815 North 56th Street, Tampa |