They turned out in the middle of spring break week, many with signs in tow featuring messages like \u201cKeep Pizzo\u201d and lyrics from Joni Mitchell\u2019s \u201cBig Yellow Taxi\u201d: \u201cDon\u2019t it always seem to go, that you don\u2019t know what it\u2019s got \u2018til it\u2019s gone?\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal of the teachers, parents, students, staff and community members who gathered March 18 at Temple Terrace\u2019s Rotary Riverfront Park was to help save their school, Pizzo K-8, which Hillsborough\u2019s School Board is likely to close, along with two others, in April.<\/p>\n
The district said last week that Pizzo, which leases space at the University of South Florida, and two other schools, Graham Elementary and Monroe Middle, are likely to close due to shifting boundaries designed to \u201cimprove fiscal and operational responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
While other schools are struggling with low enrollment, members of the school community said Pizzo had a robust enrollment of 900 students. They called on USF to reconsider its decision in 2024 to increase the school\u2019s lease from $60,000 a year to what would amount to more than $8 million over 10 years.<\/p>\n
Dan Wolfe, a kindergarten teacher at Pizzo with a first grader there, said he was \u201cgobsmacked\u201d by the decision, but optimistic it wasn\u2019t final given that a new president had recently started at USF.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that this gives President (Moez) Limayem an opportunity to show that his investment in our community is more than just lip service,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is an opportunity. This is an easy win, man, like, \u2018Save the kids.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Braver, a master\u2019s student at USF who is running for the state House of Representatives in District 65, helped organize an online petition, which has received more than 200 signatures.<\/p>\n
Braver said he believed the construction of a new USF football stadium nearby was behind the move.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe chair of our board of trustees said this stadium will bring the community together,\u201d he said. \u201cIs that what it\u2019s doing? The first act from this stadium is to evict 900 kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
USF spokesperson Althea Johnson said the university and the school district had been involved in discussions for three years before the 2024 decision was made.<\/p>\n
\u201cUSF recognizes the importance of our partnerships with local school districts,\u201d she said in an email statement.<\/p>\n
The new rent rates were more closely aligned with USF\u2019s other on-campus sublease rates, Johnson said, while the district\u2019s previous rate had been set in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
Johnson said Pizzo\u2019s building is about 30 years old and required significant maintenance and repair, including a new roof and HVAC updates. Those costs, she said, would have fallen on the school district, and the school district opted to demolish the building at the end of the lease. The university has not determined what to do with the land yet, she said.<\/p>\n
Danielle Clark, a school counselor at the school for more than 15 years whose son also attended the school, said the small class sizes and long-lasting bonds between students and teachers make the school a unique environment. She said she hopes the district is able to keep the school together if USF does not reconsider.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a normal school,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve taught at several schools over my 15-year career and there\u2019s no place like this. It\u2019s a family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eighth grader Blake Marsh said the small class sizes are important to build relationships with teachers at Pizzo.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t find the deep level of connections we have with students to teachers at other schools, because other schools are busting at the seams, overcrowded and the teachers are stressed out because they have so many students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Others called on the district to slow down its process. Gianny Hunt, with the education nonprofit Magnified Voices, said she felt the move to close the school blindsided many.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are asking for a pause,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are asking for a seat at the negotiation table, and we are asking for the decisions to be made with the students in mind, with the teachers in mind and with the community in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert Sherman, a community member attended the rally to support Pizzo but also call attention to Sulfur Springs K-8, which the district also moved to a K-5, citing low enrollment in the upper grades.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to think longevity,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t think here and now. If we don\u2019t really sit down and evaluate this situation, we could be making a detrimental mistake over in a community that needs education.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They turned out in the middle of spring break week, many with signs in tow featuring messages like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[113,276,33193,92233,135,137,136,8609,92232],"class_list":["post-199450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-education","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-hillsborough-county-public-schools","tag-pizzo-k-8","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-temple-terrace","tag-temple-terrace-riverfront-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}