PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Well over 1,000 Pinellas County students and their families could learn Tuesday night whether their schools will close at the end of the academic year.<\/p>\n
The Pinellas County School Board is scheduled to vote Oct. 13 on a series of proposed school closures and consolidations that could reshape several campuses across the district.<\/p>\n
Superintendent Kevin Hendrick has warned families since last school year that additional closures would be necessary as the district works to address budget constraints and declining enrollment.<\/p>\n
But for parents like Shauntel Smith, whose daughter attends school in Tarpon Springs, the potential changes are though to stomach. She says her daughter has made significant progress through her school\u2019s special needs program.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand that budgets are important. I understand that finances are important, and I can respect that,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI feel like as a community it\u2019s unfortunate that we\u2019re going to have to see change.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposals up for a vote Tuesday include:<\/p>\n
Closing Kings Highway Elementary, Blanton Elementary, Bear Creek Elementary and Lealman Innovation Academy.<\/p>\n
Converting Pinellas Park Elementary from a traditional neighborhood school into a fundamental K-8 school.<\/p>\n
Relocating Azalea Middle and converting Azalea Elementary into a K-8 school.<\/p>\n
Combining Sunset Hills Elementary and Tarpon Springs Middle while expanding Tarpon Springs Fundamental.<\/p>\n
Some board members have toured neighborhoods that would be affected by the changes as they weigh the long-term impact on families.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust really sitting in and absorbing the impact of the decisions that we\u2019re going to make now, and how they weigh out in the future,\u201d Board member Caprice Edmond said.<\/p>\n
Parents have also urged district leaders to consider what the school system could look like five or 10 years from now. Hendrick acknowledged those concerns but said predicting future enrollment, finances, state laws and other challenges is difficult. He maintains the district must make the best decisions possible with the information available today.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s proposals have also changed since Hendrick first presented his recommendations last month. John M. Sexton Elementary is no longer on the closure list after parents pushed back, citing enrollment and other concerns. The district is taking another look at that proposal and will discuss it later this month.<\/p>\n
A separate recommendation to convert Boca Ciega High School into a technical school is also not part of Tuesday\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n
District officials said that transition is planned for the 2028-2029 school year, and will not be voted on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Well over 1,000 Pinellas County students and their families could learn Tuesday night whether…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1564,4996,9995,4318,3140,274,113,2287,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,835],"class_list":["post-426821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-angie-angers","tag-app-education","tag-app-latest-education-stories","tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-education","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426821","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=426821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}