Citing the need to make fiscally responsible decisions for the district’s long-term health, the Pinellas County school board on Tuesday approved closing six under-capacity campuses.
The list included Tarpon Springs Fundamental, Kings Highway, Blanton, Azalea and Bear Creek elementary schools; and Lealman Innovation. The board did not consider a recommendation to close Sexton Elementary while district planners analyze additional options for schools along the 16th Street N corridor in St. Petersburg.
The board acted despite requests from a portion of the Tarpon Springs community for a postponement to allow for another layer of review, similar to what’s happening for Sexton.
Dozens of parents and teachers from Sunset Hills Elementary protested their school being added to the proposals to reconfigure the education landscape in Tarpon Springs, one week before the vote. Sunset Hills was not in Superintendent Kevin Hendrick’s original plan, but came into consideration after complaints arose that the initial recommendation would leave the city without a neighborhood middle school.
The updated plan has Sunset Hills relocating to Tarpon Springs Middle, which would become a traditional K-8 school. The Sunset Hills campus would then be converted into a fundamental K-8 school, with tiny Tarpon Springs Fundamental Elementary closing.
Tarpon Springs Fundamental parents told the board they liked the compromise, though they stressed they did not push for the move that appeared to divide the community. Sunset Hills parents said they felt left out of the conversations leading up to it and asked for more time to consult and collaborate.
“While I respect the concerns that have been raised ... I also believe we have a responsibility to make decisions proactively rather than reactively,” board member Eileen Long, who attended the meeting via Zoom, said after more than two hours of public comment on the proposals.
“The recommendations before us are not about looking backward. They are about positioning Pinellas County schools to remain strong, sustainable and focused on student success for years to come,” Long said.
Combined, the actions will remove close to 4,500 of nearly 45,000 unused student seats from the district inventory. The district, which has seen enrollment slide precipitously over the past decade, has 41 elementary schools under 300 students and 45 schools below 60% capacity.
Hendrick has called such numbers unsustainable.
Board member Lisa Cane acknowledged the need to reduce the district’s footprint in Tarpon Springs, along with other parts of the county. And while she said she did not hear any other ideas better than the superintendent’s recommendation, Cane also contended no harm would come from delaying action two weeks to let more people participate in the conversation.
“A short delay may not change outcomes,” she said. “I do think it is the right thing to do.”
Her motion to put off the vote until Oct. 27 died without a second.
At that point, Sunset Hills supporters walked out of the boardroom, some in tears, others in anger.
“We just got kicked out of our school,” parent Irene Romero said as she departed.
Sunset Hills PTA president Jordon Romero said she understood the board’s move and the parents’ upset reaction. She called herself an outlier because she backed the recommendation that passed.
“The next step is to see if I can get volunteers to make it work,” Romero said. “There’s a lot of opportunity here.”
Hendrick said he would give Sunset Hills families top priority for open seats at the expanded Tarpon Springs Fundamental for the fall. The same is true for families at Pinellas Park Elementary, which also will convert to a fundamental school.
No one spoke against any of the other recommended closures, program changes or attendance zone revisions. Part of the reason the district wanted to act by Tuesday was to give families certainty about school choice options in advance of application program fairs, scheduled to begin today.
“Giving everyone a decision tonight will help everyone move forward,” vice chairperson Dawn Peters said.
She and others cautioned that this round of closures does not fully resolve the district’s situation and that more are likely in future years.
