They might be portable, but ...

The "relocatable" classrooms might not be going anywhere for a while, if lawmakers follow through with growth management legislation (SB 474/HB 7129) that's moving through the Florida House and Senate.

The bills primarily deal with things involving comprehensive plans. But buried within them is a provision that could make the portables permanent for a long time.

Down on line 1605 of the Senate version (and line 1364 of the House bill) appear these words:

A school district that includes relocatables in its inventory of student stations shall include relocatables in its calculation of capacity for purposes of determining whether levels of service have been achieved.

Translation: Schools would have to count portables while figuring out if they meet class-size requirements. Which essentially means that districts that are trying to build new schools to cope with the amendment, plus also to get rid of portables - remember when they were a bad thing, back in the Chiles administration? - might find it tougher to win approval for the construction.

Well, the Orlando Sentinel reports that these bills might get snagged on some other contentious points. But for now, at least, they warrant some additional attention.