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Pasco looks for ways to improve on a school rezoning process that left many unhappy

 
An image of one of the school zoning maps used by a committee of Pasco parents and school district officials, who met Sept. 29, 2016 to look for ways to ease crowding at the district's two most overcrowded schools, Wiregrass Ranch High and John Long Middle. The School Board's final decision on the boundaries on Jan. 17, 2017 left many parents unhappy, and officials are looking for ways to improve the process. [JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK | Times]
An image of one of the school zoning maps used by a committee of Pasco parents and school district officials, who met Sept. 29, 2016 to look for ways to ease crowding at the district's two most overcrowded schools, Wiregrass Ranch High and John Long Middle. The School Board's final decision on the boundaries on Jan. 17, 2017 left many parents unhappy, and officials are looking for ways to improve the process. [JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK | Times]
Published Jan. 18, 2017

LAND O'LAKES — "Painful." "Terrible." "Flawed."

That's how many Pasco County parents are describing the acrimonious process that led to Tuesday night's School Board votes to redraw school zones.

"It's kind of hard to explain to our kids why the guidelines seem capricious," said Bret Tobey, a Longleaf parent whose daughters will be moved from Mitchell to River Ridge high school, joining thousands of students similarly affected by the decisions.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Pasco School Board approves new attendance zones for thousands of students

Other changes include moving children living in the Meadow Pointe subdivision into the Wesley Chapel High School feeder pattern, and students residing in the Deer Park area into the Gulf High School zone.

District officials justified the moves, saying they were needed to ease crowding in over-capacity campuses and to fill open seats at new schools or in under-capacity ones. It's a scenario that is expected to play itself out again, frequently, in a fast-growing county that has thousands of new homes on tap, particularly along the State Road 54 corridor that runs from Trinity to Wesley Chapel.

"This is what we are trying to solve here with very limited funds," board member Alison Crumbley told the crowd that turned out for Tuesday's public hearings.

Dispirited families contended that the district was disrupting their children's lives through an opaque process that didn't really solve many of the stated problems.

"Everybody wants to do the best for their kids. Everybody wants to see the data," said Wesley Chapel resident Lyle Knickrehm, who opposed the east side rezoning proposal. "I implore and challenge you, talk about the data."

School Board chairman Allen Altman suggested that the information provided to make the decisions could support a number of proposed solutions. Parents on all sides made compelling arguments, he said.

But many people were viewing the details through just one lens, said board member Colleen Beaudoin.

"It's our job on the board to look at the big picture," she said.

And the decisions that emerged "can't make everyone happy," board vice chairwoman Cynthia Armstrong said.

That doesn't mean the process can't be improved, though. Altman committed to reviewing it for possible refinements, using the parent input as a guide.

It's a conversation already under way in the district office.

No one is considering reducing the opportunities for parent input, such as the advisory committees or town hall meetings. Armstrong called the suggestion that the district use an outside company to make all the boundary proposals "crazy."

But they are looking at changing the way parents are selected to serve on the committees. One repeated complaint on both sides of the county was that certain neighborhoods had several people serving, while others had none.

The role of principals, some of whom were accused of improperly influencing the discussions, also is under review. Instead of having a vote on the committee, they should simply advise the parent group, deputy superintendent Ray Gadd said.

"If any principal's behavior was out of line, they will be held accountable for it," Gadd added.

He also was open to some parents' recommendation that committee members rate each boundary proposal on a report card form, similar to how the district rates bids, so the rationale behind decisions becomes more clear. And the administration has begun work to step up verification that families are not lying about their addresses to gain access to otherwise crowded schools, another parent demand.

"We have learned things to make us inclined to tweak something," Gadd said. "We are going to see if we can improve upon it."

While the administration looks into such matters, schools will begin reaching out to families to help with the transitions that many fought against since August. And people in the communities, which found themselves divided, looked to close the gaps between them.

Many turned to social media, where they fought fierce battles, to begin their discussion.

Wesley Chapel Unfiltered, a closed Facebook group of more than 2,000 members, took the unusual step of removing past threads that included innuendoes and accusations over the process "in order for both communities to heal."

With a campaign to win higher school impact fees ahead, may parents said they hope they can come together despite the discord.

Contact Jeffrey S. Solochek at (813) 909-4614 or jsolochek@tampabay.com. Follow @jeffsolochek.