In Pinellas, "close to home" misses the mark

The public reaction has been somewhat muted to last week's release of Pinellas' new "close-to-home" school zones. No flood of calls to the School Board, no e-mail chains clamoring to redraw boundaries. At least not yet.

But two board members have seen enough to want to change the semantics of the new student assignment plan.

Noting that many families will be assigned to schools that aren't particularly "close to home," board member Linda Lerner said Tuesday: "I think we need another term."

Board chairperson Nancy Bostock agreed. She suggested referring to a student's assigned school as their "home school." Superintendent Clayton Wilcox did not immediately respond during Tuesday's board meeting, but it seems a change could be in the offing.

Comments

[Time for change]

It seems the school board continues to lose focus on the bottom line of student achievement. We must get past he minor details (like changing the name of the program or debating over the start time of the school day) if we ever hope to get Florida's education system back on track. There is a candidate I recently read about who seems to get it. Grant Smith www.grantsmith.org

[Upset Dad]

So, there are problems with the way the district is assigning children to schools, and to solve it, the board wants to CHANGE THE NAME of the program.

These are the same people who want to bus my kindergarten child to a low performing school, instead of having her attend the better performing school that is a mile from my home. Walking distance. No busing required. Dollars that could be used in a classroom instead of for transportation.

Yes, I can see how changing the name of the program is going to solve everything.

[BBMOM]

Why don't you leave it alone? You made a decision, now stick to it. That's why nothing ever gets accomplished in this County. If you need to do some tweaking, then thats fine, but let's see how it goes. It's like pulling the book off the shelf to make one person happy - we will never move forward if you keep stepping backwards.