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Parents cite mall traffic as a problem in Pasco school rezoning plan

 
Cars line up on Mystic Oak Boulevard an hour before school gets out at Seven Oaks Elementary in Pasco County. Seven Oaks is so crowded that the school district is building a new elementary school to serve the growing area. The school rezoning plan would push some families into the heart of heavy outlet mall traffic every morning and afternoon. [JAMES BORCHUCK | Times] 
Cars line up on Mystic Oak Boulevard an hour before school gets out at Seven Oaks Elementary in Pasco County. Seven Oaks is so crowded that the school district is building a new elementary school to serve the growing area. The school rezoning plan would push some families into the heart of heavy outlet mall traffic every morning and afternoon. [JAMES BORCHUCK | Times] 
Published Nov. 4, 2015

WESLEY CHAPEL — A school rezoning plan would push some families into the heart of heavy outlet mall traffic every morning and afternoon, a group of parents told the Pasco County School Board Tuesday.

Residents of the Arbor Woods subdivision, just 2 miles east of the newly opened Tampa Premium Outlets, have sent their children east to Seven Oaks Elementary School since the neighborhood debuted about two years ago.

But Seven Oaks is so crowded that the school district is building a new elementary school to serve the growing area. And plans for the new school's boundaries include taking the two dozen children from Arbor Woods to a school about 4 miles west of their homes, right past the mall.

About a dozen parents skipped work Tuesday morning to express their dissatisfaction to the School Board. They said their families have oriented their lives toward Wesley Chapel, not Lutz where the district has proposed sending them.

Congestion on the two major thoroughfares they would traverse to get to Denham Oaks Elementary — State Road 56 and County Line Road — have become unmanageable. Parents spoke of needing 45 minutes to drive 4 miles, prompting them to cancel some of their children's after-school activities.

"People where I live will do everything possible to avoid State Road 56," Vincent Iglio told the board, citing the mall and other construction as factors. "And County Line is totally packed nowadays."

Deborah Gage, whose family recently moved to the community from Maryland, said her three children's church and sporting activities all take place in Wesley Chapel. She asked the board not to put the kids into Lutz for school.

"We try not to cross I-75 because of the traffic," Gage said. "We don't go there."

School district officials acknowledged the parents' situation. But they noted they have issues of their own to contend with.

Seven Oaks is the county's largest elementary, built for 674 students but holding about 1,110. Denham Oaks, by contrast, is one of the county's most under-capacity schools, built for 888 students but holding about 640.

The Arbor Woods parents have said they understand the need to ease Seven Oaks, but said they'd prefer to be reassigned to Sand Pine Elementary in Wesley Chapel. Sand Pine enrollment, however, is above its capacity, as well.

Superintendent Kurt Browning said he doesn't want to open the district's planned new school, intended to ease the load at the two Wesley Chapel sites, with no extra room while a campus just to the west sits under-used. At the same time, he and board members indicated the issues of traffic and time children spend on buses can impact the ultimate decision.

The district plans a parent meeting about the boundaries for 6 p.m. Nov. 19 at Denham Oaks Elementary.